Inky wHAT (ePaper/E Ink®/EPD)

by Pimoroni

Inky wHAT is a large 4.2" (400x300 pixel) E Ink® display for your Raspberry Pi. Now available in a four colour version (red / yellow / black / white).

Inky wHAT is a bigger version of our popular Inky pHAT. The larger high-contrast display opens up many more possibilities, with significantly more space to display information. Like Inky pHAT, it's ideal for displaying simple graphics and crisply-rendered text and, because it's like paper, it's readable in bright sunlight.

Use Inky wHAT as a detailed weather display, as a calendar, for daily news reports, to list household chores, or you could even use it as a tiny DIY e-reader to read your e-books. 

Our Getting Started with Inky wHAT tutorial is a great starting point for getting acquainted with the joys of e-paper!

Now in glorious four-colour ✨

Advances in e-paper technology mean we can now use a fancy new four colour display on Inky wHAT. You no longer need to choose between yellow and red, you can have both!

Photos showing the new display are coming soon. Be sure to enter your email in the stock notification box if you'd like to know when the new boards are available to order! ➡

Features

  • 4.2" EPD display (400x300 pixels)
  • 40-pin booster header included for mounting on full-size Pis
  • Standoffs included to securely attach to your Pi
  • Additional pins, including I2C and SPI, broken out
  • Inky wHAT pinout
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Python library
  • Comes fully assembled

Multi-colour EPD displays, like the one on Inky wHAT, use ingenious electrophoresis to pull coloured particles up and down on the display. The coloured particles reflect light, unlike most display types, meaning that they're visible under bright lights. It takes approximately 20 seconds to refresh the display.

Everything comes fully-assembled, and there's no soldering required! The display is securely stuck down to the Inky wHAT PCB and connected via a ribbon cable. Just pop Inky wHAT on your Pi and run our installer to get everything set up!

We've also broken out some handy pins including I2C and SPI, on the back of Inky wHAT, letting you connect additional devices like our breakouts and allowing you to show their data right on the display.

Inky wHAT work with any 40-pin version of the Pi, including Pi Zero and Pi Zero W.

Software

Our Python library takes the stress out of displaying text and images on Inky wHAT, and we've put together a few examples to show off Inky wHAT's capabilities. 

Notes

  • The Inky wHAT display is made from glass so it's pretty fragile. Be careful not to drop it or press too hard on it, or it will crack. When fitting the wHAT, grip at the edges of the board rather than pressing on top.
  • Overall dimensions: 91x77x8.5mm (WxHxD, depth includes header and display)
  • Display usable area dimensions: 84.8x63.6mm (WxH), 4.2" diagonal

Revision History

  • We started shipping the snazzy four colour version of Inky wHAT in August 2025. Our library should autodetect the right drivers for your screen from the information that's stored in the board's EEPROM, but if you're using third party software you might run into issues if you have one of these newer boards.