An electronic paper display has been developed that allows users to annotate pages in electronic books, make amendments to documents and erase parts of the page with as much ease as doing so with a real pen and paper.

The screen, on show Wednesday at the Display 2008 exhibition in Tokyo, was developed by E-Ink, Taiwan's Prime View International and Japan's Seiko Epson. It combines a conventional electronic paper display with a touchpanel and a newly developed control chip.

The chip, from Seiko Epson, can control a screen with up to four times the resolution of current "writable" e-paper devices such as iRex Technologies' iLiad.

Seiko Epson's chip also refreshes the display faster than the iLiad can, eliminating the slight lag between movement of the stylus and its effect on the screen.

The new chip shortens the update time so the screen can be refreshed 50 times per second. That means lines appear on the screen as they are being drawn by the user and interpreted by the touchpanel interface.

The chip supports a screen of up to 2,048 pixels by 1,536 pixels and will be available commercially from August.

Electronic paper is often lauded for its high contrast that makes it appear close to that of real paper. Under development for many years the technology is now being used in commercial displays such as those in Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader, Motorola's F3 cell phone and numerous in-store advertising displays.

At Display 2008 in Tokyo, Japan, this is Martyn Williams, IDG News Service.