A few comments as someone who has done a lot of writing both pre- and post-computers.
- I am most certainly not Hemingway but you could write on a typewriter--especially inverted pyramid, newspaper style. Yes, you did compose a sentence or a paragraph mentally. And, then, between you and/or an editor there was various (literal) cutting and pasting/scratching out/etc.
- However, you get used to certain styles of doing things. These days, I mostly don't even like writing someplace I don't have Internet access because I'm accustomed to being able to check facts, look something up, etc. on the fly. Hard copies of research materials are just a partial solution.
- Yes, focus is a thing but there are probably better ways to achieve it than using something that is so suboptimal in other ways.
I'd like to add that literal copy/paste is, in many ways, superior to the way it works in a computer.
If you have something printed out, you can cut up the paragraphs or sentences and physically rearrange them until you figure out an order that makes sense. It's much faster than doing the same thing with ctrl-X ctrl-V, and when you ctrl-X, the material you've cut vanishes from sight.
Unless you've had experience with physical paste-ups, it's hard to appreciate.
In vi/vim, the concept of seting marks then moving copy (especially with a split in the buffer so that the original / destination locations are both visible) comes reasonably close. It at least avoids that intermittent disappearance onto the clipboard / paste buffer.
If I'm working on ad copy or tight marketing copy for an about section of a website, getting physical can absolutely be a good idea.
That said. I have a lot of writing experience and I'm mostly not going to sweat the average 1,000 word piece I write. I do like starting off in Scrivener for the odd longer piece I write on a Mac.
IME structure starts mattering somewhere above the 6,000 word mark (about 12 printed pages, 24 typewritten).
For longer works --- fiction or otherwise --- structure matters far more, and works written without consideration to this tend to show this as much lower in quality.
That said, many writers (both before and after invention of typewriters) would dictate their works to an assistant who would either write longhand or type the text. If you read a lot of 19th and early 20th century material, this is sometimes evident in the style, which tends toward conversational. I'm presuming these would typically at least begin with notes.
John McPhee is an example of a writer whose works are heavily structured, and who relies on index cards for drafting his stories, as well as extensive editing and rewriting. (See also Niklaus Luhmann and Nabokov.)
I have a script[1] I use to generate a zoomed out PNG version (barely readable) of any PDF document I'm working on. Recently I started printing out the resulting PNG on paper and "editing" and re-ordering chunks using scissors.
It was tremendously useful on a current chapter I was working on: I knew it was too long (60 pages) when I printed it out and the pages (even zoomed out at 20%) took up the whole room! After restructuring, I managed to cut it into sections that all fit on the table (20 pages max).
It really is odd to me that there's not a wide range of "general purpose computing e-ink devices" out there, and even odder that this thing is apparently not that either.
Refresh times is probably part of it. And once you start creating special-purpose devices, your market drops off a lot. I guess if I spent a lot of my days reading scientific papers a Remarkable tablet might be interesting but I don't so it isn't. (And, oh, an iPad works pretty well too and I can do a lot of other things with it too.)
Modern e-ink displays can update at about 2 Hz at highest quality and at up to ~8--10 Hz, possibly better, with reduced quality (more ghosting / lower resolution).
If usage is for reasonably static material and navigation tends to be via pagination rather than scroll, it works quite well.
Full video is possible, if of lower quality than on an emissive display.
I've written a set of my own recommendations for e-ink Web and App design here:
My sense is that trying to browse the internet on e-ink kinda sucks, so you're left with devices that you don't browse the web with... and they're competing against tablets, phones, and laptops. It's hard for me to imagine what market you'd have for an consumer e-ink device besides e-readers and word processors.
Display cost remains a huge barrier, with little thanks to E-Ink's (the company) control over patents and I'm presuming excusive contracts.
I've some sympathy as hardware is a mug's game and price competition when it does hit is absolutely brutal.
That said, the 10" and 13" displays available now are excellent, and are being found in Android tablets (sold as e-book readers, but fully general-purpose). The Onyx BOOX line for example.
Android itself is hugely limiting in numerous ways. I'd like to see actual e-ink laptops, and suspect we will before too much longer.
A quick note on power use: if the device is only used for reading reasonably static text, battery life is exceptional. Once radios, backlights, and in particular web-surfing are added to the workload, power draw really ramps up. You'll get a full day or two off a charge, but not a week or more as with reading books.
For my primary use: a portable library, 16 GB onboard storage was simply too little. The BOOX Max Lumi offered 64 GB, and the Lumi II has 128 GB, which I could really use, and ultimately I'd prefer more still.
Remarkable has since shifted to a cloud/subscription business model, which makes me happier for my choice.
I'd prefer Linux under the hood, really. But not with the senseless HW sacrifices that Remarkable are imposing.
I'll add that Onyx's post-purchase support of the platform has been refreshing after Samsung devices that saw no updates at all. There've been about 4--5 in a year and a half, including specifically addressing issues I'd reported.
Also: Whilst it's not the same as native Linux directly available, and the many, many limitations and frustrations of Android still apply, Termux can be installed on the BOOX (via F-Droid), and provides excellent capabilities.
We had something like this in school circa 1995 or 1996.
It had a keyboard and a three-line LCD display. It was powered by batteries, and could be connected to a computer as a keyboard via ADB. Press a button on the device, and it would send your document as a series of keypresses to the computer. I think our classroom had two of these? I'm not sure. You could take them outside and write, and then bring them back to the classroom and dump them into the computer. No software necessary.
When I try to look it up, I get results for AlphaSmart. I wonder how much they cost at the time. Sometimes you can figure that out by digging through computer catalogs on the Internet Archive.
I understand that this is a whole category of devices called "word processors", but I'm a bit too young and I never really encountered them besides the AlphaSmart (which required a computer). You can dig up old commercials for word processors on YouTube.
Yes, he even mentioned the AlphaSmart in the article. I had a Neo...an excellent writing device with a great keyboard, fantastic battery life, and enough storage to keep me satisfied for a week or so (and the editor was full screen, none of this "only go forward" crap). The only thing it required a computer for was to offload the text you'd written...and with additional software, you could even upload files to it and modify the fonts to give you more lines per screen.
When they started talking about using it as a Bluetooth keyboard, I couldn't help thinking that they wanted an AlphaSmart. Sure enough, they brought it up (albeit, without mentioning that it could be used as a wired keyboard).
The brilliant thing about the AlphaSmart is that is transferred data to the computer as a keyboard. That ensured it was compatible with almost any computer of the era and it will likely support any device that supports USB host mode today.
the refresh rate on the latest kindle is pretty impressive. It has wifi and descent refresh rate as well as a usbc port.
amazon could easily add a dock that lets you turn it into a distraction free writing device. Hell they could just add some software that lets you connect it to a existing usbc keyboard for the same purpose.
You could also do this easily on that $60 laptop or any chromebook just by running an editor full-screen in kiosk mode. For some reason, this obvious answer is not preferred by anyone pursuing this bizarre line of thought.
"I'll really be able to buckle down and write GOOD stuff, just as soon as I get that new [pen/laptop/$600 digital typewriter]" is not an uncommon line of thought among wannabe writers.
Compare with amateur photographers who spend most of their time obsessing over gear on forums instead of just taking pictures.
The photography thing hits home. I see all these people obsessing over prime lenses because "thats what pros use." Better to to be out taking photos with a phone camera than oggling 1k+ glass. Personally I use the nikon 24-200mm. purists may scoff a the use of such a big zoom and a relatively high fstop but its small enough to always be in my baga and flexible enough to cover a large range of uses.
There's a time and a place for everything. Maybe I'm just an image quality freak, but the only zoom lens I've ever owned that I actually enjoy using and like the pictures from is big, heavy, and as expensive as several nice primes put together. I'd recommend a 35mm-equivalent prime or similar to anybody who is sick of the limitations of their kit lens (assuming they went that route, as most seem to), unless they're mostly taking pictures of sports or wildlife or similar.
What about people who don't care about tack-sharp images? 10+ years ago, I probably would have said they should buy a nice point-and-shoot with a versatile zoom rather than lugging a cheapo DSLR and zoom lens around. Today, I'd say they should just take pictures with their phone. In 2022, I think the segment of people who don't really care that much about image quality but still have a good reason to carry around a dedicated picture-taking device is small and rapidly shrinking.
>You could also do this easily on that $60 laptop or any chromebook
You couldn't because these devices don't have an e-ink screen. This would be the entire point of having a kindle as a writing device. Otherwise you would be correct
It's too bad that transflective displays didn't pan out, the OLPC display was perfectly workable and worked well outdoors too. It would be the ideal kind of display for such a device, which doesn't really need high resolution.
Yep. If this is about writing, shut off your wifi, open Word/iAWriter/Google Docs/Ulysses/it doesn't matter just quit messing with the font.
If it's about aesthetics—if you want to light candles and put on an old jazz recording and feel like you're a postwar novelist living in Paris—that's totally fine too, you can pick up a real typewriter for under $100.
E-Ink is amazing for ebooks, but I'm not sure what the appeal of this low-tech/high-tech thing is, especially given the price.
I disagree with the premise that a typewriter is a lousy first-draft device. My old-school writing technique before I got my first computer was to type a first draft (on a manual typewriter), full of typos and ^H^H^HXXX corrections. Since I had a manual typewriter back in high school, but tended not to have paper for it, most of those first drafts were typed onto whatever paper I could come up with. Then, I would edit it on paper and do a clean draft on the electric typewriter at the school newspaper office, using liquid paper to fix the inevitable typos.
I still do something similar now, although I use Word instead of a typewriter. I print the first draft, edit on paper and retype from scratch for a second draft. I always print that and do (at least) one more editing round afterwards. Sometimes I may do a complete retype deep into the revising practice as things become more dramatically changed.
I have been thinking about building an open-source RPI Pico-based E-Ink writer for a long time. I was primarily motivated by my opinion that the Freewrite seems way more expensive than its components should cost. I also didn't like the industrial/mechanical design, and I didn't like a lot of the choices made by the company (cloud storage). I wanted a little more flexibility, such as being able to use my own keyboard. I haven't started a GitHub project page and unfortunately, I don't think I have the capability of pulling this off as a single hardware/firmware developer, so I'm putting my ideas into the ether so that maybe someone picks this up and brings it into a reality.
The webcomic "The Guy I Almost Was" put me down this path twenty plus years ago. There's a part of the story where the author daydreams about buying a typewriter at a garage sale - the same one William Gibson used to write Neuromancer - to pursue his own fantasy of becoming a beatnik novelist after nearly becoming broke, homeless, and rejected for not having the latest Apple Newton. https://www.electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/
Writing and editing became a large part of my career in technology, but I've felt I never developed the habits of a 'good' writer and am distracted like everyone else by the Internet at my desk and my cellphone everywhere else. Several writers have talked about using old word processors to write their novels and I thought I could be one of these people. Back in 2016 my iPhone 5 screen was damaged and I didn't have the funds to fix it, so I ended up buying a Chang Jiang長江 card phone which could fit in my wallet. It was bliss, until I began 'missing out' on the social scene happening in group chats... but I still yearn for an offline, disconnected experience and continue to pursue this idea.
I call my e-ink writer 'the microWrite', 'μWrite', 'uWrite', or 'you write'. I call it this since I'd like to use micropython as the basis of the firmware/software. An e-writer was one of the first projects that came to mind when I discovered micropython. I don't think lack of USB host mode is the biggest problem; this can be overcome with an extra micro-controller. There are several options which I'll detail in this post. The major components of the MicroWrite can probably be had for less than $150, and perhaps half of this at scale and if a smaller e-ink display is used:
- An RPI Pico as the main processor module.
-- The new "w" Wi-Fi enabled version takes care of connectivity.
-- The castellated pads makes integrating the RPI Pico onto another PCB very simple.
-- The 'sleep' function of a microcontroller combined with an E-Ink displays persistent image retention when powered off seem like a perfect combination.
- An e-ink display. There are many more options on the market nowadays.
-- Pervasive Displays has a large number of options with different sizes, resolutions, and features, such as partial refresh (they even have micropython libraries for some of their product line): https://www.pervasivedisplays.com/
-- As a stop-gap solution, I thought about finding a large character LCD or VFD to test out the basic hardware concepts before diving into e-ink.
- USB host IC. Since the RPI Pico doesn't offer USB host/OTG functionality, a second controller co-processor/micro-controller allowing users to plug in their keyboard of choice. However, YouTuber Ben Eater has made a few videos explaining the complexity of USB keyboard protocols (basic/advanced), so supporting every USB keyboard could be a challenge. Luckily there is a WCH CH559-based project which allows USB to serial translation. The RPI2040 has 4 serial interfaces which could hand...
The author is grumbling that this very special purpose device doesn't have quite the feature set he wants.
The era of writing on paper was backed by a large human staff of typists, rewriters, fact-checkers, editors, and Linotype operators. Everything was re-keyed several times before it reached print. It's not about nostalgia for typewriters. It's about nostalgia for servants.
That is a curious take, but I fail to see how it is relevant in here. These products are directed towards writers who have a romantic notion of historic writers hunched over their keyboards while being free of worldly distractions. It is not one of the office worker passing their work off to a secretary to be typed up. (Admittedly, the article's author seems to suggest that it would be a better fit for the nostalgia for servants when they talk about how writing used to be done.)
Being offline helps. I've recently taken to writing on a Power Mac G5 paired with a Cinema display. Nothing fancy, just a window of TextEdit. No notifications or Internet to distract. A silent operating system running on a loud tower. My writing happy place.
I did something similar in my university days, albeit wit a Macintosh IIci running System 6. With Multifinder disabled, there was a sufficiently high barrier to switching tasks that I could focus on writing.
You can skip the first two sections of this rant entirely if you don't care about his life story or his opinions on the creative process, by the way. The product review starts over 900 words into it, in the third section. I have no reason to doubt this man is paid by the word, I bet his grocery list has an ISBN label.
I'm a PhD student, and as a result often have to write. I've always had the problem of editing as I type, constantly back tracking, writing alternate versions of a sentence, insisting that I get it right the first pass.
Increasingly, I've taken to outlining my work (like Xe Iaso recommends[0]) on pad and paper (helps if you have a nice pen and nice paper), and then trying to write a stream of consciousness for each section.
Then, I'll go to my text editor of choice and start forming more coherent, cogent, and discrete thoughts and arguments from the previous word salad.
All to say, I appreciate that typewriters make it really hard to revise your work while you're writing as it facilitates that draft phase. Same deal with writing in pen, you can only scratch out so much before the page becomes an ink rag.
Perhaps this implementation was sloppy in that it _only_ has this no-cursor/no-backspace mode. A physical dial could be a cool alternative ("Draft Mode", "Editing Mode")
When I type up my handwritten stream-of-consciousness notes, I indulge that obsessive editing part of my brain so it usually is my final draft before I send it to my supervisor for revision. Because of that I usually go straight to LaTeX (or sometimes LibreOffice Writer).
A more productive strategy would be to write up a first draft (Markdown is a great option here so as not to fuss about presentation), go through a round of edits and tightening sentences/paragraphs, then formatting.
But honestly I really haven't the patience for it. One step at a time haha
> being proficient with Vim might help you not be as distracted with backtracking
Can you share why you think so? Vim is my go-to editor for most things, except when I am coding (sorry, hardcore Vim users!), and I find myself backtracking and editing sentences as I write, all the time. I am eager to learn what helps you not backtrack when using Vim.
If you want to focus, you can't beat something like notepad.exe on Windows or "Text Editor" on Ubuntu, or something like that.
Why?
Because it is basic, but it isn't actively trying to be hipster or minimal or whatever. In the case of notepad.exe it is actively despised: who has said they like notepad.exe other than in jest? And they are pretty minimal on features. All there is is you and the words that YOU will be writing.
There is no meta-thinking about the editor. No "planning the planning session to shave the yak to build the gaant chart to start the project". You just start tapping the keys.
When I need to make a note and need no friction I often open a notepad window. Later on I decide "shit I better save this!".
See also: a pencil and a piece of slightly creased cheap A4 copy paper.
Does anyone else find that thing their website does where the paragraphs s...l...o...w...l...y... pop up one at a time as you scroll unbearably annoying? In my head it gives the author a really annoying voice.
No-one cares about you buying a console for one game and never playing it, you insufferable prick. You make me want to commit a hate crime.
in case this helps you, the described effect is gone with JavaScript disabled. If these kinds of effects tend to annoy you a lot, you might want to consider a JS-whitelisting browser addon, I've had good experiences with one.
I would have upvoted the first part of your comment because I, too, found that thing insufferable. I just scrolled to the end to make all the text appear and then started over.
I almost ordered a Freewrite a few years ago but I got a whiff of the jank at the last minute, and thought better of it. My use case is writing fiction, probably around 100k words a year, and I am easily distracted (especially since pandemic WFH came along and shredded what was left of my attention span) so I wanted a device that would frictionlessly support my writing (in plaintext Markdown) without internet connectivity or any other bullshit.
I bought a Pomera DM30 instead, and I love it. I haven't seen it mentioned in this article or thread, so I thought I should call it out. There is no US keyboard version, but the learning curve for the Japanese layout wasn't too bad, and otherwise it's perfect: small size, e-ink screen, plaintext editor saving files to onboard flash (easily accessible with USB) or SD card. There is no pointing device, but (and I'm saying this as someone who wrote a novel in Vim) the editor provides enough commands to get around a document without too much trouble. More than anything else I think it's the screen size that discourages pathological editing-as-you-write, especially if you pick a comfortable font size.
The DM30 is a serious tool for people who want to get work done. If the idea of the Freewrite appeals to you but you feel like the Freewrite itself is bullshit, check out the DM30. It's also significantly cheaper.
Damn, this looks awesome. I'll have to pick one up when they're generally available. Thanks for the tip.
edit: Actually this seems to have an LCD screen like their other models, rather than the DM30's e-ink, which is a shame. Still, it might be better than the alternatives.
I agree that It is a shame that they discontinued the DM30's e-ink display, but the DM250's display is transreflective, which is a reasonably good alternative for people prone to eye strain on backlit displays. (Because it's transreflective, use of the backlight is completely optional.)
Oh, that's actually good to know, thanks. My only experience with a nice modern transreflective display is (IIUC) the Playdate, which looks great.
Since you seem to know about these things, do you have any suggestion(s) for where to buy a DM250, preferably with a US keyboard layout? Somebody elsewhere in this thread said that exists, but I couldn't find any mention of it myself.
The Playdate uses a Sharp Memory LCD, which is actually purely reflective, so the Playdate screen will be a little nicer. (The Pomera can't use the same tech because Sharp doesn't yet make a Memory LCD that large; also, parts of the Pomera interface use some greyscale.)
Amazon JP will start shipping the DM250 at the end of this month. The device only has one keyboard option as far as I know, but it comes with decals to switch it to a US layout. The layout is a bit weird (e.g., the enter key is split in two, which both perform the enter function) but probably ok, I'm guessing.
Something like this, but that supports emacs, vi, and wordstar keybindings would I think be a pretty powerful tool for creative writers. Though as someone who writes code and non-fiction I can only speculate.
I bought a 1st gen Freewrite back when it was the Hemingwrite on Kickstarter, I'm pretty embarrassed to say. I still haven't forgiven myself.
I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.
Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.
The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.
On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.
I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.
I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.
Yes - you can still get a great reliable workhorse typewriter and have it professionally serviced for less than the cost of a Hemingwrite. I have 3 at home and use one regularly.
I do a similar thing with my own typewriter, the in-phone OCR with the iPhone is remarkably good now, only a few minor mistakes when I use it to scan in typewritten pages. It’s nice to have a different way of working when I want to. Usually I write longhand then type it up later.
I've been having a joyful time exploring art tools lately and - in a turn similar to switching back to a classic typewriter, I recently realized that ballpoint pens, the same kind I doodled with in school, are, in fact, great sketching pens. The oily ink in most of them isn't made to last, and they have a nasty habit of spurting out dabs of ink at random when you move the pen, but they let you make thin, faint, precise lines and add layers of shading and texture, and they're stingy with ink usage and don't saturate the paper. So I can sketch with ballpoint and then use my "nicer" pens to add finished lines.
I have a decent enough digital art setup, but I really find myself drawn to traditional lately. Like, the input just isn't as good in digital for doing characterful lines. There are pretty good stylus systems now, but they have a handful of different shapes and nib frictions, the raw output is always a little bit too aliased to be satisfying, and it always ends up going into software that stabilizes it into a generic swooshy line. So you have to work at it to get something like an analog result. And most of the things you really benefit from in digital happen either at the beginning(edits to help with planning) or at the end(corrections and layered treatments).
But the two things that help the most are also there in traditional: use references, and make straight ruler lines and take measurements to help get the initial shapes in proportion. If you're mashing the undo a lot you're still wasting time that is mostly accounted for by good planning and use of technical drawing tools.
And writing really is the same way. Good command of language isn't really restricted by slow writing speed.
This product makes no sense to me as a technical writer. So much of what I do requires "checking" what was written earlier (e.g. for notation consistency, for references, or to establish parallel structure).
In fact I seek exactly the opposite—a writing interface with as much vertical context as humanly possible, which I have found in the vertical monitor (a regular monitor that rotates 90 degrees), see the pictures in this tweet https://twitter.com/minireference/status/1508208193104666628
> I'm no engineer, but why the hell doesn't it have $30 of budget smartphone hardware inside?
Because the battery will last days with some luck instead of weeks.
Incidentally, whats wrong with any random text editor (or even a professional oriented one) in full screen mode on a laptop? Just disable the damn notifications already, they’re not good for your health.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 155 ms ] threadA few comments as someone who has done a lot of writing both pre- and post-computers.
- I am most certainly not Hemingway but you could write on a typewriter--especially inverted pyramid, newspaper style. Yes, you did compose a sentence or a paragraph mentally. And, then, between you and/or an editor there was various (literal) cutting and pasting/scratching out/etc.
- However, you get used to certain styles of doing things. These days, I mostly don't even like writing someplace I don't have Internet access because I'm accustomed to being able to check facts, look something up, etc. on the fly. Hard copies of research materials are just a partial solution.
- Yes, focus is a thing but there are probably better ways to achieve it than using something that is so suboptimal in other ways.
If you have something printed out, you can cut up the paragraphs or sentences and physically rearrange them until you figure out an order that makes sense. It's much faster than doing the same thing with ctrl-X ctrl-V, and when you ctrl-X, the material you've cut vanishes from sight.
Unless you've had experience with physical paste-ups, it's hard to appreciate.
In vi/vim, the concept of seting marks then moving copy (especially with a split in the buffer so that the original / destination locations are both visible) comes reasonably close. It at least avoids that intermittent disappearance onto the clipboard / paste buffer.
That said. I have a lot of writing experience and I'm mostly not going to sweat the average 1,000 word piece I write. I do like starting off in Scrivener for the odd longer piece I write on a Mac.
For longer works --- fiction or otherwise --- structure matters far more, and works written without consideration to this tend to show this as much lower in quality.
That said, many writers (both before and after invention of typewriters) would dictate their works to an assistant who would either write longhand or type the text. If you read a lot of 19th and early 20th century material, this is sometimes evident in the style, which tends toward conversational. I'm presuming these would typically at least begin with notes.
John McPhee is an example of a writer whose works are heavily structured, and who relies on index cards for drafting his stories, as well as extensive editing and rewriting. (See also Niklaus Luhmann and Nabokov.)
I have a script[1] I use to generate a zoomed out PNG version (barely readable) of any PDF document I'm working on. Recently I started printing out the resulting PNG on paper and "editing" and re-ordering chunks using scissors.
It was tremendously useful on a current chapter I was working on: I knew it was too long (60 pages) when I printed it out and the pages (even zoomed out at 20%) took up the whole room! After restructuring, I managed to cut it into sections that all fit on the table (20 pages max).
[1] https://gist.github.com/ivanistheone/536939e36a9dc0f9bb80969...
Use `--maxpages 5` command option for 20% zoom (five PDF pages per sheet). That's barely readable, but good for overview.
If usage is for reasonably static material and navigation tends to be via pagination rather than scroll, it works quite well.
Full video is possible, if of lower quality than on an emissive display.
I've written a set of my own recommendations for e-ink Web and App design here:
https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...
Mostly because it seems no one else had.
Better if you're using a browser optimised for the medium. Einkbro is excellent:
https://github.com/plateaukao/browser
I've some sympathy as hardware is a mug's game and price competition when it does hit is absolutely brutal.
That said, the 10" and 13" displays available now are excellent, and are being found in Android tablets (sold as e-book readers, but fully general-purpose). The Onyx BOOX line for example.
Android itself is hugely limiting in numerous ways. I'd like to see actual e-ink laptops, and suspect we will before too much longer.
A quick note on power use: if the device is only used for reading reasonably static text, battery life is exceptional. Once radios, backlights, and in particular web-surfing are added to the workload, power draw really ramps up. You'll get a full day or two off a charge, but not a week or more as with reading books.
For my primary use: a portable library, 16 GB onboard storage was simply too little. The BOOX Max Lumi offered 64 GB, and the Lumi II has 128 GB, which I could really use, and ultimately I'd prefer more still.
Remarkable has since shifted to a cloud/subscription business model, which makes me happier for my choice.
I'd prefer Linux under the hood, really. But not with the senseless HW sacrifices that Remarkable are imposing.
I'll add that Onyx's post-purchase support of the platform has been refreshing after Samsung devices that saw no updates at all. There've been about 4--5 in a year and a half, including specifically addressing issues I'd reported.
Over 2,200 packages now.
https://termux.com/
It had a keyboard and a three-line LCD display. It was powered by batteries, and could be connected to a computer as a keyboard via ADB. Press a button on the device, and it would send your document as a series of keypresses to the computer. I think our classroom had two of these? I'm not sure. You could take them outside and write, and then bring them back to the classroom and dump them into the computer. No software necessary.
When I try to look it up, I get results for AlphaSmart. I wonder how much they cost at the time. Sometimes you can figure that out by digging through computer catalogs on the Internet Archive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
I understand that this is a whole category of devices called "word processors", but I'm a bit too young and I never really encountered them besides the AlphaSmart (which required a computer). You can dig up old commercials for word processors on YouTube.
AT&T: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piROIAJ6Jhg
Wang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuX-6761KTQ
The brilliant thing about the AlphaSmart is that is transferred data to the computer as a keyboard. That ensured it was compatible with almost any computer of the era and it will likely support any device that supports USB host mode today.
amazon could easily add a dock that lets you turn it into a distraction free writing device. Hell they could just add some software that lets you connect it to a existing usbc keyboard for the same purpose.
Compare with amateur photographers who spend most of their time obsessing over gear on forums instead of just taking pictures.
What about people who don't care about tack-sharp images? 10+ years ago, I probably would have said they should buy a nice point-and-shoot with a versatile zoom rather than lugging a cheapo DSLR and zoom lens around. Today, I'd say they should just take pictures with their phone. In 2022, I think the segment of people who don't really care that much about image quality but still have a good reason to carry around a dedicated picture-taking device is small and rapidly shrinking.
>You could also do this easily on that $60 laptop or any chromebook
You couldn't because these devices don't have an e-ink screen. This would be the entire point of having a kindle as a writing device. Otherwise you would be correct
If it's about aesthetics—if you want to light candles and put on an old jazz recording and feel like you're a postwar novelist living in Paris—that's totally fine too, you can pick up a real typewriter for under $100.
E-Ink is amazing for ebooks, but I'm not sure what the appeal of this low-tech/high-tech thing is, especially given the price.
P.S. This blog post was way longer than it needed to be.
I still do something similar now, although I use Word instead of a typewriter. I print the first draft, edit on paper and retype from scratch for a second draft. I always print that and do (at least) one more editing round afterwards. Sometimes I may do a complete retype deep into the revising practice as things become more dramatically changed.
The webcomic "The Guy I Almost Was" put me down this path twenty plus years ago. There's a part of the story where the author daydreams about buying a typewriter at a garage sale - the same one William Gibson used to write Neuromancer - to pursue his own fantasy of becoming a beatnik novelist after nearly becoming broke, homeless, and rejected for not having the latest Apple Newton. https://www.electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/ Writing and editing became a large part of my career in technology, but I've felt I never developed the habits of a 'good' writer and am distracted like everyone else by the Internet at my desk and my cellphone everywhere else. Several writers have talked about using old word processors to write their novels and I thought I could be one of these people. Back in 2016 my iPhone 5 screen was damaged and I didn't have the funds to fix it, so I ended up buying a Chang Jiang長江 card phone which could fit in my wallet. It was bliss, until I began 'missing out' on the social scene happening in group chats... but I still yearn for an offline, disconnected experience and continue to pursue this idea.
I call my e-ink writer 'the microWrite', 'μWrite', 'uWrite', or 'you write'. I call it this since I'd like to use micropython as the basis of the firmware/software. An e-writer was one of the first projects that came to mind when I discovered micropython. I don't think lack of USB host mode is the biggest problem; this can be overcome with an extra micro-controller. There are several options which I'll detail in this post. The major components of the MicroWrite can probably be had for less than $150, and perhaps half of this at scale and if a smaller e-ink display is used:
- An RPI Pico as the main processor module.
-- The new "w" Wi-Fi enabled version takes care of connectivity.
-- The castellated pads makes integrating the RPI Pico onto another PCB very simple.
-- The 'sleep' function of a microcontroller combined with an E-Ink displays persistent image retention when powered off seem like a perfect combination.
- An e-ink display. There are many more options on the market nowadays.
-- Pervasive Displays has a large number of options with different sizes, resolutions, and features, such as partial refresh (they even have micropython libraries for some of their product line): https://www.pervasivedisplays.com/
-- As a stop-gap solution, I thought about finding a large character LCD or VFD to test out the basic hardware concepts before diving into e-ink.
- USB host IC. Since the RPI Pico doesn't offer USB host/OTG functionality, a second controller co-processor/micro-controller allowing users to plug in their keyboard of choice. However, YouTuber Ben Eater has made a few videos explaining the complexity of USB keyboard protocols (basic/advanced), so supporting every USB keyboard could be a challenge. Luckily there is a WCH CH559-based project which allows USB to serial translation. The RPI2040 has 4 serial interfaces which could hand...
The era of writing on paper was backed by a large human staff of typists, rewriters, fact-checkers, editors, and Linotype operators. Everything was re-keyed several times before it reached print. It's not about nostalgia for typewriters. It's about nostalgia for servants.
Increasingly, I've taken to outlining my work (like Xe Iaso recommends[0]) on pad and paper (helps if you have a nice pen and nice paper), and then trying to write a stream of consciousness for each section.
Then, I'll go to my text editor of choice and start forming more coherent, cogent, and discrete thoughts and arguments from the previous word salad.
All to say, I appreciate that typewriters make it really hard to revise your work while you're writing as it facilitates that draft phase. Same deal with writing in pen, you can only scratch out so much before the page becomes an ink rag.
Perhaps this implementation was sloppy in that it _only_ has this no-cursor/no-backspace mode. A physical dial could be a cool alternative ("Draft Mode", "Editing Mode")
[0] https://xeiaso.net/blog/doing-a-writing
A more productive strategy would be to write up a first draft (Markdown is a great option here so as not to fuss about presentation), go through a round of edits and tightening sentences/paragraphs, then formatting.
But honestly I really haven't the patience for it. One step at a time haha
I do aspire to become that person, though!
Can you share why you think so? Vim is my go-to editor for most things, except when I am coding (sorry, hardcore Vim users!), and I find myself backtracking and editing sentences as I write, all the time. I am eager to learn what helps you not backtrack when using Vim.
Why?
Because it is basic, but it isn't actively trying to be hipster or minimal or whatever. In the case of notepad.exe it is actively despised: who has said they like notepad.exe other than in jest? And they are pretty minimal on features. All there is is you and the words that YOU will be writing.
There is no meta-thinking about the editor. No "planning the planning session to shave the yak to build the gaant chart to start the project". You just start tapping the keys.
When I need to make a note and need no friction I often open a notepad window. Later on I decide "shit I better save this!".
See also: a pencil and a piece of slightly creased cheap A4 copy paper.
Well there's your problem. You need Intel, NVidia, and either Windows or Linux.
No-one cares about you buying a console for one game and never playing it, you insufferable prick. You make me want to commit a hate crime.
But did you really need to insult the author?
I bought a Pomera DM30 instead, and I love it. I haven't seen it mentioned in this article or thread, so I thought I should call it out. There is no US keyboard version, but the learning curve for the Japanese layout wasn't too bad, and otherwise it's perfect: small size, e-ink screen, plaintext editor saving files to onboard flash (easily accessible with USB) or SD card. There is no pointing device, but (and I'm saying this as someone who wrote a novel in Vim) the editor provides enough commands to get around a document without too much trouble. More than anything else I think it's the screen size that discourages pathological editing-as-you-write, especially if you pick a comfortable font size.
The DM30 is a serious tool for people who want to get work done. If the idea of the Freewrite appeals to you but you feel like the Freewrite itself is bullshit, check out the DM30. It's also significantly cheaper.
edit: looks like it's discontinued, RIP: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/p5zg6s/fyi_the_kingji...
Get one while you still can...
edit: Actually this seems to have an LCD screen like their other models, rather than the DM30's e-ink, which is a shame. Still, it might be better than the alternatives.
Since you seem to know about these things, do you have any suggestion(s) for where to buy a DM250, preferably with a US keyboard layout? Somebody elsewhere in this thread said that exists, but I couldn't find any mention of it myself.
Amazon JP will start shipping the DM250 at the end of this month. The device only has one keyboard option as far as I know, but it comes with decals to switch it to a US layout. The layout is a bit weird (e.g., the enter key is split in two, which both perform the enter function) but probably ok, I'm guessing.
I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.
Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.
The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.
On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.
I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.
I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.
I have a decent enough digital art setup, but I really find myself drawn to traditional lately. Like, the input just isn't as good in digital for doing characterful lines. There are pretty good stylus systems now, but they have a handful of different shapes and nib frictions, the raw output is always a little bit too aliased to be satisfying, and it always ends up going into software that stabilizes it into a generic swooshy line. So you have to work at it to get something like an analog result. And most of the things you really benefit from in digital happen either at the beginning(edits to help with planning) or at the end(corrections and layered treatments).
But the two things that help the most are also there in traditional: use references, and make straight ruler lines and take measurements to help get the initial shapes in proportion. If you're mashing the undo a lot you're still wasting time that is mostly accounted for by good planning and use of technical drawing tools.
And writing really is the same way. Good command of language isn't really restricted by slow writing speed.
I should print this quote, frame it, and put it on my desk.
But we're not going to, because we lack discipline.
Amirite? Who's with me? [waits for high five]
In fact I seek exactly the opposite—a writing interface with as much vertical context as humanly possible, which I have found in the vertical monitor (a regular monitor that rotates 90 degrees), see the pictures in this tweet https://twitter.com/minireference/status/1508208193104666628
Because the battery will last days with some luck instead of weeks.
Incidentally, whats wrong with any random text editor (or even a professional oriented one) in full screen mode on a laptop? Just disable the damn notifications already, they’re not good for your health.