FrameOSPimoroni Inky Impression 4.0" (7-colour)
640×400 7-color ACeP e-ink HAT for FrameOS - specs, setup and driver details.
Official Pimoroni store
Official store page for this device.
- Vendor
- Pimoroni
- Model
- Inky Impression 4.0" (7-colour)
- Technology
- E-ink
- Colors
- 7 colors (ACeP)
- Resolution
- 640×400 px
- Size
- 4″ diagonal
- Interface
- SPI HAT
- Platforms
- Raspberry Pi
- Status
- 🟡 Should work
- Buttons
- 4 (usable in scenes)
- FrameOS driver
pimoroni.inky_impression_4_7_color
Part of the FrameOS device database. Spotted an error, or tested this panel? Edit this page on GitHub - it's a markdown file.
The Pimoroni Inky Impression 4.0" (7-colour) is a 4″ e-ink panel with a resolution of 640×400 pixels showing seven ACeP ink colors. ACeP ("Advanced Color ePaper") packs seven real ink colors into every pixel. A full refresh takes around 30 seconds, and the palette is softer than a backlit screen - ideal for photos and generative art with a paper-like look. Pimoroni's boards are the easiest e-ink hardware to start with: panel and driver electronics come as one unit that plugs straight onto the Pi's GPIO header - no soldering, no separate driver board.
The four side buttons are registered automatically and can trigger events in your scenes - switch scenes, cycle images, anything.
How it works
FrameOS ships a native Nim driver
(pimoroni.inky_impression_4_7_color) compiled straight into the binary that runs on your Raspberry Pi - no Python, no
vendor libraries. Each render pass draws your scene into a full-color image,
dithers it to the panel's palette, and pushes the result to the display over SPI.
Setup
- Plug the board onto the Pi's GPIO header.
- Add a frame in the FrameOS backend and select the Pimoroni Inky Impression - 4.0" 7-colour driver.
- Save & deploy. The panel blinks through a refresh cycle and shows your scene.
Status
🟡 Should work, not yet confirmed on real hardware. The driver shares its controller logic with panels that are confirmed working. If you have this display, tell us on GitHub or Discord and we'll mark it confirmed.