Tuning colorization of Vim for E-ink display

Vim_Dasung_Color.vim

function! Dasung() " Specify a readable color scheme.
    " Set color scheme, so that mostly things are readable
    colorscheme delek
    " Tune the airline color scheme (feel free to take it away).
    AirlineTheme zenburn
    " Keep the cursor as HD-FT has touch input
    set guioptions+=r
    " I got my copy of ProFontWindows, likely, from here: https://github.com/chrissimpkins/codeface/tree/master/fonts/pro-font-windows
    " Resolution for the 13-inch Paperlike HD display is 1400 x 1050
    set guifont=ProFontWindows:h20
    " Note: font on Dasung is calibrated. Need to make the screen max
    set background=light
    " denote the current line of the cursor.
        set cursorline
        " let g:airline_theme = 'zenburn'
        hi! link airline_tabfill VertSplit
        hi CursorLine guibg=lightblue
    " Highlighting for search pattern
        hi Search guifg=White guibg=black
    " Highlighting for Folded code block
        hi Folded guibg=LightYellow
    " Colorization for Visual Mode
        hi Visual  guifg=White guibg=Black gui=none
    " Character under the cursor
        hi Cursor  guifg=Blue guibg=lightred gui=none
    " Sign column
        hi SignColumn  guibg=White gui=none
    " Sign Marker column
        hi SignatureMarkText guifg=White guibg=LightBlue gui=none
    " ColorColumn (as the 80 char divider)
        hi ColorColumn ctermbg=lightred guibg=lightred
    " Matching parameters, and vimtex matching environments.
        hi MatchParen guibg=NONE guifg=blue gui=bold
    " Send the Vim session to full screen.
        " Fullscreen
    " Undo highlights for TODO
        hi! link Todo Comment
    " Cursor, in a light color: avoiding the traces.
        " highlight iCursor guifg=Black guibg=LightYellow
        " set guicursor+=i:ver25-iCursor
        " set guicursor+=i:blinkwait10
endfun

Dasung is a company that produces E-ink displays. Yes, such monitor is only capable of handling black and white colors.
Well, maybe something more ---- the range of gray-scale colors that are in between.

The gist defines a function that I feel proud of, which helps with using Vim on an E-ink display. It may cast the colorization of Vim into something rather weird on a LED screen. However, the adjusted colorization does most of the syntax highlighting correct.

• Link to the physical display: https://www.jianguoyun.com/p/DWqFsAkQoPimBhiiwDI

Got a new Paperlike HD-FT, with solid touch input. Adjusted the script for usability on the HD-FT model (gray-scales were improved/changed as compared to the older Paperlike Pro model from 2017).

When calibrating the color schemes, :runtime syntax/colortest.vim is super helpful. The workflow of fine-tuning the color scheme, include:

1. Call the Dasung() function to apply the existing tweaks;
2. Run :runtime syntax/colortest.vim to open up a buffer with a good collection of color combinations for foreground/background colors. Pick the color that appears to be readable on the e-ink display.

Hi, I was wondering how the above config looks like on an e-ink screen? Could you take a picture of the screen with above config please?

Here is how the color profile looks like for rendering a simple help file. The original goal was to make the thing readable. On e-ink displays, there is not much to expect as the contrast level will easily distort readability.

@rbozan, the old link from 2017 also works.

@rbozan, the old link from 2017 also works.

Ah sorry, I didn't notice. Thank you.

I was considering to buy an e-ink display, what do you think about it? Do you prefer it over the normal displays?

Per my own usage, I only prefer to use the e-ink monitor for long reading/writing sessions. For writing, I use the customized color scheme in this gist in Vim, and type along for hours. For reading, I use Calibre Viewer to read EPUB/mobi books (this viewer allows for batch-exporting the highlights and notes). I usually pull for such sessions when my eyes "burn" after using those "normal LCD monitors" for a prolonged period of time.

Compared to my "normal monitors", the e-ink monitor is simply too small. In portrait mode, I can fit at most 60 lines with comfortable font-size. In landscape mode, there are 35 lines or so. Since tuning the syntax highlighting can only do as much with the limited gray scale levels, I hardly find myself writing any code on the e-ink monitor. Even with the perfectly tuned colorscheme, my eyes can only tell a very limited amount of gray scales.

Dasung, the company that made the e-ink monitor in the screenshot, is selling a larger 25-inch e-ink monitor. I haven't been able to get my hands on it as it is currently only sold in China.