Inky Impression

Beautiful, colour E Ink® / ePaper displays for use with Raspberry Pi computers. Available in 7.3” (800 x 480 pixel)  and 13.3” (1600 x 1200 pixel) sizes.

Our Inky Impression E Ink® displays are super crisp, low power and look great from a variety of viewing angles. They have high pixel density and bright vivid colours, perfect for showing off gorgeous dithered images (we've put a lot of effort into our dithering code and we hope you love it).

Inky Impression also includes:

• The appropriate hardware to attach to your Raspberry Pi computer and fix it securely in place. If your Pi has a 40 pin header attached, you won't need to do any soldering.
• Four side mounted buttons that remain accessible if you've got the panel mounted on a wall or whatnot.
• Two Qw/ST connectors, so you can easily connect up breakouts and other I2C devices.

Tell me about E Ink®!

Multi-colour EPD displays use electrophoresis to pull coloured particles up and down on the display. The coloured particles reflect light, unlike most display types, meaning that they're visible under bright light. They don’t use a backlight like LCDs do, so they’re easy on the eyes and don’t introduce unwanted light into your environment.

Electronic paper displays only consume power whilst they're refreshing, so they're a great choice for projects like home automation dashboards and electronic photo frames that need to be always on. They take a little while to refresh, so are best suited to projects that don't require constant screen updates.

What is the 2025 Edition?

A new generation of ePaper is coming and we’re so excited! 2025 Edition uses a new Spectra 6 E Ink® display panel which brings a number of improvements over the panels that we’ve used previously - notably a shorter refresh time (around 12 seconds) and more saturated colours. It also comes in an extended range of sizes, so we’ve been able to make a huge 13.3” (1600 x 1200 pixel) version - that’s almost A4 size!

Both sizes of the new Inky Impression are now available for pre-order - photos showing the new displays are coming soon. If you're in need of an Inky Impression display right now, check out the 5.7" version!

Features

• 7.3” (800 x 480 pixel) or 13.3” (1600 x 1200 pixel) ePaper display
  • E Ink Spectra 6® technology
  • Ultra wide viewing angles
  • Ultra low power consumption
    
• Four side mounted buttons
• M2 mounting holes at the corners
• 40-pin extension header included to boost height for full-size Raspberry Pi.
• Standoffs included to securely attach to your Pi
• 2x Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connectors for adding breakouts
  
• Expansion header for adding other hardware
• Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi computers, including Zero variants.
  
• Python library
• Comes fully assembled, with no soldering required!

The display is securely stuck down to the Inky Impression PCB and connected via a ribbon cable, and it comes with mounting hardware to attach your Raspberry Pi securely in place. Just pop Inky Impression on your Pi and run our installer to get everything set up!

Software

Our Python library takes the stress out of displaying text and images on Inky Impression, and we've put together some special examples to show off Inky Impression's capabilities. 

Tech Specs

Notes

• The Inky Impression display is made from glass so it's pretty fragile. Be careful not to drop it or press too hard on it, or it will crack. When fitting it to your Pi, grip at the edges of the board rather than pressing on top of the screen.
• Take care when using your own fixings! It is possible to damage the display if you use standoffs/bolts with longer screw threads than those supplied in the kit.
• The Inky Impression 7.3” board size is 174 x 123mm, which fits conveniently within a 180 x 130mm Ikea picture frame (though not with the screen perfectly centered).The Inky Impression 13.3” board size is 297 x 210mm, so it should be possible to install it in A4 sized picture frames.
• Art by Kseniya Lapteva on Unsplash