Ricoh announced that the company has achieved a display of color still images with about 2.5 times brighter (in white reflectivity) and about 4 times wider color reproduction range compared with presently commercialized or announced color electronic paper technologies.

Ricoh developed in March 2009 the world’s first new organic electrochromic material producing three primary colors (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow) while improving memory properties . The company at the same time proposed a simple laminating element structure, forming three electrochromic layers between two substrates. This proved the feasibility of color electronic paper capable of achieving a bright display at low power consumption and low cost.

Based on this result, Ricoh moved from the development phase of element technology to the development of a practical application of prototypes featuring high resolution electronic paper. This led to success in achieving bright images with high color image reproducibility. Ricoh will accelerate development toward practical application by improving reliability/repetition durability (guaranteeing tens of thousands of rewrites) and larger screen size. Although development will expand to include document display devices that can display fine characters, the evolution will progress with various applications developing in parallel.