

Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London - absconditus
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches

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Oompa
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.

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

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

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msluyter
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?

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

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

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sfphotoarts
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'.

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sp332
The novelty is not the device, but the business.

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

video of the thing in action.

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erlanger
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...

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jnorthrop
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.

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

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TweedHeads
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.

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swombat
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.

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

