Build your own color e-ink photo frame
If a Raspberry Pi or an ESP32 doesn’t scare you, you can build a color e-ink frame with the same 13.3-inch, 1600 × 1200 Spectra 6 screen as the Aura Ink or SwitchBot, for less, and control every detail.
The panels
| Panel | Size and pixels | Refresh | Price seen | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pimoroni Inky Impression 7.3" (2025 Edition) | 7.3", 800 × 480 | About 12 s | £79.50 at The Pi Hut (sold out on September 28, 2026) | Any 40-pin Raspberry Pi, including Zero 2 |
| Pimoroni Inky Impression 13.3" (2025 Edition) | 13.3", 1600 × 1200 | Not stated | See Pimoroni | Any 40-pin Raspberry Pi |
| Waveshare 13.3" e-Paper HAT+ (E) | 13.3", 1600 × 1200 | 19 s full refresh | $249.99-$259.99 (Waveshare) | Raspberry Pi, or ESP32 and other microcontrollers through the driver HAT |
Waveshare also sells a 13.3-inch Spectra 6 kit with its own ESP32-S3 board, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-13.3E6).
Pimoroni Inky Impression The Pi Hut (7.3") Waveshare 13.3" E6
What else you need
- A Raspberry Pi (a Zero 2 W is enough to push images) or an ESP32 board.
- A battery and charging board if you want it cordless. A Raspberry Pi left running uses far more power than the panel, which is why many battery builds use a microcontroller such as an ESP32 that sleeps between refreshes.
- A picture frame deep enough for the panel and board. The panels are thin (Waveshare’s bare 13.3-inch panel is 0.85 mm) but the boards aren’t.
Preparing images
The panel understands only its six colors, so each image has to be resized to the panel’s pixels and dithered to the six-color palette. Waveshare’s manual recommends Floyd-Steinberg dithering with a 6-color palette (Waveshare manual), and Pimoroni’s Python library does it for you, with a saturation setting between pure and measured colors (pimoroni/inky).
Or use our photo converter: pick the 800 × 480 or 1600 × 1200 preset and download a PNG that uses only the six pure colors, ready for the panel’s driver.
Care tips from the makers
- Waveshare recommends refreshing at least every 24 hours, and no more than once every 180 seconds.
- Keep it within the 0-50 °C operating range E Ink quotes for Spectra 6.
- E-paper has no light of its own, so place it where there’s daylight or a lamp.
Not a maker? The finished frames are side by side in the comparison table.