Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches

by absconditus • 17 years ago

28 15 17 years ago

guardian.co.uk

Oompa• 17 years ago

I wonder what the process is to get it on the machine. If it could just print and bind any pdf, that'd be fantastic. Even more so if you could print your own files.

kentf• 17 years ago

Ya I can imagine that supporting the e-book doctypes would be a huge asset for them.

chaosmachine• 17 years ago

Interesting idea. The last refuge of the anti-kindle crowd.

msluyter• 17 years ago

That was my first thought -- "won't this be obviated by the Kindle (and other e-book readers)?" Perhaps not immediately, but it seems that the markets this serves especially well -- those looking for rare or out of print books, academics, etc... -- are also served by electronic books. I don't own an e-book reader and can understand buying hard copies -- at used book stores, in particular -- but if I did own one, I can't think of many reasons why I would prefer this to an e-book. Perhaps purely aesthetic ones, as in, coffee table books, but how well does this replicate glossy photos?

sfphotoarts• 17 years ago

a laser printer with a built in binder? Is that new? Our office photocopier/printer can do that. I can sent it a pdf print job and it produces bound 'books'.

sp332• 17 years ago

The novelty is not the device, but the business.

erlanger2• 17 years ago

This new style of manufacturing is great, but I wish I were more excited for it. While some books certainly require no presentation, I really like a solid book with a good, unique design and typography.

That being said, I'm very excited to see how it will improve education in the developing world. I see it being used mainly for highly specialized texts (like that one $7,000 book on Amazon), whereas projects like OLPC and devices like the Kindle will provice access to mainstream works and current events. You can't help but feel that paper's going to be gone soon though...

jnorthrop• 17 years ago

I don't see why the machine couldn't/wouldn't store print-ready pages and it looks like it is capable of printing a 4-color cover. You may lose some quality in the actual materials and the book will likely be limited to one size but the fonts, kerning, page margins, etc. can all be controlled by the publisher.

erlanger2• 17 years ago

Profit margins would be slim, and good design would be over the budget often, I think.

zandorg2• 17 years ago

Doesn't say how much it costs to print a book.

bmickler• 17 years ago

The company website says that cost-per-page is $0.01USD (http://www.ondemandbooks.com/hardware.htm). This thing is really cool!

TweedHeads• 17 years ago

Great idea, perhaps too late.

Like adding jets to a zepellin or a turbine to a steam boat.

I haven't touched a book in years, and won't in the foreseeable future.

swombat• 17 years ago

I can understand the feeling, but I'm just the opposite. For me, no place is really home unless it's got lots of books on shelves.

zandorg2• 17 years ago

Don't forget the joys of collecting copies signed by the author!

dschobel• 17 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMFh5axDKWU

video of the thing in action.

Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London

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