In 2010 I wrote a blog, which listed the reasons that I had selected the simple black and white Kindle (E-ink technology) over the iPad, Nook, Sony, and other dedicated E-readers (all using LCD backlit technology). At the top of the list was the prevailing wisdom that E-ink and paper-and-ink cause less eyestrain than an LCD (backlit) display during longer reading periods.(Incidentally, it is hard to believe that the tablet device was new at the time! The first iPad was introduced April 3, 2010.)

I’ve continued to advise people to purchase a separate, inexpensive, dedicated E-ink device for long form reading. But when someone recently challenged me on this issue and asked where I got my data that LCD backlit screens increase eyestrain, I had to admit I couldn’t remember where I got the information and that I had never personally read a primary research piece.

I was delighted to find a fairly recent (December 13, 2013) peer-reviewed journal article, E-Readers and Visual Fatigue (Kevin Paterson), which is available to you in its entirety with compliments from the National Library of Science if you want to go through the design, methodology, and data of the study to draw your own conclusions.

And just in case you were wondering, with the explosion of digital reading, whether it be on E-reader devices,  smartphones or computer screens, there is a scientific name for eyestrain caused by digital reading: Visual Fatigue Syndrome (VFS).  [Read more…]