GoKawiilXteink X3 e-reader owner uncovers greyscale rendering bugs in CrossPoint firmware
A writer purchased a cheap, tiny Xteink X3 e-ink reader after discovering the open-source CrossPoint firmware and quickly loaded books and custom fonts onto it. While experimenting with greyscale sleep-screen images, they found that dark grey rendered as pure black and light grey as near-white, and later noticed ghosting artifacts from previous screens appearing in the viewer app but not on the sleep screen.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The account highlights how affordable, hackable e-ink devices running community firmware can offer appealing customization but still carry rough edges in display calibration and rendering. It's a useful data point for hobbyists considering budget e-readers as an alternative to phones for distraction-free reading, showing both the promise and the debugging effort such devices demand.
- The Xteink X3 is a very small, inexpensive e-ink reader compatible with the open-source CrossPoint firmware.
- Testing revealed the device mishandles greyscale, rendering dark grey as black and light grey as almost white.
- A separate ghosting bug appeared in the CrossPoint viewer app but not on the device's sleep screen, pointing to inconsistent image-handling code.
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Published there as: “How my e-reader lost its stripes”
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