It was like a piece of paper bearing the indecipherable text of a magic spell.
Of course, Gates used the keynote to announce plans of a new technological breakthrough - a font enhancement called ClearType that makes text on an LCD look like text on paper to improve e-books.
The screens are black and white, and work by reflecting natural light instead of glowing themselves, mimicking the way text looks in paper books.
But this is a case that needs to be made and remade from first principles in every political generation, not just by consulting a text put on paper in a bygone age.
When an invitation is engraved, the text pops from the paper.
And Livescribe has tried since 2007 to popularize its technology, which uses a pen with a tiny, built-in camera and special paper to record and wirelessly transmit text as you write.
On the DR1000's 10.2-inch diagonal screen, with slightly brighter whites and darker blacks than the last generation of E-Ink devices, PDFs not only scale to the right dimensions, but their text and graphics appear crisper and more paper-like than E-Ink has ever looked before.
The paper-like E Ink display features crisp, clear text that's great for reading anywhere, even in bright sunlight.
While Page Camera works with any type of paper, those from the Evernote Smart Notebook transfer with sharper text.
Like e-book pioneers in America, they point to the trend away from paper-based products as the technology for downloading and displaying text electronically gets cheaper, more convenient and easier on the eyes.
As electronic books push paper ones aside, movable type seems fated to be replaced by movable text.
It's especially obvious on curved borders and text, making what should be a smooth white look like grid paper.
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