Electronic book readers are still a minority pursuit for book lovers, but the devices have the potential to become the norm one day.

电子书现在仍旧是少数书籍爱好者追求的物品，但是它有望在将来普及。

Could electronic subscriptions help struggling newspapers one day?

With newspapers in crisis, there are now suggestions that e-books might offer journalism（新闻工作，新闻业） a new portable platform and subscription（捐献，订约） model.

One French firm already taking advantage of the electronic subscription model is Ave! Comics（连环图画） which provides cartoon strips（纸条） to paying e-book users.

"Our idea is to get cartoons more widely distributed（分布的） to another public and in the end an international public," said Allison Reber from Ave! Comics.

Industries such as newspapers, magazines and books, even copyright-free content from Google, could benefit from the sale of text content as downloads.

Future platform

Struggling newspapers could be offered a lifeline by the new format - especially as the devices' tech is developing to include colour and flexible displays.

The publishing industry has given a nod to e-books by showcasing（展示） them in Paris's annual book fair, Salon du Livre, as a future digital platform.

But for those concerned about eye strain（视觉疲劳）, screens such as the ones in iRex's iLiad and 1000S e-readers are made of e-ink which mimics（模仿的，假的） the look of real paper.

Marie Lichtle from 4D Concept, iRex's distributor in France, said that e-books do not tire eyes like computer screens.

"It is really like reading traditional paper, but you can also enjoy all the interactivity（相互作用） of an electronic device," she added.

E-books have "useful" interactive elements with the look of real paper

User friendly

The third-generation Cybook from Bookeen, for instance, can look up words in its on-board dictionary.

But e-readers also have other "very useful" interactive elements.

"You can use very small font size or very big. For visually impaired（受损害的） people it is very useful.

"Actually, it is the only way they can read sometimes," said Laurent Picard from Bookeen.

"You can add your own fonts and just change the way the layout（布局，安排） is done," he added.

Price drawback

Some readers can now be written on, which is useful for professionals with weighty documents to annotate（注解）.

Bookworms（书呆子） can store around 1,500 titles in Amazon's US-released Kindle 2, and 1,000 in Bookeen Cybook - but most devices come with expandable memory too.

The batteries are also long-lasting, because devices are not measured in hours, but in turns of the page.

Sony's Portable Reader System, for example, is supposed to last 7,500 page turns after one charge.

The main drawback comes down to price, because e-books are still not cheap.

But a less expensive way currently into this evolving tech is through a smartphone.