Methods and systems for writing and erasing electric writeable media are
disclosed. An electric writeable medium may include a backplane
electrode, a display layer including a plurality of elements and a top
layer. The medium may further include a plurality of island electrodes.
To enable writing to the medium, a stylus is charged to a positive
voltage and the backplane electrode is grounded. The stylus is applied to
the top layer and/or the island electrodes to deposit charge, which
causes proximate elements to display a first color. If the top layer is a
resistive layer, grounding the resistive layer and applying a positive
voltage to the backplane electrode sufficient to change the displayed
color of the elements erases the medium. If the top layer is a
photoconductive layer, a light source is further required to enable the
photoconductive layer to operate as an electrode when erasing the medium.