The Espresso Book Machine allows to print a book in minutes. It’s perfect for self-publishing because one can print as many copy as he or she needs. When a book is printed it may be stored in the database so customers from all around the world can buy prints of it. One can also print his own copyright-free Google book, for instance a book which is not printed anymore by the major publishing houses.

In the world there are several Espresso Book Machines. The one in pictures is in the American Book Center of Amsterdam.

This standardized system imposes many limitations on the book as object:

– Format: The book can’t be bigger than (almost) A4.
– Paper: The paper for the cover and for the book’s inside (by now) cannot be chosen.
– Color: (By now) it’s only possible to print in black and white.

The prices are almost equivalent to the general book’s ones.

At this link a good article about the EBM by Donald Cameron.