Clara BW

[Inquisitive_Ram]

In the UK, Kobo works with Libby I understand (or rather both Kobo and Libby connect with overdrive?)

Do I need a separate overdrive account or can I just use my library card number?

[DNSB]

In Canada, you can use either an Overdrive account or use your library card number.

[Quoth]

In some regions Kobo disables the Overdrive feature. It's unavailable on a Kobo here in Ireland, even though the Irish Libraries uses Libby. Or was last time I looked.
Libby on Android uses my library ID.

[ZodWallop]

I can't speak for what fits in what type of pockets. I don't like things in my pockets, so carry a messenger bag instead.

But I do like the Clara BW quite a bit. In my house I have a Clara Color and BW (and the 2E and until it broke, the HD). I feel like the novelty of the color wears off pretty quickly. Despite all the moaning about it you hear on this forum, the screen darkness really isn't a major issue. It's just that unless you heavily annotate books, the color just doesn't add much.

6" is too small for comics and most manga is black and white, and for myself, I only really read novels anyway.

For that, the BW excels and is noticeably better than my old HD.

[Denodan1]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

Having tried the Clara Colour, I agree that a 6” screen is too small to truly enjoy color content. Also if your main objective is to read outside, I found the screen on the new color Kobo devices too dark to comfortably read in the sun. As mentioned by John F, those 6” devices are great for carrying around though, so I believe that for your use case the Clara BW is indeed the way to go.

I have the Clara colour and the screen is not to small to enjoy colour. I enjoy mine in colour and even enjoy comics on it

[Denodan1]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I can't speak for what fits in what type of pockets. I don't like things in my pockets, so carry a messenger bag instead.

But I do like the Clara BW quite a bit. In my house I have a Clara Color and BW (and the 2E and until it broke, the HD). I feel like the novelty of the color wears off pretty quickly. Despite all the moaning about it you hear on this forum, the screen darkness really isn't a major issue. It's just that unless you heavily annotate books, the color just doesn't add much.

6" is too small for comics and most manga is black and white, and for myself, I only really read novels anyway.

For that, the BW excels and is noticeably better than my old HD.

I read comics and graphic novels perfectly fine on my Clara colour, so dont see it to small at all. Just needs a little more zoom that's all but can find readling comics is fine. Maybe people have bad eyesight? LOL

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Denodan1

I read comics and graphic novels perfectly fine on my Clara colour, so dont see it to small at all. Just needs a little more zoom that's all but can find readling comics is fine. Maybe people have bad eyesight? LOL

Bad eyesight improves the Clara Colour, but most people would find even 8″ too small for comics or graphic novels. Even 8″ is a ghastly zoom and pan.

[Denodan1]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Bad eyesight improves the Clara Colour, but most people would find even 8″ too small for comics or graphic novels. Even 8″ is a ghastly zoom and pan.

Think its more bad eye sight cannot read comics on a 6" screen, and eyesight has nothing to do with colour. If any think a smaller screen shows better colour as the view is more compact. Its like comparing a 35" TV to a 55", the 35" is clearer and brighter and colours look bright, but details smaller. The bigger screen colours not as bright as the image is spread out more and enlarged, but giving a bigger image so yes easier to see.

So yes a bigger screen for comics is better, but not impossible on the 6" and readable if your eye sight is good or only need slight correction

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Denodan1

T Its like comparing a 35" TV to a 55", the 35" is clearer and brighter and colours look bright, but details smaller. The bigger screen colours not as bright as the image is spread out more and enlarged, but giving a bigger image so yes easier to see.

Your analogy is flawed as is your claim on eyesight. The screen is only 150 ppi in colour. It's got higher mono resolution but with coloured artefacts that are worse the sharper your eyesight is. It's inferior to a mono Clara or Libra, even in monochrome.


Which 35" is clearer and brighter compared with 55"? Are you thinking of an ancient 35" CRT and a 480 line 55" plasma screen, maybe with VHS or DVD?

Your post suggests you have not read many comics or graphic novels on decent larger colour screens and you know little about TV or monitor screens and content.

A VHS will often look much worse on larger than 32". So will most SD Analog broadcast NTSC.

A good quality "PAL" DVD (576 lines vs only 480 lines "NTSC") made from scanning a film at 4K or 2K will upscale very nicely on a 4K 55" and look far better than on a 35" SD or HD screen.

Some BD are made from master used for DVDs rather than 4K scan of film (rule of thumb is to scan at twice distribution resolution) so are barely better than upscaled "PAL format/region" DVDs (576 lines). Other BD are from scans at least twice HD resolution and are noticeably better at 55". You won't see much difference, if any, using a 32" TV at 2m viewing distance between SD, HD and 4K on a 4K screen.

A 35" screen is rare. The 32" is the common small size, with 37", 40", 42" etc as larger sizes.
many 32" and 37" TV sets are cheap low end and only so-called HD Ready, i.e. 720 or 768 rather than 1080 lines (HD).
North America and Japan SD is 480 lines (Interlace from Film has 3:2 pull down artefacts, hence component & progressive DVD players)
Europe, Russia, Australia & Africa SD is 576 lines with no pull down artefacts on interlace, hence component & progressive was rare before HD.


Also LCD monitors / TVs / laptops from 20 years ago of any size or resolution are rubbish compared to the best screens now (6" to 75"), or CRTs then. Plasma were always fuzzy due to being only 480 or 576 lines, even if sold as HD Ready (the only Plasma screens I saw in Irish shops were abysmally poor being 42" to 55" and only 480 lines. Irish TV was 625 Analogue (some 405 line downsampled 1962 to 1985 in areas with UK reception) and SD Digital (Analogue ended 2012) is 576 lines. Most is now HD (1080 lines).

NTSC VHS about 300 horizontal resolution and 480 lines interlaced. North America and Japan (Interlace from Film has 3:2 pull down artefacts).

PAL VHS (Europe, Russia, Australia & Africa) SD is 576 lines with no pull down artefacts and also about 300 hoizontal resolution.

VHS Colour horizontal resolution about 1/3rd of broadcast, hence colour smearing.
The S-VHS increases horizontal mono resolution to about 500, hence Film to mono PAL is nearly as good as cheap DVD, but not NTSC.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Denodan1

I read comics and graphic novels perfectly fine on my Clara colour, so dont see it to small at all. Just needs a little more zoom that's all but can find readling comics is fine. Maybe people have bad eyesight? LOL

Perhaps I'm spoiled. I started reading digital comics on 10.1" Android tablets and now read them on a 12.3" Google Pixel Slate. The Slate has a larger screen, better color and more speed. Plus I can use my preferred app, Perfect Viewer on it.

I love my e-ink readers. But for comics? No.