The Soft Light Of Printed Knowledge

Before long, there won't be printed textbooks if the prognosticators are right. The move to digital is surging, pushed along by those who make tablets as you'd expect, but we seem to be heading away from printed textbooks.

Or maybe that's a prediction that's gotten ahead of itself.

According to a study done at Indiana State University, e-books are beloved for their convenience. It's far easier to lug around an iPad than it is to haul three or four massive textbooks. As for cost, they can't be beat. Without the added expense of the paper, the ink, the typesetter and the delivery, a digital version of a college text is well below that of the print version. Parents footing the bill, or students paying their own way, cannot help but appreciate that benefit.

E-books are easy to update, which is a plus for the professors who like to have the latest information included in their teaching material. A study guide can be added to a textbook with a few keystrokes, and the students can then download the updated version in less time than it would take to photocopy and distribute the new pages.

Sounds like a promising future, with printed books unable to compete.

Except for one small problem.

E-readers are screens that are illuminated, while books are made of non-glare paper that emits only the soft light of the knowledge printed on it. Students at Indiana State all complained about eye strain when using the iPad as compared to reading a hard copy. The human eyeball just can't tolerate that much light on its delicate little rods and cones.

Backlit screens are relatively bright as compared to a piece of paper that is lit by either sunlight or a lamp. To adjust light levels when reading a book, all you have to do is don sunglasses or move away from the lamp. You can physically alter the intensity, which you can't do with an e-reader.

Dr. Dennis Siemsen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester calls it computer vision syndrome, in which the eye gets weary from being bombarded with so much light. For a student trying to study for hours at a stretch, it's a problem that results from using an e-reader instead of reading a printed book.

Sometimes new technology opens up new opportunities. Sometimes, it isn't all as advertised. Whether the digital textbook makes the printed book as extinct as the dinosaur has to yet to be seen. Until the manufacturers of backlit screens can make their devices more friendly to the eyeballs that stare at them, there is room for old-fashioned books.

And you can't sell back your iPad, or the downloaded textbooks you bought, at the end of the semester.