The future of books

This weekend there was an article in the Guardian about the future of electronic books. Robert McCrum observes that "the world of publishing stands on the cusp of the greatest innovation since Gutenberg. With cheap, portable electronic readers just around the corner, what is the future of the printed book?" and notes that "not since Gutenberg has technology so transformed the way we receive the written word. Text has already become electronic in so many ways: email, websites, blogs, CD-Roms and text messaging."

One likely element of new e-reading devices however, is E-Ink, which works by arranging thousands of tiny black and white capsules to form characters that look almost as sharp as a printed page. They appear on bendable, paper-thin screens which are not back-lit, so they use less power and do not flicker, which helps the user to avoid eye strain. You can find out more at the Guardian.