This article was translated from the original Chinese by GPT.
For more than a decade, my work has revolved around one question:
What are the limits of ePaper?
When I co-founded DASUNG in 2014, the goal was clear — to build the first E Ink computer monitor.
Back then, everyone thought ePaper could only be used for reading. We wanted to see if this technology could become a real display that would let people work and write code without eye strain.
I led the engineering team in pushing E Ink technology to its limits: optimizing waveforms to gain every millisecond of refresh speed, improving the architecture to reduce every millisecond of latency, and becoming the first to use an FPGA to drive an E Ink monitor in a commercial product. Ultimately, we took ePaper from static images into the realm of dynamic displays.
A Different Kind of Challenge
Years later, I left DASUNG.
I wanted to explore another side of ePaper as a medium — how to integrate it into the aesthetics of everyday life.
That’s when InkJoy Frame was born: a project that brings full-color ePaper into our living spaces, and a work of art that combines the convenience of digital with the beauty of physical photographic paper.
From Office to Home
In the office, an E Ink monitor is a tool — it helps you focus. At home, an ePaper frame becomes something else entirely: It doesn’t need your constant attention. It simply sits there quietly, bringing something different to your living space each day.
Where We Are Now
At InkJoy, our focus is on color ePaper technologies such as E Ink Spectra™ 6. This ePaper technology can reproduce vivid tones while retaining a matte, paper-like texture.
We’re still refining image display and user interaction — details that may seem small, but determine how “real” the image feels and how effortless the everyday experience is, whether or not you are actively using it. Each improvement brings ePaper closer to what I imagine: A vibrant work of art that never demands attention.
Looking Ahead
This blog, ePaper Frame, is where I plan to share that journey — both the breakthroughs and the imperfections. Sometimes it will be about waveforms and color models; sometimes, about philosophy and the meaning of “slowness” in technology.
If you’ve ever been fascinated by the way ePaper catches ambient light, or wondered how a display could feel quiet, then I hope these stories will resonate with you.
— Ray Chen Founder, InkJoy Frame
