Esquire Uses E Ink to Introduce the Twenty First Century
“The 21st Century Begins Now,” hails the cover of the latest issue of Esquire magazine—only the text on this cover doesn’t just sit there. It blinks. And that’s not all: the advertisement on the inside cover blinks as well.
How did they do it? E Ink.
To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Hearst magazine became the first of its kind to digitize its front cover, putting E Ink technology at the forefront. E Ink is the same technology used by Amazon’s Kindle bookreader, and what it does is very futuristic. According to E Ink Corporation, E Ink consists of millions of tiny microcapsules, each about the diameter of a human hair, suspended in a clear fluid making up a sort of film. Each microcapsule has a small electrical charge, and when different electronic fields are applied to both sides of the film, the microcapsules react differently—some display a white color, which translates to white space for the reader, and others display a dark color, which translates to print. Circuitry and display drivers then control what’s displayed on the film visually—allowing content providers to change the display electronically—and dynamically.
In Esquire’s iteration of the technology, the imagery itself isn’t dynamic or overwhelming. But that was by design, according to Esquire editor David Granger, as quoted in Wired. “This time it’s cool,” said Granger. “This time it’s a novelty.” According to Wired, Granger envisions implementing a second E Ink design early next year, and publishing the entire magazine in the E Ink format in the future, with content being updated remotely.
Approximately 100,000 copies of the magazine were published, and the covers themselves were assembled by hand. Because of this, the cover price on this issue of the magazine is $6, as opposed to the regular $4 cover price. Esquire fully expects to sell out this press run, however, as collectors rush to get themselves a copy of the groundbreaking magazine.
By Robert Pothier
