Search engine Google plans to offer consumers the chance to download and print classic out-of-copyright novels free of charge. The firm's book search tool will let people print classics such as Dante's Inferno or Aesop's Fables, as well as other books no longer under copyright. Previously people were only allowed to read such books on-screen.

Google's book search service stems from a wider project to put books online in a searchable format, which it is undertaking with major universities including; Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of California, as well as the New York Public Library.

Volunteers working for a project known as Gutenberg have for some years copied out-of-copyright books as text files, which can then be used for printing, reading or piping into a programme for editing.

Google however, is offering the books in a "print-ready" format, as have several other - albeit much smaller and less well-known - firms. Online shopping site Amazon has offered limited online access to the contents of its huge bookstore.

Publishers might not be shaking in their boots as this is to expected from Google with its vast resources and most of their revenue comes from books and other works covered by copyright. It is great news for the consumer though and I look forward to trying the service.