Google Offering Print Versions of Online Books

carluva writes "Google is teaming up with On Demand Books to offer paperback versions of its collection of over 2 million public domain books. The books will be able to be printed using ODB's Espresso Book Machine, which is already in use at several book stores and libraries and can print and bind a complete, paperback copy of a 300-page book in less than 5 minutes. Google and ODB each get $1 in royalties per book sold (Google has pledged to donate its proceeds to charities and nonprofit organizations). See also ODB's PDF press release."

Comments

Now *that's* circular

[Gorm the DBA]

So...I can now get a dead tree version of a scanned copy of a dead tree book?

How long before google starts a service to provide scanned copies of these new dead tree versions online and indexed?

Re:Now *that's* circular

[Anonymous Coward]

One old, fragile book just became a dozen, semi-decent copies in the hands of those who actually value that information.

Looks good from where I am sitting.

Re:Public domain!!!

[Brandee07]

There are LOTS of public domain books that are very hard to get a hold of in paper form. No publisher is going to reprint 200 year old books on obscure topics for which there is a market of 20 people. This makes those books accessible to those that need them, without the economies of scale that publishers rely on.

And pending the much-debated acquisition by Google of orphan books, they'll be a lot more obscure out-of-print books seeing life again.

Re:No thanks.

[cthulu_mt]

Given your user name I image your Palm is very important.

Wu-Tang Forever

[swanzilla]

ODB...still getting paid.

Any more resolution in the prints?

[PhantomHarlock]

I wonder if they will have any more resolution than the PDFs you can get from their online service. Some of the books have technical drawings that could use ahout 50 - 75 more DPI. Does anyone know if they were scanned in a higher native resolution than what they present online?

Great!

[Starker_Kull]

This is a wonderful thing. It may make it much easier to publish new, low circulation books as well, since you don't need to reach a critical threshold sales number to make it worth printing. Of course, a 'book' (as in the physical form) may become obsolete over the next few decades as old curmudgeons like me who like reading printed material far more than reading off a screen drop off...

Re:No thanks.

[Red Flayer]

Given your user name, I don't want to imagine anything about you, lest I become a gibbering heap of slag-brained insanity.

Re:No thanks.

[fiannaFailMan]

I can download public domain books to my Palm.

In case you missed it, this is for people who prefer to read from paper over reading from a screen.

I see your Palm and raise you my iPhone. I can download books to that and have a very nifty app for doing so without having to turn pages (the phone's tilt controls the speed of the scroll) but to be honest I'm more inclined to read paper books. There's just something distracting about it being on a screen.