Miriello Grafico

With the struggle increasing between on-line versus on-paper information delivery system, I know where I stand. I’m willing to read short update news off the web or my iPhone, but reading a lengthy book or anything I care to contemplate, from a screen doesn’t cut it. The Espresso System was announced recently at the London Book Show. It offers publishers and bookstore owners and anyone with the cash I guess- a true self contained print-bind-trim on-demand solution for the printing of countless titles, in a choice of languages. (In about three minutes!).

Is this the new shape of the neighborhood bookstore? So much for browsing titles of impulse book buying.

Here’s the story from http://www.boingboing.net/

Library users will have the opportunity to print free copies of such public domain classics as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and “Songs of Innocence” by William Blake, as well as appropriately themed in-copyright titles as Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” and Jason Epstein’s own “Book Business.” The public domain titles were provided by the Open Content Alliance (“OCA”), a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles. The OCA and ODB are working closely to offer this digital content free of charge to libraries across the country. Both organizations have received partial funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The EBM, now available for sale to libraries and retailers, can potentially allow readers anywhere to obtain within minutes, almost any book title in any language, whether or not the book is in print. The EBM’s proprietary software transmits a digital file to the book machine, which automatically prints, binds, and trims the reader’s selection within minutes as a single, library-quality, paperback book, indistinguishable from the factory-made title.