11 ms·

Calibre – E-Book Management

340 points by soarfourmore 5y ago

muhammadusman 5y ago
I've been using Calibre for years to manage my ebooks, convert them, and sync them. This is one of those pieces of software that just works.
purplecats 5y ago
I use Calibre to manage my Kindle pdfs and books. It is one of the oldest pieces of software I use, and it works really well.
- brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
  Just a nit/aside: I'm sure the OS you are using has much older software built in. Iif on Windows, imagine the legacy that's stuck there for backwards compatibility. If on Linux, most of that is really old, updated recently perhaps, but created a long time ago. macOS is similar to Linux, though arguably worse as they dont update software that changed from gpl2 to gpl3, iirc. There's a lot of really old software you probably use anytime you are on a computer. can't forget all of that! as an avid calibre user myself, yay there are dozens of us! :)
  - jhgb 5y ago
    Does anything trump GNU Maxima at this point?
michaelmcdonald 5y ago
Obligatory link to the terminal emulator that Kovid also created / maintains that is super nice: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/
- LibertyBeta 5y ago
  Wait, I didn't know they where the same person. Neat.
johnchristopher 5y ago
Calibre's interface isn't to my liking but since they added the possibility to manage collections/bookshelves ~two years ago for my almost ten year old kobo I love it a lot ^^. Managing collections/bookshelves on the Kobo is a major PITA.
- wlesieutre 5y ago
  Added support for Kobo's "series" organization feature as well. Apparently requires some janky 2-stage process because it's not done with the book's built-in metadata; you have to sync the books to the Kobo, then sync again for it to poke the special series sauce after the files are on the device. Seems like a needlessly complicated way to do it when the books have series metadata, so props to Calibre for the extra work to support that!
- gnull 5y ago
  Agreed, I'm very happy with their Kobo support. A great discovery for me was that Calibre can convert to KEPUB (subset of EPUB tailored for Kobo readers).
- La1n 5y ago
  Check out koreader for Kobo devices. I've been using it for a quite some time and it adds some nice Calibre features such as wireless sync. Besides that the PDF support is leaps ahead of stock Kobo https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader
lobstrosity420 5y ago
Calibre just works and is great, but the user interface needs some work to modernize how it looks and to be less confusing in general. I'd love a fork that follows the Gnome Human Interface guidelines.
- curiouser2 5y ago
  Yeah it's wild how the use case for 90% of users is "convert epub/mobi/whatever to azw3 and upload to kindle" and doing that is buried in several right click context menus... I'm comfortable doing it now but it seems as easy as having a left pane for books in my "library" and right pane for books on my device
  - tucosan 5y ago
    If you just want to convert books and then copy them to your device I suggest you have a look at the command line tools installed alongside calibre. `ebook-convert` does exactly that. https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/de/generated/de/ebook-convert.html https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/de/generated/de/ebook-conve...
    - hackerbrother 5y ago
      Yup! ebook-convert mybook.epub mybook.mobi
  - skeletonjelly 5y ago
    Haven't used it in a little bit, but from memory most of my flow for this was drag and drop. Drag the source onto Calibre, then drag that to the Kindle logo up top.
- Elora 5y ago
  I'm afraid that attempts to change it will ruin it, like many other things. Calibre just works and once you've learned how to use it, it's great that it doesn't change on you for no particular reason. I personally wish it remain unchanged.
- 5y ago
dsr_ 5y ago
Invaluable for the command-line tool ebook-convert; I rarely use any other part of it.
- fireattack 5y ago
  Similarly, I primarily use calibre-debug CLI to extract resources from ebook.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
metalliqaz 5y ago
it seems like every time I open Calibre it wants to autoupdate.
- curiouser2 5y ago
  nah it's worse, prompts for a manual download and update.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
thrower123 5y ago
The one thing I really don't like about Calibre is how it will copy all of my ebooks into its own file organization. There is probably a way to disable this, but that is the default. Kind of irritating when you have Calibre in a cloud-storage folder and your books are also in the cloud storage, and it uses up your space with duplicates.
- jpindar 5y ago
  Once I put a book into Calibre, and make sure the metadata is correct, I delete the original. If there's any important info in the original filename I put it in the metadata. Is there a reason I need to save the originals?
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  "There is probably a way to disable this" No, there is not, and never will be: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html#why-doesn-t-calibre-let-me-store-books-in-my-own-folder-structure https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html#why-doesn-t-calibr... Calibre's library is meant to be the place where you store your books. I'm curious why you want to store a second copy outside Calibre. Is it because: 1. Calibre doesn't allow you to find books the way you want? (e.g. tagging doesn't have the all metadata you want) 2. You have other software (e.g. ebook reader software) that needs to read ebook files, and it's impossible/inconvenient to use Calibre's OPDS server for that purpose? 3. Some other reason?
  - thrower123 5y ago
    I've already got them organized. At this point some of these PDFs and CHM and LIT files could get drafted, they're so old.
    - dsr_ 5y ago
      Same reason here: by the time Calibre was moderately usable, I had a thousand plus ebooks and an organizing system.
  - TomatoDash 5y ago
mattkevan 5y ago
Calibre is great. There’s a real lack of good quality ebook software and Calibre is an essential do-everything toolkit. The interface, however, is like some incredible piece of outsider art, gloriously free of best practice, convention or accepted wisdom. As a UX designer it gave me some trouble at first, but now I’ve genuinely come to appreciate it. There’s no way the interface could be ‘improved’ by conventional standards of aesthetics or usability without losing the thing that makes it special in the first place.
- webwielder2 5y ago
  This is how I feel about the Libby app for iPhone. What is it with book apps? https://twitter.com/bendansby/status/1334717731925417986?s=20 https://twitter.com/bendansby/status/1334717731925417986?s=2...
  - stinkytaco 5y ago
    I'm genuinely curious to hear any specific changes you might make. I'm a librarian and I can say that Libby was a huge improvement in usability over the Overdrive app and we spend much less time on basic user support now. There are weird quirks for me as well, but I'm always hard pressed to say exactly what I would change.
    - philips 5y ago
      It is a huge improvement over the low bar set by Overdrive. I use Libby everyday with my children and I think my three complaints are: 1. Filtering and categorization can be confusing: I have a difficult time finding books that are age appropriate for my daughter and available. I end up memorizing favorite authors as that is easier than the filtering. 2. The four buttons at the bottom are… interesting? The “library card” button the second from the left does… what exactly? I have never really understood the purpose of that button or why it is shaped like a card. 3. Figuring out how to exit a children’s book that is read “within” the libby app is inconsistent. I can never figure out how to reliably call up the UX to exit or change books.
synergy20 5y ago
Essential OSS for me, I wish the new update can be more user friendly though, something like "downloading at the backend and prompt you to update when you feel like it"
VonGuard 5y ago
Calibre is great, but if you just want to throw a directory at an ebook server and be done, Ubooquity is GREAT! https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/ https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/
- pmlnr 5y ago
  > Ubooquity server requires Java 8 (Oracle version). That is rather limiting in 2021.
  - jamiek88 5y ago
    Yeah and Mac OS will bitch about Java 8 as well.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    It's perfectly happy to use OpenJDK 11.
- stinkytaco 5y ago
  I prefer calibre-web[1] and it is under active development. [1]:https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web
  - rrdharan 5y ago
    Seconding calibre-web; I rarely interact with calibre itself anymore since calibre-web handles the bulk of the tasks I’m trying to accomplish.
david_allison 5y ago
Kovid only makes $1,800/m from/for development.[0] More people should support him; Calibre has been extremely high quality for years. https://www.patreon.com/kovidgoyal https://www.patreon.com/kovidgoyal
- witherk 5y ago
  Is he the sole creator? That is a sadly small sum for this work.
  - stinkytaco 5y ago
    I think there are other contributors, but he rubs lots of people the wrong way, so probably not as many as there could be.
- fencepost 5y ago
  Seems to me that he might do better if he put in a few tiers of "You get absolutely nothing extra for this except the thanks of Kovid and the Calibre community for supporting ongoing development." Right now all support is custom donations.
- femiagbabiaka 5y ago
  Great reminder. Done. I wonder how much extra income he will get just because you thought to mention it.
  - david_allison 5y ago
    ~$57/m: well worth the time to make the comment
- barbazoo 5y ago
  What an unfortunate name these days
  - nchallak 5y ago
    Kovid (pronounced with a soft d sound as 'th' in the) means an "expert in his domain".
AdmiralAsshat 5y ago
Calibre is one of those rare examples of software where the kitchen-sink approach is absolutely warranted. It's a one-stop shop for pretty much everything related to e-book management, conversion, or creation. I spend most of my time in Calibre just managing my library or converting ebooks between formats (particularly if I'm pulling ebooks off my Kindle or Kobo to strip their DRM). When I want to test whether the conversion was successful, the built-in ebook viewer is there. It's not great, and I wouldn't use it over some dedicated programs to read an entire book, but it gets the job done. Then there's that rare occasion in which I might actually need to edit an ebook, because the ToC is broken or I spotted an annoying typo that I feel compelled to fix. And for that, the e-book editor tool is more than capable. Again, maybe it's not ideal (I've never tried producing an e-book start-to-finish through it), but for some quick edits, it just works. There's alot to be said for UNIX philosophy and fighting bloat, but sometimes having everything you could conceivably need for a given purpose in one well-maintained program is comforting.
- Barrin92 5y ago
  >one of those rare examples of software where the kitchen-sink approach is absolutely warranted I actually like this approach in general and I often wonder why there's so much animosity towards it. There's something about platform-like software like Calibre, or Emacs or WeChat where it becomes more than the sum of its parts that you just don't get with just a collection of disjointed, individual tools.
  - tomc1985 5y ago
    It's because it doesn't fit into the modern zeitgeist of extreme testability and pandering to computer illiterates Every time this kind of UI comes up in discussion, I feel like there is always someone groaning about how much extra effort and cost is involved with giving the user too many options. In fact, you could say that modern software seeks to eliminate all noncritical optionality. Combine this with gobs of pointless whitespace, an inexplicable need to humanize pretty much everything, and smother the user in unnecessary feelgood emotions... And then people wonder why modern apps suck so much...
wing-_-nuts 5y ago
The only thing I have against calibre is that the scroll speed on books is really fast. It's easy to flick 20 pages forward or backward on accident. Makes me miss smooth scroll on other interfaces.
- harshreality 5y ago
  Customizing it doesn't help? Right-click on the book text, select Preferences, select Scrolling Behavior
IThoughtYouGNU 5y ago
Great piece of software.
yazantapuz 5y ago
I love Calibre, and I love its user interface. Maybe a little arcane, but free of modern ux nonsense.
timwaagh 5y ago
Nice if you're into downloading ebooks illegally or from the few sites that don't do ERP. I used to use it too. However since graduating college and starting to make money I didn't download anything anymore due to lack of time more than lack of funds so I don't use it anymore.
- badsectoracula 5y ago
  This implies that the only use for Calibre has to do with illegally downloaded ebooks... and i'm not sure how that has anything to do with it though. Personally the only times i have used Calibre is the opposite of that: i used it with books i bought on Amazon to remove the DRM and convert them to epub so that i can read them on my mobile phone using my favorite ebook reader app (and also keep my own offline copies of course).
  - barbazoo 5y ago
    If you wanted to remove Amazon from the equation, I recommend Kobo. Prices are similar and you can remove the DRM quite easily.
    - badsectoracula 5y ago
      Thanks, i'll keep it in mind in the future.
  - timwaagh 5y ago
    I literally stated 'or the few sites that don't do ERP'. Of course calibre does have legal use cases. Playing with (I think) O'Reilly ebooks and project Gutenberg being some of them. I did not mean to imply it has no legal use. However stripping DRM and converting is not one of them. It's a form of copyright infringement as well, depending on where you are. I'm not sure how 'calibre has nothing to do with illegal copying' is very credible at this point.
    - badsectoracula 5y ago
      > I literally stated 'or the few sites that don't do ERP'. Of course calibre does have legal use cases. Playing with (I think) O'Reilly ebooks and project Gutenberg being some of them. The only acronym i've heard for ERP is "Enterprise resource planning" so i'm not sure how that was relevant... and still am not because even searching in Google about what the acronym means all i get is definitions and explanations for "Enterprise resource planning". > However stripping DRM and converting is not one of them. It's a form of copyright infringement as well, depending on where you are. It isn't illegal where i am (and FWIW i do not even see it as unethical at all, if anything i consider DRM more unethical) but that is moot since what you originally wrote was "downloading ebooks illegally" which is what i responded about.
minsc__and__boo 5y ago
Does anyone know of any good ebook platforms that compete with Amazon? Getting really sick of the Goodreads/Amazon interfaces and lack of quality recommendations.
- cogburnd02 5y ago
  Uh, LibGen?
- specktr 5y ago
  I’ve purchased a book from Kobo before. It used the epub DRM compatible with adobe digital editions. At the time (afaik) they didn’t have a way to load it on a kindle without breaking the drm, converting it to mobi and doing a manual transfer. These days I stick with my public library (which uses overdrive and in my opinion is fantastic) or amazon in the event they don’t own ebook licenses.
  - barbazoo 5y ago
    That's my flow actually. I look up books on Goodreads or Amazon but buy them from Kobo. There are the additional steps of downloading, removing the DRM and uploading it to my Kindle but I think it's worth it.
imwillofficial 5y ago
I just wish it wasn’t so ugly and felt like 1990s software.
- barbazoo 5y ago
  It is, isn't it. Many people find the UI charming, the top post actually put that into words nicely.
asoneth 5y ago
Calibre is great once you get the hang of the interface. The one thing I haven't yet figured out is how to stop it from butchering Kobo (kepub) ebooks downloaded from Standard Ebooks: "Important: Don’t use Calibre to transfer the kepub file! Calibre will apply its own conversion on top of our own conversion, making for strange results" from https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks
- Shorel 5y ago
  Your comment is interesting and relevant. I always used Calibre to convert normal epub files to kepub format, to be able to zoom images and other things that the Kobo doesn't do with epubs. I didn't know I could also get kepub files from somewhere else.
  - asoneth 5y ago
    Thanks, I've found the Standard Ebooks (both kepubs and epubs) quite good and would recommend them if you're looking for something in the public domain. The downside is that their kepubs did not play well with Calibre. By default Calibre didn't recognize Standard Ebook kepub files as anything other than a regular epub which caused it to reformat it (poorly) when sending to a Kobo eReader. It also prevented me from storing both the kepub and epub versions in my library. There may be a better way but the workaround I use for now is to rename the kepub book files from .kepub.epub to .kepub which the Kobo eReader handles equally well. The downsides are that I have to remember to explicitly send the kepub format when I'm sending to a Kobo and I occasionally get notifications that there are duplicate book files in my library.
umvi 5y ago
Calibre has a great CLI too for automating ebook generation
AcidBurn 5y ago
I recently started self hosting calibre-web[0] which consumes a calibre database and provides a basic web interface for viewing and uploading books to it. The killer feature for me is that it can act as a Kobo sync server. It makes getting my entire library onto my e-reader a breeze. 0: https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web
- xiconfjs 5y ago
  I'm using this for my 80k+ documentation library and couldn't be happier - so easy to share your library with other users. Kudos for your project.
- xconverge 5y ago
  It does also allow for conversion of EPUB -> MOBI without using the calibre standalone application. calibre-web is now my primary interface to my existing calibre database file. I keep calibre ready/installed but haven't needed it in over a year
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
  Ditto. I did the same for my partner for his Lego instruction booklet collection. He have over 150 sets and managing all of his Lego booklet (through Lego official app) and the official Lego website don't have every single booklet. And those PDFs are rather large file (averaging 40+MB, some are 100MB, a few is 200MB). It wasn't feasible to keep it all in his iPad due to the storage space. So I used my desktop to handles that for him. The best thing about calibre-web, it allows him to upload the PDF and edit the metadata directly in his iPad's Safari than depending on me to put it up for him (I don't mind doing for him, just that I have terrible time management.) For him, he don't have to do manual management and it is in one place. Right now, I am trying to set up a scrapping the metadata from few sites in calibre (Import List plugin). Because LibraryThing, WorldCatalog and Amazon are usually scrapping for books. The thing is I don't know how to do XPath expression even I tried to read the guide. I couldn't understand how the hell it work. I can understand LaTeX, Homebrew, Chocolatey, Bash, CSS documentation just fine, but XPath I am just dumbfounded.
Pasorrijer 5y ago
My favourite eReader for android is and always will be AlReader. Some dudes pet project but it is glorious and wonderful.
- mcrittenden 5y ago
  Just curious, what do you like about it over other ebook readers? I've been using Moon+ heavily for years and it's fine but I'm interested in trying some others out.
  - Pasorrijer 5y ago
    Simplicity. It just works. It's just an eReader. No fancy app, no ads, just an eReader. That's why I like it.
- Shorel 5y ago
  I am always looking for that 'perfect' eReader in Android. Still have not found it. So I will install AlReader for sure.
figbert 5y ago
I use Calibre to manage my ebook library. I share it across devices (and with a couple friends) using Syncthing[1], and read the books using KOReader[2] on a Kindle. I get my books either from Z-Library or by ripping the DRM off of books purchased from Amazon. Genuinely the best reading setup. [1]: https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ [2]: https://koreader.rocks/ https://koreader.rocks/
- barbazoo 5y ago
  What made you use KOReader? I've always synced between my Calibre library and my Kindle directly and that works great.
  - figbert 5y ago
    By default, Kindle is a closed box. I love it, but the ads and tracking ruin a beautiful product. KOReader gives me a great experience, sans the privacy violations, and with an incredible amount of additional control over the device. I love it.
steelframe 5y ago
I've used Calibre extensively for stripping DRM and converting formats for my various e-readers. Note that it does glitch sometimes in strange and assorted ways. For example, when it converted the book Futu.re, it replaced all instances of "ft" with a blank space. While reading the book my brain has been interpolating over words to "fill in" the "ft" -- for example, when I read "a er" I know the word really is "after." I don't understand all the ins-and-outs of e-book conversion, but I figure it might have something to do with the font processing. Aside from these occasional glitches, I am a very happy Calibre user.
- ink_13 5y ago
  It's likely that "ft" was a ligature in the original which didn't survive the conversion (for example, if the destination font doesn't have the character ﬅ). Sounds like a bug, though.
- Cyberdog 5y ago
  "ft" is a common ligature. When characters are often used together, fonts are often designed with those characters grouped together as their own character so they can be given certain design flair such as having the "branches" of the "f" and "t" as one continuous horizontal line. Aside from "ft," "ll" (ell ell) also often gets this treatment and others I can't recall off the top of my head. Text rendering engines will then substitute the composite character with the ligature if the ligature exists in the font being used for display. So what might have been happening is that the text engine thought that an "ft" ligature existed for the font it was using to show your book and was trying to show it, but in fact it didn't exist. But who knows at the end of the day. More information about ligatures can be found on the Internet.
  - steelframe 5y ago
    Again, Hacker News delivers. Thank you for identifying this as a ligature issue. Maybe I'll be able to figure this out with some deeper poking around Calibre's legendary UI.
aj7 5y ago
I'm too old to be bothered by a UI that doesn't work. I get by with Apple Books.
lostlogin 5y ago
For anyone that hasn’t taken the Docker route for installing it, I recommend it. It’s been rock solid sitting on a Synology. As always, Linux Server. https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre
copycatchiller 5y ago
Calibre is my favourite product - been using it for more than a decade now. So happy to see it top the front page here.
tpmx 5y ago
So few tweaks would be needed to make Calibre actually user-friendly to the average consumer. Instead people here are falling over themselves in declaring their love for a weirdo UI. Just because it's unusual?
- ycombinete 5y ago
  This makes me think of Dwarf Fortress. Weird menu system, that becomes endearing very quickly. Emacs too, now that I think of it. I love all three though.
- havernator 5y ago
  They like real buttons, lacking flat nonsense, and densely-presented functionality. I do too, so I get the impulse to resist calls for change, but agree with you that a light-touch reorganization of some of the buttons & menus, and some filing-off of wholly-unhelpful behavioral rough edges would go a long way. It’s one of those pieces of software I’m constantly nervous using, because I’ve seen it do weird, destructive things for no other reason than some piece of the UI is “quirky”.
  - tpmx 5y ago
    Well, Blender managed to pull it off and "everyone" loved that change. They have 24 salaried employees, though.
marek22 5y ago
Hey, Senegal is considered to be a developing nation. The developmental stage of a nation is determined by a number of factors including, but not limited to, economic prosperity, life expectancy, income equality, and quality of life. As a developing nation, Senegal may not be able to offer consistent social services to its citizens. http://www.confiduss.com/en/jurisdictions/senegal/economy/ http://www.confiduss.com/en/jurisdictions/senegal/economy/
- enjoyyourlife 5y ago
  Is this a bot?
dang 5y ago
This counts as a dupe because the most recent discussion was less than a year ago. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. Calibre 5.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24586455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24586455 - Sept 2020 (267 comments) Calibre 4.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21156482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21156482 - Oct 2019 (302 comments) The Calibre Content Server - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14568146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14568146 - June 2017 (140 comments) Announcing Calibre 2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8212885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8212885 - Aug 2014 (98 comments) Calibre version 1.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271090 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271090 - Aug 2013 (121 comments) Calibre and Project Gutenberg: Liberate Your eReader. - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3750807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3750807 - March 2012 (18 comments)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
matthewfelgate 5y ago
I use Calibre all the time to put ebooks onto my Kindle. Ok so the interface looks like it was made in the 90s. But I don't know where I'd be without Calibre. I have no idea what the other 100s of buttons do in Calibre.
avinassh 5y ago
What are the alternatives to Calibre?

340 points by soarfourmore 5y ago

I've been using Calibre for years to manage my ebooks, convert them, and sync them. This is one of those pieces of software that just works.

purplecats 5y ago

I use Calibre to manage my Kindle pdfs and books. It is one of the oldest pieces of software I use, and it works really well.

brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
Just a nit/aside: I'm sure the OS you are using has much older software built in. Iif on Windows, imagine the legacy that's stuck there for backwards compatibility. If on Linux, most of that is really old, updated recently perhaps, but created a long time ago. macOS is similar to Linux, though arguably worse as they dont update software that changed from gpl2 to gpl3, iirc. There's a lot of really old software you probably use anytime you are on a computer. can't forget all of that! as an avid calibre user myself, yay there are dozens of us! :)
- jhgb 5y ago
  Does anything trump GNU Maxima at this point?

michaelmcdonald 5y ago

Obligatory link to the terminal emulator that Kovid also created / maintains that is super nice: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

LibertyBeta 5y ago
Wait, I didn't know they where the same person. Neat.

johnchristopher 5y ago

Calibre's interface isn't to my liking but since they added the possibility to manage collections/bookshelves ~two years ago for my almost ten year old kobo I love it a lot ^^. Managing collections/bookshelves on the Kobo is a major PITA.

wlesieutre 5y ago
Added support for Kobo's "series" organization feature as well. Apparently requires some janky 2-stage process because it's not done with the book's built-in metadata; you have to sync the books to the Kobo, then sync again for it to poke the special series sauce after the files are on the device. Seems like a needlessly complicated way to do it when the books have series metadata, so props to Calibre for the extra work to support that!
gnull 5y ago
Agreed, I'm very happy with their Kobo support. A great discovery for me was that Calibre can convert to KEPUB (subset of EPUB tailored for Kobo readers).
La1n 5y ago
Check out koreader for Kobo devices. I've been using it for a quite some time and it adds some nice Calibre features such as wireless sync. Besides that the PDF support is leaps ahead of stock Kobo https://github.com/koreader/koreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader

lobstrosity420 5y ago

Calibre just works and is great, but the user interface needs some work to modernize how it looks and to be less confusing in general. I'd love a fork that follows the Gnome Human Interface guidelines.

curiouser2 5y ago
Yeah it's wild how the use case for 90% of users is "convert epub/mobi/whatever to azw3 and upload to kindle" and doing that is buried in several right click context menus... I'm comfortable doing it now but it seems as easy as having a left pane for books in my "library" and right pane for books on my device
- tucosan 5y ago
  If you just want to convert books and then copy them to your device I suggest you have a look at the command line tools installed alongside calibre. `ebook-convert` does exactly that. https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/de/generated/de/ebook-convert.html https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/de/generated/de/ebook-conve...
  - hackerbrother 5y ago
    Yup! ebook-convert mybook.epub mybook.mobi
- skeletonjelly 5y ago
  Haven't used it in a little bit, but from memory most of my flow for this was drag and drop. Drag the source onto Calibre, then drag that to the Kindle logo up top.
Elora 5y ago
I'm afraid that attempts to change it will ruin it, like many other things. Calibre just works and once you've learned how to use it, it's great that it doesn't change on you for no particular reason. I personally wish it remain unchanged.
5y ago

dsr_ 5y ago

Invaluable for the command-line tool ebook-convert; I rarely use any other part of it.

fireattack 5y ago
Similarly, I primarily use calibre-debug CLI to extract resources from ebook.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

metalliqaz 5y ago

it seems like every time I open Calibre it wants to autoupdate.

curiouser2 5y ago
nah it's worse, prompts for a manual download and update.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

thrower123 5y ago

The one thing I really don't like about Calibre is how it will copy all of my ebooks into its own file organization. There is probably a way to disable this, but that is the default. Kind of irritating when you have Calibre in a cloud-storage folder and your books are also in the cloud storage, and it uses up your space with duplicates.

jpindar 5y ago
Once I put a book into Calibre, and make sure the metadata is correct, I delete the original. If there's any important info in the original filename I put it in the metadata. Is there a reason I need to save the originals?
rahimnathwani 5y ago
"There is probably a way to disable this" No, there is not, and never will be: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html#why-doesn-t-calibre-let-me-store-books-in-my-own-folder-structure https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq.html#why-doesn-t-calibr... Calibre's library is meant to be the place where you store your books. I'm curious why you want to store a second copy outside Calibre. Is it because: 1. Calibre doesn't allow you to find books the way you want? (e.g. tagging doesn't have the all metadata you want) 2. You have other software (e.g. ebook reader software) that needs to read ebook files, and it's impossible/inconvenient to use Calibre's OPDS server for that purpose? 3. Some other reason?
- thrower123 5y ago
  I've already got them organized. At this point some of these PDFs and CHM and LIT files could get drafted, they're so old.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    Same reason here: by the time Calibre was moderately usable, I had a thousand plus ebooks and an organizing system.
- TomatoDash 5y ago

mattkevan 5y ago

Calibre is great. There’s a real lack of good quality ebook software and Calibre is an essential do-everything toolkit. The interface, however, is like some incredible piece of outsider art, gloriously free of best practice, convention or accepted wisdom. As a UX designer it gave me some trouble at first, but now I’ve genuinely come to appreciate it. There’s no way the interface could be ‘improved’ by conventional standards of aesthetics or usability without losing the thing that makes it special in the first place.

webwielder2 5y ago
This is how I feel about the Libby app for iPhone. What is it with book apps? https://twitter.com/bendansby/status/1334717731925417986?s=20 https://twitter.com/bendansby/status/1334717731925417986?s=2...
- stinkytaco 5y ago
  I'm genuinely curious to hear any specific changes you might make. I'm a librarian and I can say that Libby was a huge improvement in usability over the Overdrive app and we spend much less time on basic user support now. There are weird quirks for me as well, but I'm always hard pressed to say exactly what I would change.
  - philips 5y ago
    It is a huge improvement over the low bar set by Overdrive. I use Libby everyday with my children and I think my three complaints are: 1. Filtering and categorization can be confusing: I have a difficult time finding books that are age appropriate for my daughter and available. I end up memorizing favorite authors as that is easier than the filtering. 2. The four buttons at the bottom are… interesting? The “library card” button the second from the left does… what exactly? I have never really understood the purpose of that button or why it is shaped like a card. 3. Figuring out how to exit a children’s book that is read “within” the libby app is inconsistent. I can never figure out how to reliably call up the UX to exit or change books.

synergy20 5y ago

Essential OSS for me, I wish the new update can be more user friendly though, something like "downloading at the backend and prompt you to update when you feel like it"

VonGuard 5y ago

Calibre is great, but if you just want to throw a directory at an ebook server and be done, Ubooquity is GREAT! https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/ https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/

pmlnr 5y ago
> Ubooquity server requires Java 8 (Oracle version). That is rather limiting in 2021.
- jamiek88 5y ago
  Yeah and Mac OS will bitch about Java 8 as well.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  It's perfectly happy to use OpenJDK 11.
stinkytaco 5y ago
I prefer calibre-web[1] and it is under active development. [1]:https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web
- rrdharan 5y ago
  Seconding calibre-web; I rarely interact with calibre itself anymore since calibre-web handles the bulk of the tasks I’m trying to accomplish.

david_allison 5y ago

Kovid only makes $1,800/m from/for development.[0] More people should support him; Calibre has been extremely high quality for years. https://www.patreon.com/kovidgoyal https://www.patreon.com/kovidgoyal

witherk 5y ago
Is he the sole creator? That is a sadly small sum for this work.
- stinkytaco 5y ago
  I think there are other contributors, but he rubs lots of people the wrong way, so probably not as many as there could be.
fencepost 5y ago
Seems to me that he might do better if he put in a few tiers of "You get absolutely nothing extra for this except the thanks of Kovid and the Calibre community for supporting ongoing development." Right now all support is custom donations.
femiagbabiaka 5y ago
Great reminder. Done. I wonder how much extra income he will get just because you thought to mention it.
- david_allison 5y ago
  ~$57/m: well worth the time to make the comment
barbazoo 5y ago
What an unfortunate name these days
- nchallak 5y ago
  Kovid (pronounced with a soft d sound as 'th' in the) means an "expert in his domain".

AdmiralAsshat 5y ago

Calibre is one of those rare examples of software where the kitchen-sink approach is absolutely warranted. It's a one-stop shop for pretty much everything related to e-book management, conversion, or creation. I spend most of my time in Calibre just managing my library or converting ebooks between formats (particularly if I'm pulling ebooks off my Kindle or Kobo to strip their DRM). When I want to test whether the conversion was successful, the built-in ebook viewer is there. It's not great, and I wouldn't use it over some dedicated programs to read an entire book, but it gets the job done. Then there's that rare occasion in which I might actually need to edit an ebook, because the ToC is broken or I spotted an annoying typo that I feel compelled to fix. And for that, the e-book editor tool is more than capable. Again, maybe it's not ideal (I've never tried producing an e-book start-to-finish through it), but for some quick edits, it just works. There's alot to be said for UNIX philosophy and fighting bloat, but sometimes having everything you could conceivably need for a given purpose in one well-maintained program is comforting.

Barrin92 5y ago
>one of those rare examples of software where the kitchen-sink approach is absolutely warranted I actually like this approach in general and I often wonder why there's so much animosity towards it. There's something about platform-like software like Calibre, or Emacs or WeChat where it becomes more than the sum of its parts that you just don't get with just a collection of disjointed, individual tools.
- tomc1985 5y ago
  It's because it doesn't fit into the modern zeitgeist of extreme testability and pandering to computer illiterates Every time this kind of UI comes up in discussion, I feel like there is always someone groaning about how much extra effort and cost is involved with giving the user too many options. In fact, you could say that modern software seeks to eliminate all noncritical optionality. Combine this with gobs of pointless whitespace, an inexplicable need to humanize pretty much everything, and smother the user in unnecessary feelgood emotions... And then people wonder why modern apps suck so much...

wing-_-nuts 5y ago

The only thing I have against calibre is that the scroll speed on books is really fast. It's easy to flick 20 pages forward or backward on accident. Makes me miss smooth scroll on other interfaces.

harshreality 5y ago
Customizing it doesn't help? Right-click on the book text, select Preferences, select Scrolling Behavior

IThoughtYouGNU 5y ago

Great piece of software.

yazantapuz 5y ago

I love Calibre, and I love its user interface. Maybe a little arcane, but free of modern ux nonsense.

timwaagh 5y ago

Nice if you're into downloading ebooks illegally or from the few sites that don't do ERP. I used to use it too. However since graduating college and starting to make money I didn't download anything anymore due to lack of time more than lack of funds so I don't use it anymore.

badsectoracula 5y ago
This implies that the only use for Calibre has to do with illegally downloaded ebooks... and i'm not sure how that has anything to do with it though. Personally the only times i have used Calibre is the opposite of that: i used it with books i bought on Amazon to remove the DRM and convert them to epub so that i can read them on my mobile phone using my favorite ebook reader app (and also keep my own offline copies of course).
- barbazoo 5y ago
  If you wanted to remove Amazon from the equation, I recommend Kobo. Prices are similar and you can remove the DRM quite easily.
  - badsectoracula 5y ago
    Thanks, i'll keep it in mind in the future.
- timwaagh 5y ago
  I literally stated 'or the few sites that don't do ERP'. Of course calibre does have legal use cases. Playing with (I think) O'Reilly ebooks and project Gutenberg being some of them. I did not mean to imply it has no legal use. However stripping DRM and converting is not one of them. It's a form of copyright infringement as well, depending on where you are. I'm not sure how 'calibre has nothing to do with illegal copying' is very credible at this point.
  - badsectoracula 5y ago
    > I literally stated 'or the few sites that don't do ERP'. Of course calibre does have legal use cases. Playing with (I think) O'Reilly ebooks and project Gutenberg being some of them. The only acronym i've heard for ERP is "Enterprise resource planning" so i'm not sure how that was relevant... and still am not because even searching in Google about what the acronym means all i get is definitions and explanations for "Enterprise resource planning". > However stripping DRM and converting is not one of them. It's a form of copyright infringement as well, depending on where you are. It isn't illegal where i am (and FWIW i do not even see it as unethical at all, if anything i consider DRM more unethical) but that is moot since what you originally wrote was "downloading ebooks illegally" which is what i responded about.

minsc__and__boo 5y ago

Does anyone know of any good ebook platforms that compete with Amazon? Getting really sick of the Goodreads/Amazon interfaces and lack of quality recommendations.

cogburnd02 5y ago
Uh, LibGen?
specktr 5y ago
I’ve purchased a book from Kobo before. It used the epub DRM compatible with adobe digital editions. At the time (afaik) they didn’t have a way to load it on a kindle without breaking the drm, converting it to mobi and doing a manual transfer. These days I stick with my public library (which uses overdrive and in my opinion is fantastic) or amazon in the event they don’t own ebook licenses.
- barbazoo 5y ago
  That's my flow actually. I look up books on Goodreads or Amazon but buy them from Kobo. There are the additional steps of downloading, removing the DRM and uploading it to my Kindle but I think it's worth it.

imwillofficial 5y ago

I just wish it wasn’t so ugly and felt like 1990s software.

barbazoo 5y ago
It is, isn't it. Many people find the UI charming, the top post actually put that into words nicely.

asoneth 5y ago

Calibre is great once you get the hang of the interface. The one thing I haven't yet figured out is how to stop it from butchering Kobo (kepub) ebooks downloaded from Standard Ebooks: "Important: Don’t use Calibre to transfer the kepub file! Calibre will apply its own conversion on top of our own conversion, making for strange results" from https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks

Shorel 5y ago
Your comment is interesting and relevant. I always used Calibre to convert normal epub files to kepub format, to be able to zoom images and other things that the Kobo doesn't do with epubs. I didn't know I could also get kepub files from somewhere else.
- asoneth 5y ago
  Thanks, I've found the Standard Ebooks (both kepubs and epubs) quite good and would recommend them if you're looking for something in the public domain. The downside is that their kepubs did not play well with Calibre. By default Calibre didn't recognize Standard Ebook kepub files as anything other than a regular epub which caused it to reformat it (poorly) when sending to a Kobo eReader. It also prevented me from storing both the kepub and epub versions in my library. There may be a better way but the workaround I use for now is to rename the kepub book files from .kepub.epub to .kepub which the Kobo eReader handles equally well. The downsides are that I have to remember to explicitly send the kepub format when I'm sending to a Kobo and I occasionally get notifications that there are duplicate book files in my library.

umvi 5y ago

Calibre has a great CLI too for automating ebook generation

AcidBurn 5y ago

I recently started self hosting calibre-web[0] which consumes a calibre database and provides a basic web interface for viewing and uploading books to it. The killer feature for me is that it can act as a Kobo sync server. It makes getting my entire library onto my e-reader a breeze. 0: https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web

xiconfjs 5y ago
I'm using this for my 80k+ documentation library and couldn't be happier - so easy to share your library with other users. Kudos for your project.
xconverge 5y ago
It does also allow for conversion of EPUB -> MOBI without using the calibre standalone application. calibre-web is now my primary interface to my existing calibre database file. I keep calibre ready/installed but haven't needed it in over a year
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Isthatablackgsd 5y ago
Ditto. I did the same for my partner for his Lego instruction booklet collection. He have over 150 sets and managing all of his Lego booklet (through Lego official app) and the official Lego website don't have every single booklet. And those PDFs are rather large file (averaging 40+MB, some are 100MB, a few is 200MB). It wasn't feasible to keep it all in his iPad due to the storage space. So I used my desktop to handles that for him. The best thing about calibre-web, it allows him to upload the PDF and edit the metadata directly in his iPad's Safari than depending on me to put it up for him (I don't mind doing for him, just that I have terrible time management.) For him, he don't have to do manual management and it is in one place. Right now, I am trying to set up a scrapping the metadata from few sites in calibre (Import List plugin). Because LibraryThing, WorldCatalog and Amazon are usually scrapping for books. The thing is I don't know how to do XPath expression even I tried to read the guide. I couldn't understand how the hell it work. I can understand LaTeX, Homebrew, Chocolatey, Bash, CSS documentation just fine, but XPath I am just dumbfounded.

Pasorrijer 5y ago

My favourite eReader for android is and always will be AlReader. Some dudes pet project but it is glorious and wonderful.

mcrittenden 5y ago
Just curious, what do you like about it over other ebook readers? I've been using Moon+ heavily for years and it's fine but I'm interested in trying some others out.
- Pasorrijer 5y ago
  Simplicity. It just works. It's just an eReader. No fancy app, no ads, just an eReader. That's why I like it.
Shorel 5y ago
I am always looking for that 'perfect' eReader in Android. Still have not found it. So I will install AlReader for sure.

figbert 5y ago

I use Calibre to manage my ebook library. I share it across devices (and with a couple friends) using Syncthing[1], and read the books using KOReader[2] on a Kindle. I get my books either from Z-Library or by ripping the DRM off of books purchased from Amazon. Genuinely the best reading setup. [1]: https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ [2]: https://koreader.rocks/ https://koreader.rocks/

barbazoo 5y ago
What made you use KOReader? I've always synced between my Calibre library and my Kindle directly and that works great.
- figbert 5y ago
  By default, Kindle is a closed box. I love it, but the ads and tracking ruin a beautiful product. KOReader gives me a great experience, sans the privacy violations, and with an incredible amount of additional control over the device. I love it.

steelframe 5y ago

I've used Calibre extensively for stripping DRM and converting formats for my various e-readers. Note that it does glitch sometimes in strange and assorted ways. For example, when it converted the book Futu.re, it replaced all instances of "ft" with a blank space. While reading the book my brain has been interpolating over words to "fill in" the "ft" -- for example, when I read "a er" I know the word really is "after." I don't understand all the ins-and-outs of e-book conversion, but I figure it might have something to do with the font processing. Aside from these occasional glitches, I am a very happy Calibre user.

ink_13 5y ago
It's likely that "ft" was a ligature in the original which didn't survive the conversion (for example, if the destination font doesn't have the character ﬅ). Sounds like a bug, though.
Cyberdog 5y ago
"ft" is a common ligature. When characters are often used together, fonts are often designed with those characters grouped together as their own character so they can be given certain design flair such as having the "branches" of the "f" and "t" as one continuous horizontal line. Aside from "ft," "ll" (ell ell) also often gets this treatment and others I can't recall off the top of my head. Text rendering engines will then substitute the composite character with the ligature if the ligature exists in the font being used for display. So what might have been happening is that the text engine thought that an "ft" ligature existed for the font it was using to show your book and was trying to show it, but in fact it didn't exist. But who knows at the end of the day. More information about ligatures can be found on the Internet.
- steelframe 5y ago
  Again, Hacker News delivers. Thank you for identifying this as a ligature issue. Maybe I'll be able to figure this out with some deeper poking around Calibre's legendary UI.

aj7 5y ago

I'm too old to be bothered by a UI that doesn't work. I get by with Apple Books.

lostlogin 5y ago

For anyone that hasn’t taken the Docker route for installing it, I recommend it. It’s been rock solid sitting on a Synology. As always, Linux Server. https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-calibre

copycatchiller 5y ago

Calibre is my favourite product - been using it for more than a decade now. So happy to see it top the front page here.

tpmx 5y ago

So few tweaks would be needed to make Calibre actually user-friendly to the average consumer. Instead people here are falling over themselves in declaring their love for a weirdo UI. Just because it's unusual?

ycombinete 5y ago
This makes me think of Dwarf Fortress. Weird menu system, that becomes endearing very quickly. Emacs too, now that I think of it. I love all three though.
havernator 5y ago
They like real buttons, lacking flat nonsense, and densely-presented functionality. I do too, so I get the impulse to resist calls for change, but agree with you that a light-touch reorganization of some of the buttons & menus, and some filing-off of wholly-unhelpful behavioral rough edges would go a long way. It’s one of those pieces of software I’m constantly nervous using, because I’ve seen it do weird, destructive things for no other reason than some piece of the UI is “quirky”.
- tpmx 5y ago
  Well, Blender managed to pull it off and "everyone" loved that change. They have 24 salaried employees, though.

marek22 5y ago

Hey, Senegal is considered to be a developing nation. The developmental stage of a nation is determined by a number of factors including, but not limited to, economic prosperity, life expectancy, income equality, and quality of life. As a developing nation, Senegal may not be able to offer consistent social services to its citizens. http://www.confiduss.com/en/jurisdictions/senegal/economy/ http://www.confiduss.com/en/jurisdictions/senegal/economy/

enjoyyourlife 5y ago
Is this a bot?

dang 5y ago

This counts as a dupe because the most recent discussion was less than a year ago. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. Calibre 5.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24586455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24586455 - Sept 2020 (267 comments) Calibre 4.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21156482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21156482 - Oct 2019 (302 comments) The Calibre Content Server - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14568146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14568146 - June 2017 (140 comments) Announcing Calibre 2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8212885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8212885 - Aug 2014 (98 comments) Calibre version 1.0 released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271090 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271090 - Aug 2013 (121 comments) Calibre and Project Gutenberg: Liberate Your eReader. - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3750807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3750807 - March 2012 (18 comments)

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

matthewfelgate 5y ago

I use Calibre all the time to put ebooks onto my Kindle. Ok so the interface looks like it was made in the 90s. But I don't know where I'd be without Calibre. I have no idea what the other 100s of buttons do in Calibre.

avinassh 5y ago

What are the alternatives to Calibre?