# Kindle 3 screen brightness



## Ronald (Sep 8, 2010)

This is my first kindle and I have been reading how bright the new screens are.
Mine is slightly greyish, quite readable but definatly not as bright as a good paperback.
Is this normal or defect?
I know brightness is in the eye of the beholder and having not had a previous kindle all I can compare it to are my paper books and it is not nearly as bright.
Every feature works great.
Ron


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

The background is grey on all e-ink screens. Your Kindle is fine.


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## lanfearl (Jul 28, 2010)

It's probably the correct brightness. Most paperbacks aren't actually white you know?

I would check some photos here on the forum and make sure they match yours


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

I just got off the phone with Amazon customer support and one of my questions was about the screen background.  I have a K2, and the K3 has a darker font, more contrast in the screen savers, but the background color is the exact same as the K2.  I said I have been reading on the internet that the background is whiter, but CS said the background hadn't changed.


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## Vero (Sep 13, 2010)

I received the Kindle 3 yesterday, my first e-reader too and I thought the same.

I think that it is because I had heard/read so much about the brightness that I was expecting something white, but too me it is also a light grey. 

It doesn't bother me at all while reading though.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Cardinal said:


> I just got off the phone with Amazon customer support and one of my questions was about the screen background. I have a K2, and the K3 has a darker font, more contrast in the screen savers, but the background color is the exact same as the K2. I said I have been reading on the internet that the background is whiter, but CS said the background hadn't changed.


Thanks for that. I too keep reading here that the screen is whiter. Huh? I have a K1 and now K3. Screens really look the same to me. These "whiter screens" are in some K owners' imaginations.


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## Wannabe (Nov 6, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Thanks for that. I too keep reading here that the screen is whiter. Huh? I have a K1 and now K3. Screens really look the same to me. These "whiter screens" are in some K owners' imaginations.


Yes, perhaps because the ink is so much darker, the screen _seems_ whiter.


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## paxxus (Sep 5, 2010)

Don't believe the hype. Background on K3 is definitely gray.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

The issue really isn't the background color, but the contrast between it and the letters. The K3 has much improved contrast.


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## mvdarend (Aug 15, 2010)

Keith Peters, the bloke who did the Kindle vs. iPad magnification has also done the same with a Kindle 2 vs. Kindle 3 :
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2750

Definitely an improvement, but the background on the K3 is still a little grayish.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Are paper books actually white?


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## Jason in MA (Apr 28, 2009)

It also depends on whether you ordered White or Graphite. From what I have seen the Graphite model tends to appear to have a lighter background than the White, simply due to contrast. It is, of course, only an optical illusion, as they share the same screen.


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## Muddypawz (Jan 13, 2009)

The K3's screen is a soft grey, which along with the darker font, gives better contrast making it really comfortable to read for extended periods of time.  My K3's screen is MUCH lighter than that of my K1, which I had no problem reading on, so I'm thrilled with it.

Melissa


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Regardless of whether the background is really lighter or it's an optical illusion caused by the graphite surround or the darker text, or a combination of both, the fact is that the K3 has much better contrast than it's predecessor and is therefore much kinder on the eyes. E-ink has always mimicked paper anyway and this is just another improvement.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

intinst said:


> Are paper books actually white?


Not snow white (before traffic) / bleached white, but they're not grey like Kindle screens either.

I was kind of disappointed when I first got my K3. Reading here I kept seeing K3 screen is WHITE WHITE WHITE. Then I got it. What white?? That's not white.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Not snow white (before traffic) / bleached white, but they're not grey like Kindle screens either.


Some of my 45 year old paperbacks are approaching tan pages. (They would be easy to scan though, the glue is letting go on most of them.)


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Just got my K3 today. Its background color is definitely lighter than my K2, but only incrementally so: without seeing them side by side it would be hard for me to be sure. The text is also darker and crisper, again, not by any order of magnitude, but probably more of a difference than the background lightness. Together, the two improvements increase readability my a significant (if not earth-shaking) amount, even comparing it to the Georgia2 font hack I had been using on my K2.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

PS: Here's a photo I just posted on my blog. The two small rectangles at the bottom are filled with the colors grabbed from the screens' backgrounds at about the same location in each screen. I think it pretty accurately shows the relative difference, perhaps not _quite the difference I think I see in real life.








_


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

intinst said:


> Are paper books actually white?


No, they're not, usually. Bright white with black printing, because the contrast is so high, actually tires the eyes out faster than a slightly off white/black print page.


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## Emily King (Jun 9, 2009)

Not great shots (should have used a flash), but when we were at my parents' cabin, we found out that a neighbor had a WIFI K3... she brought it over and I took some pictures of hers next to mine, my mother's, and my husband's. It is crazy how improved the font is as far as how crisp it looks. Pictures do nothing for how it looks in person.

This one was taken as one shot, but I took it down to just the screens to see the difference better:








Left to Right: K2 bought 5/09, WIFI K3, K2 bought 3/09

Here, I had all 4 lined up next to each other... we all had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on our devices, so I opened it up in the smallest font:








Left to Right: WIFI K3, K2i 12/09, K2 5/09, K2, 3/09

Of all of them, my K2 (bought first) is the lightest font... On a side note, I was putting a new skin on my mom's K2 when the neighbor came over, so I hadn't gotten to the button skins yet.  They are on there now...


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## cgrantski (Dec 28, 2010)

We just got our 4th Kindle (and 2nd Kindle3) yesterday.  The contrast is better because of the darker blacks (and the heavier font) but the background on the new Kindle3 is visibly darker than the one on the older Kindle3.  This is when side by side, judged by several people.  I wonder if I can get Amazon to take this seriously.  If not, I'm going to return it.  I need the best possible contrast.


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## Phil75070 (Dec 30, 2009)

Before buying mine back in December I can only recall hearing/reading of improved contrast and nothing concerning the K3 screen being brighter/whiter.


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## artsandhistoryfan (Feb 7, 2009)

Phil75070 said:


> Before buying mine back in December I can only recall hearing/reading of improved contrast and nothing concerning the K3 screen being brighter/whiter.


There were many people saying the DX Graphite was much lighter, not as much saying that about the K3, but there WERE notes on that.

The photos shown here are really good in showing differences!

I've seen several Kindle 3s with graphite borders, and the gray background varies. Some are darker gray, and some not so dark. No question in my mind they vary.

My K3 screen background on a white-bordered K3 is darker than my K2's but still FAR easier to read than the K2's, so I kept it. The contrast is beautiful. The font's darker density on the K3 just makes a huge difference for me. One day I picked up my Kindle to read and thought, "Oh no, it's fading!" but I had accidentally picked up my K2.

- Andrys


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## Lisar0228 (Jul 29, 2010)

So then you are all saying there is no way to change the contrast on the Kindle2? I have gotten so used to reading on my Nook color which is back lit that when I switch to Kindle I am having a very difficult time reading.  I was really hgoping there was a way to adjust the contrast.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

You can adjust the text size.  That makes a difference for some.  And some use a third party 'hack' to load alternate typefaces that may provide better contrast.

But the Kindle screen is designed to be like a book page in that, to some extent, it is what it is.  No backlight to shine into your eyes, drain the battery, or be unreadable in the bright sunlight. 

As illustrated in the photos above, the K3 generally has a better contrast screen than the K2. . . . .but eInk is never going to provide the 'sharpness' of an LCD screen.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

The K3 has a light grey background which is different from the K2.  The increased contrast arises from the blacker dark greys of the K3's font display.

I would enjoy seeing histograms of each display for comparison.


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## Zero (Jan 27, 2011)

Lisar0228 said:


> So then you are all saying there is no way to change the contrast on the Kindle2? I have gotten so used to reading on my Nook color which is back lit that when I switch to Kindle I am having a very difficult time reading. I was really hgoping there was a way to adjust the contrast.


As Ann mentioned above, the only way I was able to get the K2 to have better contrast was to change the font. Its not hard to do, but it made the K2 much easier to read (IMHO).


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## Lisar0228 (Jul 29, 2010)

Thank you all for your help.  I will try changing the font size and reading with a book light.  It really does look like the Kindle3's contrast is better than the Kindle 2's.  It never bothered me until I got my Nook Color. It just looks so dull.  Now I will probably only be using my Kindle for reading in the sunlight.  I dont find the backlit screen on the Nook Color to bother my eyes at all and the color pictures in autobiographies and magazines are amazing.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Nice to see the different kindles side-by-side. I always took the supremacy of the pearl eink for granted.

I always compare the k3 background to pulpy newsprint.


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## Tangiegirl (Dec 21, 2008)

I had two K3's here at Christmas.  One graphite.  One white.  The graphite's screen was much lighter and had better contrast than the white one.  (Should have taken a picture before I returned the white one.)

We also thought it was the difference in the border color that made one screen seem so much "brighter".  So I placed the devices side by side and covered them with only the screens showing.  

There was a massive difference.  The background on the white K3 was MUCH darker than the graphite.  I do not know if this holds true (white vs graphite) across the board, only that between these two specific devices, the difference was major.


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## Steve Emmett (Mar 31, 2011)

I think we can only get the graphite in UK. Am I mistaken?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Steve Emmett said:


> I think we can only get the graphite in UK. Am I mistaken?


That doesn't sound right.

However, the wi-fi only Kindle only comes in graphite, there is no white option.
The wi-fi/3G comes in white and graphite, so you can choose which you prefer.


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