[HN Gopher] Remarkable Pro Colors
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Remarkable Pro Colors
Author : ffaser5gxlsll
Score : 133 points
Date : 2026-02-01 12:12 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thregr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thregr.org)
| Terretta wrote:
| This is fantastically useful if you use these "pro"-fessionally.
|
| Would let you soft proof how any spot color you've used in a PDF
| will come through for folks using the color device, and fix
| ability to distinguish before shipping (much as spot colored PDF
| creators _should_ be checking for color-blindness variants).
| Groxx wrote:
| > _I also have a fairly light touch normally, and the pressure
| curve on either the Remarkable 2 or Pro requires me to press too
| much for comfort to get any "width" in any of the tools._
|
| Yeah, this bothers me a lot with mine too (an RM2). I can't
| _believe_ how heavily I have to press to get full line width on
| many tools, it 's harder than I press when I use an eraser on a
| stubborn mark in real life.
|
| Responsiveness wise... the latency on common actions has
| increased incredibly in the past couple of years. Not pen
| drawing, that's still excellent, but general UI navigation and
| recognizing taps and long presses and whatnot have really gotten
| bad. At this point I've got it rolled back to 2.x almost all the
| time, which is also a whole lot more moddable than 3.x. I like
| many of the UI changes and additions in 3 (except infinitely
| vertically scrollable stuff, that keeps screwing up and
| interpreting taps and swipes as vertical scrolls when there's
| absolutely no additional content to show, so it just stops
| responding for a second while it scrolls three pixels down, and I
| would be thrilled if I could disable it completely), but not at
| the cost of responsiveness.
| svat wrote:
| How do you roll back to an older version?
| Groxx wrote:
| SSH in and you have access to basically everything. The stock
| setup has two partitions for the OS (it toggles between them
| when you update, or toggles back if it fails to boot a few
| times) so you can:
|
| Dual boot (disable updates and install any two you like):
| https://remarkable.guide/tech/dualboot.html
|
| Some lower level details here:
| https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable-hacks/issues/304
|
| And installing a specific release is largely automated:
| https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable-update
|
| Last time I did it, I just did it manually - back up the OS
| version you want over ssh, then restore it whenever you want
| (on the non-active partition). And screwed it up the first
| time, and had to do a recovery:
| https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-recovery (requires using
| the contact pads on the spine for USB access - not too hard
| to solder up a pogo pin thing, but might take some time to
| get the parts).
|
| So I'd recommend the automated way, though I haven't tried it
| yet :)
|
| There's a (single) relatively active discord server if you
| want specific Q&As with other people too, or to double check
| whatever the current recommendations are (probably do that,
| as I'm somewhat out of date):
| https://discord.com/invite/nQ6nHwfDfc
|
| And do definitely back up your data partition before making
| any major version movements tho, in case something doesn't
| work right and you need to roll back. I forget if/when that's
| necessary, but it's a good safety net just in case. And <8GB
| isn't much to store just in case.
| galleywest200 wrote:
| I would forgive quite a lot of the software decisions if they
| just let me export the snap-to-text highlights without the use
| of a third party tool. Many e-ink devices have had this feature
| for years now.
|
| I currently use RCU (Remarkable Connection Utility) to extract
| my highlights: https://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
| GZGavinZhao wrote:
| reMarkable just open-source your display drivers and E-ink render
| stack please. I'm pretty sure the pressure curve issue can be
| solved just by tuning a few parameters in the code. I appreciate
| reMarkable for adhering to GPL and giving us trivial root access
| to the machines, but while you're there I really don't see why
| you don't just do it fully.
|
| Even with the limited amount of usability, the community has
| already made some amazing additions, for example KOReader.
| Imagine how far we'd get if we can just write any app we want for
| reMarkable. I would completely get a typefolio and ditch my
| laptop if I have the ability to *easily* write my own app on the
| reMarkable without going through the loops of binary patching and
| other quirks.
| scheme271 wrote:
| I'm not sure how that hasn't been done already. They're running
| linux so the drivers and kernel changes should be covered by
| gpl.
| Groxx wrote:
| The display driving code is part of their "xochitl" binary,
| which is not GPL (and might not be allowed to be, eink-the-
| company is rather protective of their tech and waveforms).
| ~All modding happens by reverse engineering the binary to
| call into that code, either to change behavior (rmhacks) or
| to act like a display driver for other software:
| https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer
|
| The rest has been released a few times, though last I checked
| it was quite out of date. Far from ideal, but still
| significantly better than most companies:
| https://developer.remarkable.com/
| GZGavinZhao wrote:
| Their E-ink display driver is userspace unfortunately...
| cyberax wrote:
| Sigh. ReMarkable.
|
| It's just remarkable how they keep shooting themselves in the
| foot. Their hardware is great, but their software just sucks. And
| for no real reason, as far as I can understand. They technically
| do have a cloud subscription that needs to lock out users, I
| guess?
|
| For example, they don't have handwriting recognition for non-
| Latin languages. They don't even have on-screen _keyboards_ for
| non-Latin languages. Their note-taker sucks. Their "remote
| whiteboard" feature doesn't work reliably. Etc.
|
| Just open source it all, and allow people to fix it. It's clear
| that your in-house developers can't do that.
| rationalist wrote:
| But then they can't try to force people into their sweet, sweet
| subscription services.
| cyberax wrote:
| Yeah. But then people are not going to buy their hardware. I
| have a reMarkable from 6 years ago that I'm using to run
| Toltec and koreader, but I'm not going to buy any new
| hardware from them.
|
| Was the subscription income worth it?
| rationalist wrote:
| Same. I'm finally looking to get away from Kindle, and
| ReMarkable is off the list.
| moh_maya wrote:
| Was comparing the remarkable with the kindle scribe and
| the boox note 5c - and settled on the 5c - though the
| battery life trade-off is significant (I end up charging
| once every 3-4 days, with 2-3 hours of daily use -
| writing and reading) - and I am really happy with the
| device. Fantastic hand-writing feel, very good on-device
| hand-writing recognition, and decent to very good
| integration with google drive, notes export, etc. May be
| worth considering if you are looking for an colour e-ink
| device that you can write on (notes, thoughts,
| journalling), as well as run android play store
| applications, including the kindle app.
| antonyh wrote:
| I tried Boox (Note Air 3 Colour) but it wouldn't run the
| one 'android' app I needed - O'Reilly bookshelf. Returned
| it and got an iPad instead. Seemed ok but only half
| supports apps. I didn't have it long enough to suffer pen
| accuracy or general performance, but the colours were
| muddy.
| theultdev wrote:
| You probably have lifetime subscription btw.
|
| I have two devices with lifetime (RM 1 + 2)
|
| RM was very generous giving it to all devices bought before
| the service came out.
|
| It's only $5/mo iirc w/ no hard limits, not a bad deal to
| sync your docs, pdfs, and books tbh.
| rationalist wrote:
| > very generous
|
| Are you affiliated with the company?
| antonyh wrote:
| Obsidian has a paid subscription sync service and is free but
| not open source software.
|
| Joplin has a paid subscription sync service and is free and
| open source software.
|
| It's a different business model, but it's possible.
| azeirah wrote:
| I made a service to sync remarkable to obsidian. It's not
| free, but it _is_ open-source so you can self-host for
| free.
|
| https://scrybble.ink
| wl wrote:
| I've got a reMarkable 2 whose USB-C port just decided to break
| one day. Tearing the unit down, I see the USB connector puts
| all of its strain on some very tiny pads. The pads were torn
| off. Apparently this is a common problem.
|
| Based on this, I don't think their hardware is great, either.
| scheme271 wrote:
| Yeah, that's a known problem The solution is to get one of
| those usb-c to qi adapters, keep it always plugged in, and
| use a qi charger to recharge. This minimizes insertion cycles
| and stress on the connector.
| wl wrote:
| I repeat myself: I don't think the hardware is great.
| cyberax wrote:
| I like handwriting, and reMarkable feels closest to
| actual pen and paper. It's also as thin as it can be
| (although it does cause the USB-C reliability issues).
| tombert wrote:
| I don't have a Remarkable, but I do have a Pocketbook InkPad
| Color 3. I really like it, but color on that thing is pretty
| disappointing.
|
| I was hoping that it would be a way to read through the comics I
| bought on Humble Bundle, but the colors are so washed out that I
| still just read them on a computer screen.
|
| I have no idea what the engineering challenges are with making
| color e-ink, but they must be enormous because I (and many
| others) would pay considerable money for _good_ color on e-ink.
| jsheard wrote:
| Remarkable is quite different because it uses an E-Ink Gallery
| display, as opposed to the E-Ink Kaleido displays found on most
| cheaper colour e-readers such as yours. Gallery has true CYMK
| e-ink pigments while Kaleido is just mono e-ink with a passive
| RGB filter array on top.
|
| I'm not a fan of Kaleido, as you say the colours are
| underwhelming, and the RGB filter attenuates light so the
| contrast is noticeably worse than classic mono e-ink. Gallery
| is way more expensive and slower to refresh though, so pick
| your poison.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| I have been using color eInk displays since Triton was still
| thing, and despite promises everywhere that each new
| generation of color display was miles better than the
| previous one, this has never been true, and when I compare my
| JetBook (eInk Triton and still running Windows CE!) with the
| Remarkable Paper Color, I sometimes think the colors _are
| actually more vivid on the JetBook_. (Not a very high bar).
| In comparisons with the PocketBook/Kaleido, Gallery
| definitely _loses_. The contrast also _still_ takes a huge
| hit in the Remarkable Paper compared to the 2, and TFA also
| points that, albeit it may have to do with the frontlight
| rather than Gallery (but who knows).
|
| This is the level of improvement in eInk over 20 years.
| ge96 wrote:
| I have an RM2 like how I don't have to charge it for months.
|
| The little tiny pocket (Go) was pretty neat but yeah.
| cooperadymas wrote:
| Since this thread is undoubtedly going to devolve into the usual
| whining about Remarkable that is entirely unrelated to the
| article at hand, and doesn't understand the intent of the
| devices, or is based on the entirely unnecessary subscription
| service, I'll add a positive contribution.
|
| Since receiving the RMPP Move for Christmas, it has become my go-
| to daily device and other than the obtuse name, I am almost
| entirely pleased with it.
|
| The writing experience is fantastic. I was skeptical of the pen
| change from the RM2 but it's been pleasant overall.
|
| Its form-factor seems odd when you read the specs, but it works
| rather well in practice. It's easy to toss in a bag and go, and
| does fit in most of my pockets if I need to. It's much more
| convenient for traveling as an addition to the laptop.
|
| It syncs with my RM2 with minimal issue with scale. Sometimes you
| have to zoom in but this is easy and natural.
|
| The colors are a nice addition but hardly the main attraction.
|
| The backlight makes it excellent for writing at morning or night
| in bed without disturbing the S.O..
|
| The minimalism is a feature.
|
| It does okay for PDFs, but that is far from its purpose.
|
| I use it daily for notes, task management, and little printable
| logic games.
|
| My only minor nits are: changing pens (for logic games mostly)
| takes more taps than on the RM2. The palm detection is somewhat
| lacking compared to the RM2 - it tends to change pages or change
| the zoom level unintentionally when writing on certain parts of
| the screen. This could be more about my usage of it. I really
| wish I could add links and/or a table of contents to notes on the
| device. I wish the zoom level would stick between pages or could
| be locked in for a document.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| The Paper Pro switched to AES like every other recent tablet
| out there instead of keeping the Wacom EMR, and it definitely
| takes a hit in almost every metric you can think of. Like
| accuracy, as TFA complains.
|
| I frankly _cannot_ recommend the Paper Pro if you already have
| the 2. It is way too expensive for something that is almost a
| sidestep instead of an upgrade.
| functionmouse wrote:
| AES ruined tabputers and it makes me so sad
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| What's AES in this context? (i think of advanced encryption
| standard)
|
| Is it
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_electronic_signature
| ?
| Luc wrote:
| Active electrostatic. It uses a battery, EMR doesn't.
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| thanks!
| bee_rider wrote:
| What are the usual complaints?
| danpalmer wrote:
| Needs a subscription for sync, the sync system is pretty
| basic, the web/desktop experience is poor, no support for
| things like Google Drive or other cloud storage, and
| generally very limited software experience on the device.
|
| (This is not to say I fully agree with these, but these are
| the criticisms I see a lot online)
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| my only complaint has always been that the contrast between
| screen color and text color is worse than in other eInk
| devices and as a consequence need to either wear reading
| glasses which I tend not to like over time, or use it in
| direct light, which drastically decreases the utility.
|
| Often when I say this on HN I get told reading is not the
| purpose of the device, which is really strange since it is
| one of the mentioned purposes of the device on their site,
| and also because I just generally find people who don't
| read what they're writing, or read the text they are making
| notes in, to be strange people.
|
| on edit: Of course mine is from a few years ago, and have
| not purchased another for the reasons given above, but have
| looked at it in the store and it didn't seem to be
| improved, and obviously it is not the Pro Move under
| discussion here.
| ainch wrote:
| As a user that doesn't pay for the subscription, I use
| their Google Drive integration quite often. I believe they
| support Dropbox and OneDrive too, no?
| criddell wrote:
| I always complain about the size. I want a 13" so I can read
| and mark up full-size PDFs (I'm normally dealing with A4 or
| Letter size documents).
| svat wrote:
| Same, I already had a reMarkable tablet and got the reMarkable
| Paper Pro Move as an impulse purchase (ignoring its
| ridiculously high price) expecting to return it within the
| 50-day return window, but the fact that it fits in my pocket
| (or "most of my pockets", as you said) has made a huge
| difference in how much I use it and how I spend my time. The
| sync is also nice (I think it works up to some limit even
| without a paid subscription, though it turned out I had one
| grandfathered in); I can basically send webpages I'm reading to
| it using the browser extension (at least on desktop). On mobile
| it's a bit more annoying, but e.g. I've printed long
| newsletters from the Gmail to PDF (paper size A6) and imported
| the PDF onto it.
|
| It's perfectly adequate for writing on, but so far I've almost
| never used the fact that it has (a rudimentary set of) colours,
| though.
| hboon wrote:
| Are there pens that work like Lamy Al-Star EMR pen, with a
| button to switch tools, etc, on the RMPP? I have been using my
| RM2 for years. Backlight would be nice, but not sure it's worth
| the trade off for me.
| cooperadymas wrote:
| AFAIK this does not exist yet for the RMPP. It would be a
| nice addition and I would guess that they release something
| eventually.
|
| If you are generally happy with the RM2 then the form factor
| is probably the only reason to upgrade or swap that ends up
| being worth it. Most Best Buys carry Remarkables and offer an
| opportunity to feel it before deciding.
| nja wrote:
| I have been wanting a pocket-notebook-size tablet since the day
| I got my RM2. I've been considering the Move since it came out,
| but the stylus change was worrying me, and the price is pretty
| high -- I feel like I would have bought release day if they
| offered a lower priced monochrome one in the same form factor,
| especially if it used the RM2 stylus...
|
| It's encouraging to hear you have had a good experience with
| it. Maybe I'll grab one if they ever go on sale!
|
| Is there anything beyond your minor nits that you would caution
| someone like me about before buying?
| seneca wrote:
| Interesting article. The color is nice on the Pro, but could
| definitely use some improvement.
|
| That aside, the Remarkable Paper Pro is one of the biggest deltas
| I have ever seen between hardware and software quality. The
| hardware feels and looks great. I was pretty excited when I
| unboxed it by it. That all disappeared rapidly as I started using
| it. Their entire user experience is terrible, and just shockingly
| unuseful. I don't understand who it's designed for, because it
| doesn't seem to do anything well.
| filldorns wrote:
| Is this just a way to process the color of images so we can see
| them better in RMPP?
|
| If so, I found it very laborious. But I understand those who
| complain; the colors really have a LOT of room for improvement.
| okuntilnow wrote:
| The good thing about the Remarkable is that it's basically just a
| Linux machine and you have root access. There's a great community
| of folk building extra functionality and tools / apps for it.
| GeorgeHahn wrote:
| Is that true on the pro? I trialed one maybe a year ago and got
| the impression that the company had stopped supporting third
| party devs.
| gpm wrote:
| I got a remarkable 2 roughly when it was released and as far
| as I can tell the company never _supported_ third party devs.
| They gave you root access but no relevant source code...
|
| Really quite disappointing, the device could have been a lot
| more useful with even a tiny bit of energy spent releasing
| source code for things they already developed.
| caseyf wrote:
| SDK :) https://developer.remarkable.com/documentation/sdk
| alfanick wrote:
| I did some minor research, I've only found that I can ssh into
| it in Dev Mode. Is there a way to run a fullblown nice terminal
| with keyboard over bluetooth and mosh? I'm dreaming of e-ink
| portable terminal.
| utopiah wrote:
| Yep, my notes https://fabien.benetou.fr/Tools/Eink#remarkable
| on the topic.
| b1temy wrote:
| > the faded colors, limited palette along with the dithering
| really grew on me
|
| I wonder if the similarity of a faded photo (like a faded
| polaroid) might have helped with this, especially if already has
| memories and some similar photos.
|
| I have not used a e-ink tablet in a long time (since the Kobo
| Glo), but since I've stopped reading fiction, I do not really see
| the allure of devices for myself. They're far too expensive to
| use as an alternative to a notebook, screens as usually too small
| to read technical non-fiction textbooks (Think, PDFs instead of
| EPUBs), and if I wanted to look at media with colors, I do not
| think most current color e-ink displays are good enough for a
| pleasing experience. I think, like the author said, it is nice to
| use a digital photo frame that does not need to be recharged
| often and can easily swap out the photos.
| theSIRius wrote:
| I was actually thinking about buying Remarkable Paper Pro after
| Christmas. Not necessarily for the colors but just to have a
| portable e-ink tablet to scribble on and organize myself a bit
| better. In the end, I went with Supernote Nomad (A6X2). The build
| quality is not as good, the display does not have colors, and
| there is no backlight. But, for my use cases, it fits perfectly.
| I have found myself taking notes left and right, mostly during
| meetings.
|
| What swayed me in the end was the software and repairability.
| Supernote actually released their syncing backend as a Docker
| image, so I can just roll my own and never have to touch any
| third-party cloud. All of my notes just live as normal files on
| my home server. The repairability is similarly open - Supernote
| sells all the replacement parts on their website. I guess this is
| the reason the build is not as nice as any Remarkable. But, for
| me, this sacrifice is worth it, given I plan to use the tablet as
| long as it can take me.
| utopiah wrote:
| Bit late reMarkable is running Linux and the community is
| providing tools like https://github.com/ddvk/rmfakecloud
| theSIRius wrote:
| That's a pretty cool project. But with it living in the grey
| area of not being really supported by Remarkable, I would be
| skeptical if Remarkable does not block it down the line.
|
| Supernote has full-fledged Linux support in the official
| pipeline. It has gotten postponed quite recently, so the
| devices still run on their customized Android distribution
| only. But even in the current state, I feel more ownership
| over my HW and SW than I would with Remarkable.
| utopiah wrote:
| It's been about 6 years so I doubt it.
|
| If they do though then I won't update and won't buy the
| next model. I can imagine them doing it for a new model for
| already sold one that'd be a first.
|
| FWIW if you really want ownership and don't care much for
| weight the PineNote is probably the best our there, able to
| run Android (with root) but also Linux proper.
| whazor wrote:
| I want a work/gaming monitor that looks like a Samsung frame.
|
| We have a little desk in the living room and I want to hang a
| monitor on the wall, that shows pictures when not using it.
| bluemenot wrote:
| This is excellent, exactly what I wanted to check after learning
| about Remarkable Pro, complete with a comparison with a regular
| screen. Thanks for writing this.
|
| Somewhat related, I feel like I'm waiting for a proper color e
| ink digital frame for decades now. If anyone knows such a device
| that they personally use and can recommend, please share.
| utopiah wrote:
| Tinkered with RM1, have RM2 then RMPPro since they are out.
|
| If you care about colors, do NOT buy that or any other e-ink
| devices IMHO. The colors are washed out.
|
| If you NEED colors in some situations (e.g. reading research
| papers with important graphics, charts) or enjoy some hints of
| colors (e.g. manga covers) then why not. It's way WAY better than
| black&white for colored contents.
|
| Finally, and that's THE #1 use case, if you take notes or sketch
| diagrams, and would like a dash of color here and there, then
| it's literally another dimension.
| m463 wrote:
| I used to use my remarkable 2, but it just sits now.
|
| The change was when amazon stopped allowing access to kindle book
| files, which I could convert to epub or pdf for viewing on
| remarkable.
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(page generated 2026-02-05 23:01 UTC)