Which one should you use?

Summary

Access the color style setting in Kindle Colorsoft through Settings > Screen and brightness > Color style.
The difference between Standard and Vivid color styles is in color saturation and detail preservation.
Choose Vivid for higher contrast and fewer colors, or Standard for a full range of colors. Test both to see which suits your preferences.

One of the things I love most when I get a new gadget is tinkering with settings. Whether it’s a TV, game console, or phone, I love optimizing my devices for my own personal use right out of the box. With the Kindle Colorsoft, it was no different, as I immediately set to changing my font, page set-up and screensaver as soon as I powered the unit on.

Though there aren’t a ton of choices when it comes to customizing color on Colorsoft, there was one setting that I noticed right off the bat that I was excited to test out: Color style. When you open this setting, you’ll find a choice between “balanced” standard mode and “enhanced” vivid mode. However, there’s a little more nuance to what these color styles actually do than their brief descriptors might suggest.

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How to access the color style setting

Take a quick trip through your settings

Adjusting your Kindle Colorsoft’s color style is very easy and only takes a few taps:

Access your Kindle’s Settings menu from either the three-dots menu on the home screen or the top menu while you’re in a book.
Select Screen and brightness.
Select Color Style.
You can now choose between Standard and Vivid.

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What is the difference between Standard and Vivid color styles?

Vivid gives you a splashier experience at the expense of some detail

Color e-ink displays can take some getting used to, as you won’t be able to experience colors the same way you would on a phone or tablet screen. I’ve seen others liken it to seeing printed color comics in the newspaper and I think that comparison is apt. You won’t be able to see brilliant, glossy images the same way you might have when reading comics on Marvel Unlimited on an iPad, but the Kindle Colorsoft’s 4,000+ colors do a great job of replicating the experience of paging through non-glossy color comics.

To get the best experience out of your color content, the Kindle Colorsoft has two different color modes. Vivid boosts the color saturation and contrast but uses fewer colors, whereas Standard uses a full range of colors but can often appear a bit duller. According to Amazon, neither color mode has an effect on battery life, which makes the choice of which one to use a purely aesthetic one. You can find an example of standard vs. vivid color below:

After trying out both color modes, I personally came to prefer the Colorsoft’s vivid color mode. Though the increase in contrast and use of fewer colors does cause some distortion, it’s hard to notice unless you’re specifically looking for it, and I found that the additional “pop” of brightness gave this mode the edge for me. There was a little loss of detail, but it was barely perceptible on most pages.

Of course, those who want to experience as little distortion as possible from the e-ink display may like the standard mode a little better, despite it being a little duller overall.

The best advice here is to try out both modes in your usual reading spaces and see which one works for you. In my experience, lighting makes a big difference (I read a lot outside and under dim lighting, which made the higher contrast of the vivid color style important for me personally), so give both a whirl and see which you prefer!