Espresso Book Machine

The Espresso Book Machine (EBM), shown here on display at the London Book Fair, has been billed as the most revolutionary development in books for half a century. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

A reader flicks through a title freshly re-printed from the EBM Photograph: David Parry/PA

As well as printing 105 pages per minute, the EBM also binds books in full-colour covers while customers wait Photograph: David Parry/PA

More than 400,000 books are currently available on the EBM, and more than 1m titles are expected to be available by the end of this month Photograph: David Parry/PA

Blackwell chief executive Andrew Hutchings said of the EBM: "It's giving the chance for smaller locations, independent booksellers, to have the opportunity to truly compete with big stock-holding shops and Amazon" Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

EBMs have already been established in the US, Canada and Australia, and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, but the machine at Blackwell's flagship London branch is the first to be set up in a UK bookstore Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian