this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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The problem is that such open hardware projects can mostly only work with the components on the market, and eInk displays (or advanced displays in general) are principally only sold by their manufacturers to the OEMs they have contracts with. We are lucky to have any eInk display available to us at all for these kinds of endeavours!
This, plus making bigger eink displays with reasonable refresh and antighosting is a pain. They are proportionately more expensive.
Except I'm dead certain you can buy screens a lot larger than 4.2 inches - the 6 inch screen behind the Kobo Clara HD is actually all over AliExpress and eBay, and it has a backlight and is not marketed for as a replacement for the eReader. Kobo just glues a thin metal plate and a battery to it for rigidity, but otherwise it's identical. And there are a fair number of other screens you can find online in various sizes if you want to get them working.
The hard part is getting data sheets or reverse engineering them. But it's far from impossible.