I Read Comics and Can’t Recommend the Kindle Colorsoft
Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft is the company’s first color e-reader, and to me, that means one thing: comics. While there is other color content out there (like children’s books and even textbooks), as an adult who’s a superhero fan, I’d pick Amazon’s most expensive e-reader just for the comics. Unfortunately, after using it for a while, I’m not entirely happy with the Colorsoft’s comic-reading experience. Sure, there are improvements over reading comics on a traditional tablet, but for most people, the tradeoffs aren’t worth it.
Why do you need a color e-book reader for reading comics?
So far, the transition of popular comics to digital format has been a bit of a challenge. Unlike their text counterparts, they can’t be read on black-and-white e-readers without losing the all-important color, so most people have turned to traditional LCD tablets like the iPad. Unfortunately, this can get a bit tiring after just a few hours, and the drain on the battery is not a pleasant experience.
At first glance, the Kindle Colorsoft solves these problems. It’s not the first color e-reader , but it’s certainly the best known — when I reviewed it , I noticed that it had slightly better color accuracy and fewer artifacts than its competitors. In a perfect world, it would be like holding a paper comic book in your hands, with an eye-pleasing e-ink display and an entire library at your fingertips. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in.
The colors just don’t match.
The first thing you’ll probably notice when you open a comic on a Kindle Colorsoft is how much less vibrant the colors are. While using a black and white Kindle means you miss out on the ability to color comics, the Kindle Colorsoft doesn’t solve that problem entirely. The device only displays 4,096 colors, and while that sounds impressive at first glance, it’s nothing compared to the billions of colors that even the cheapest LCD tablet can produce. Take a look at this Sonic the Hedgehog comic displayed on both the Kindle Colorsoft and my old sixth-generation iPad. The atmosphere is completely different depending on which device you’re reading on!
To be fair, this is a fairly recent release, and older comics look a little better, as the printing methods used back then were also limited in the number of colors. If you read a lot of retro titles, Colorsoft may be a better fit – the 80s Uncanny X-Men series looks quite nice on the device, for example. But be careful, and you’ll notice the following compromise you’ll have to make when reading comics on Colorsoft.
The screen is too small
Like most color e-readers, the Kindle Colorsoft has a smaller screen, measuring 7 inches diagonally. That’s plenty for novels, but there’s less room for comics than you might be used to.
The typical American comic book is 11.75 inches diagonally, which means that the content on the Colorsoft will be compressed. This helps to hide the device’s low resolution (black and white content on the Colorsoft is displayed at 300 ppi, but due to technical limitations, color content is displayed at 150 ppi), but it can also make some text virtually unreadable. 11.75 inches may not seem like much more than 8 inches, but keep in mind that the Colorsoft screen has a slightly wider aspect ratio than most comics, so you’ll have to put up with a letterboxing effect that makes the image look even smaller. Compare my copy of Batman: The Long Halloween to the same comic on the Colorsoft.
I’m too old to tolerate the amount of squinting I’d have to do to read this. Yes, you can pinch to zoom in, but the low refresh rate of e-ink makes it too slow for each page, especially considering you’d have to wait for multiple refreshes to scroll to the bottom of the zoomed image.
Ideally, comic book readers would want a larger, color E Ink display — these exist, but they’re quite expensive and are more for business people to take notes on than for casual reading. There’s no clear answer to that question yet, and anyone hoping Amazon’s device will change that will be sorely disappointed.
No comic book apps
I can accept that the Kindle Colorsoft was always going to be a compromise. Amazon can’t magically make e-ink screens brighter or make larger color e-ink devices more affordable. Even with these shortcomings, a color e-reader can be a great way to read comics occasionally, like when your eyes are tired or you’re traveling. I wouldn’t use it as my primary comic reader, but if I could easily load my entire library onto it, it could be a good alternative to keep in my bag.
It’s a shame that access to comics on the Kindle Colorsoft is such a problem. Like all Kindles, Amazon’s color e-reader is tied to its ecosystem, meaning comics aren’t available everywhere.
These days, I read most of my Western comics through the DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Unlimited apps. Sure, paying around $10 a month for each isn’t ideal, but I’ve slowly gotten used to these services thanks to their all-you-can-read models and expansive libraries. These platforms carry most of every publisher’s titles since the 1930s, and buying a subscription for a month or two whenever you want to read a particular series is much cheaper than buying each issue individually. Plus, new comics are added to these services as they’re released, and while access to them depends on your subscription level, availability is generally a bit higher on these apps than on other digital services.
That’s why my biggest problem with the Kindle Colorsoft is that you can’t use any of these apps with it. Instead, you have to buy each comic you want to read directly from Amazon, which can quickly add up, even if you have an Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited subscription.
For example, the first volume of Amazing Spider-Man is available through Prime and the second is on Kindle Unlimited, but the rest are $6 each and contain only 10 issues. For such a long-running series, that’s way too expensive if you want to read everything, especially compared to what you get on the Marvel app, which offers the entire comic since the 1960s in a monthly subscription, as well as virtually every other title from the company.
And that includes collections. Comics that are only available as single issues, usually newer ones, will cost $5 each. While that’s not too bad compared to buying physical copies, compared to other digital options, you’ll only have to buy two issues before the app subscription becomes worthwhile. Since I can easily read an issue in half an hour, I can already imagine how much of a dent that’s going to make in my wallet.
The Kindle store is great for indie comics that are hard to find elsewhere, and I admit, there’s a certain joy in buying comics, even in digital format. But a serious digital comics reader should at least offer readers the ability to subscribe to the most popular platforms of the two biggest publishers. Without that, you’ll likely have to pay more than usual, not to mention that Amazon may not have everything you need.
If not for comics, why buy a Kindle Colorsoft?
Maybe I’m being picky. For the casual Kindle user, the Colorsoft can be useful, at least on those rare occasions when you need color. It can display the covers of your novels in color, and I’m sure kids will find picture books more enjoyable. But even the more casual user will run into problems — the Colorsoft screen’s built-in color filter causes even black-and-white content to flicker, which can reduce contrast or create distracting rainbow spots on the screen. If this bothers you, I’d recommend the cheaper Kindle Paperwhite — you’ll not only save money, but you’ll also get more enjoyment.
This means that a significant portion of Colorsoft’s audience will be adults, and especially hardcore comic book readers. In that case, I simply can’t think of any medium that can offer them as much color content as comic books, which means that Colorsoft’s Kindle will have to be able to compete with other comic book readers. And while e-ink is easy on the eyes, there are still too many compromises for me to say it’s worth it. I’m sure some people will be able to make it work, especially if they only read a specific series or don’t mind downloading their content elsewhere and then manually transferring the PDFs to their Kindle , but most will still be better off with an iPad.