Japanese company Fuji Xerox has demonstrated a photocopier that can translate text into a number of languages while keeping the original formatting of the document.

The prototype photocopier, which has not been named, will be able to translate between Japanese, Chinese, English or Korean, according to a report in The Japan Times. It will also retain the original layout of the source document.

The photocopier has Optical Character Recognition software in addition software that can differentiate between text and drawings and lines, the article states.

'The device, which is currently on show only in Japan, can scan a printed sheet of Japanese text and dispense a translation of it into Chinese, English or Korean. Moreover, it retains the original layout of the source document, whether that be from a newspaper, or a magazine, or the like,' according to the article.

There are translation services already available on the web, such as Babelfish and Google, but the quality of the translation is mixed.