Seeed Studio's ePaper Kits Go Big with a 13.3" E Ink Spectra 6 Six-Color Panel
Designed for digital photo-frame and information dashboard projects, this kit is Seeed's biggest and most colorful yet.
Seeed Studio has announced a new panel option to go with its XIAO ePaper DIY Kit controller — and it's a bit of a beast, at a 13.3" diagonal and with six colors at 1600×1200 resolution.
"Over the past few months, we've received amazing feedback on the XIAO ePaper DIY Kits-EE04/EN04, with many of you requesting even larger ePaper displays for more diverse applications," says Seeed's Liora Chen by way of background to the company's latest launch. "We've been listening closely to your feedback! So… as our first product release of 2026, we’re thrilled to introduce the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit-EE02, featuring a 13.3" Spectra 6 E-Ink display. This new kit opens up even more possibilities for your projects and creations."
E Ink is a pioneer in electrophoretic displays, also known as ePaper — electronic displays that physically move a layer of "ink" in order to form an image. In addition to being fully viewable in sunlight, at the cost of needing some other form of ambient lighting or a front-light when the sun's otherwise engaged, they draw power only when changing states — making them great for battery-powered display projects. The biggest trade-off: slow refresh rates, with color panels typically taking 15-30 seconds for a full refresh — though driver boards like the Caster from Modos can run some grayscale panels at up to 75Hz.
The E Ink Spectra 6 panel used in Seeed's new kit falls firmly into the former category, with typical refresh times stated in the datasheet at 12 seconds. It also doesn't support partial refreshes, but does come with six colors — easily expandable to a wider palette by dithering multiple colors together in software before displaying your chosen image, with Seeed positioning the kit as ideal for digital photo-frame project as well as human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and information dashboards.
The kit is now available on the Seeed Studio store at $163.90; the Espressif ESP32-S3-based driver board and E Ink display panel are also available separately for $14.90 and $149 respectively.