When Steve Mandel, a management trainer from Santa Cruz, California, wants to show his friends why he stays up late to peer through a telescope, he pulls out a copy of his latest book, "Light in the Sky," filled with pictures that he has taken of distant nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.

"I consistently get a very big 'Wow!'" he said. "The printing of my photos was spectacular. I did not really expect them to come out so well."

Mandel put his book together himself with free software from Blurb.com. The 119-page edition is printed on coated paper, bound with a linen fabric hard cover, and then wrapped with a dust jacket. Anyone who wants one can buy it for $37.95, and Blurb will make a copy.

What began as a technology for publishers to reduce their inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound document. Short- run presses can turn out books economically, singly or in small quantities, and new software simplifies the process of designing a professional-looking book.

As the technology becomes simpler, the market is expanding beyond the earliest adopters, the aspiring authors. The first companies, like authorhouse.com, Xlibris.com and others pushed themselves as new models of publishing with an eye on shaking up the dusty book business. They aimed at authors looking for someone who would edit a manuscript, lay out the book and bring it to market.