Waveshare 7.3" (F) e-Paper

The Waveshare 7.3" (F) e-Paper is a 7.3″ e-ink panel with a resolution of 800×480 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. Like all e-paper, it keeps the last image with zero power - the frame only wakes up to render.

See the Spectra 6 build video for a side-by-side look at color e-ink generations.

How it works

FrameOS ships a native Nim driver (waveshare.EPD_7in3f) 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

1. Connect the panel to the Raspberry Pi - plug the HAT onto the GPIO header, or hook up the separate driver board with the bundled ribbon cable.
2. Add a frame in the FrameOS backend and select the Waveshare 7.3" (F) 800x480 7 Color driver.
3. Save & deploy. The panel blinks through a refresh cycle and shows your scene.

Make sure the letter suffix on your panel's ribbon cable matches the driver - Waveshare reuses product names across revisions. More tips in the Waveshare buying guide.

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.