Calibre Offers Free, Cross-Platform E-book Management
My new Kindle 2 is on the way, having trekked from Indiana to my home state of Pennsylvania. I was hoping it would arrive today, but it looks like tomorrow is delivery day. That’s OK. I gives me time to look at Calibre, a free e-book library management application pointed out to me by one of our readers last week. Lifehacker already gave it the once over but I want to take a closer look.
The software is cross-platform, working on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It also supports both Kindle devices, the Sony Reader series, Bookeen’s Cybook and the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch when used with Stanza. Using one or more of the supported devices, Calibre helps to manage e-book collections, but it doesn’t stop there. It can be used to read e-books on a computer, which is handy for when you don’t have a mobile e-book device with you or you want to read content on a larger screen.
Calibre doesn’t stop there though. The software also converts e-book content from thirteen formats into EPUB, LRF or MOBI formats as well. I don’t currently have any content that I can convert, but I can see why folks might desire this feature. All of my content is in Fictionwise’s eReader or Amazon’s Kindle formats for now, so I won’t likely make use of the conversion function.
Probably the most intriguing feature to me as a new Kindle owner-to-be is the Calibre’s ability to pull and format content from web sites and RSS feeds. While I could use the Kindle to browse sites or subscribe to an RSS feed, I’m curious about this option. Since RSS feeds cost money thorough the Kindle store, this might be a way to get the same content at no charge. Of course, I’d lose the advantage of getting that content over Amazon’s Whispernet without wires, so I’ll have to weigh the costs and benefits.
Sony Reader owners with Macs or Linux boxes seem to swear by Calibre, but Sony doesn’t officially support either of those platforms, so this doesn’t surprise me. I’ll have to give this a download and see how useful it is or isn’t for e-book management with my Kindle and iPhone. Do we have any Calibre users out there? What do you think of the software?
Calibre is a great addition to my Sony PRS-505 and Vista machine. I dont use it for pulling rss feeds however just converting books and managing my ebook library
In my experience it crashes a fair amount when compiling to mobipocket format (the Kindle’s only supported format.)
It also has no means of supporting the iPhone that I’m aware of (eReader and Kindle both appear to be walled gardens.)
Shhh. Don’t tell anyone that you can get free electronic magazines and newspapers. Or else The Man will likely put a halt to them (make it too hard to scoop up all the content via RSS).
They’re not always perfect, sometimes fail completely until someone fixes them, but there’s a big selection, way more than Kindle offers. And you can roll your own if you can’t find your fave. And add Python code too to filter and finesse problems in the RSS grab. Some magazines have always been perfect copies of the print version (except missing some pictures). That’s in the Sony Reader’s LRF format, but you can expect the constantly evolving Calibre to be equally as good in the future in .mobi (Kindle-readable) format.
OK, Calibre’s free magazines and newspapers are not as reliable as Kindle’s paid subscription versions. And they’re not nearly as convenient and easy as getting delivery over Whispernet each morning. But faithful readers/listeners of yours subscribe to your aphorism: “Free is good.”
I have been a Calibre user for nearly 3 years now, and it has always provided a stable platform both on Windows and Mac. Before I used it with my Windows Mobile device, and now, with my Sony Reader 505 it is a fantastic way to manage the ebooks. It does not interfere with the Sony Reader software in Windows, if anything, it complements it.
Something I have found quite useful is the ability to pull metadata information using ISBN numbers for documents that are simply PDFs but do not include any other metadata. It takes a little bit of setting it up, but once it is ready, it is a no brainer to add metadata to all PDF or LRF documents I have.
I’ve been using Calibre for about 6 months since I got my Sony Reader. It was a major influence on the purchase decision since I mostly use a Mac rather than Windows. Every time I use it there is an update, so the developer is very keen on keeping it in tip-top shape.
I mostly use the magazine web-scraping functionality to upload the Economist each week. I get the magazine delivered as well but since I got the reader I’ve not really opened the magazine once. If the Economist would offer a fully digital subscription – mp3 audio and e-book content then I’d ditch the dead-tree subscription in a heartbeat.
Hey Kevin! I’ve just bought a new Sony PRS-700 (should be here in a couple days). I’ve downloaded Calibre two weeks a go, tried it a little but, to be honest, could not guess what would be its big benefit, compared with the Win file system Management. To me, it’s not appealing to have another level of software between me and my files.
My use case might be peculiar: most of the files that i’m going to transfer to the ebook reader are non-protected (or DRM’d) PDF/DOC/HTML files.
I’m problably missing some thing, so I’ll wait for the device, then I’ll give Calibre a second shot and see what happens. I’ll share my experience here, soon.
Good luck with your new toy!
Clayton
Its one of the best programs available to manage and convert ebooks between multiple formats. Its support for most dedicated readers means that its handy for people who may have multiple reading devices and content from multiple sources.
Calibre’s also handy with the iPhone that it has a built in webserver which can be used to get ebooks into Apps like Stanza,whose own PC app is not that great.
The main advantage with using something like Calibre to manage your books is that it allows you to manage multiple formats of the same book with ease, making it easy to manage multiple devices.
Kovid is also very active in developing the software, with updates coming out every week, with new features and bug fixes being rolled out regularly. I believe he is also currently working on adding email functionality to the program to allow Kindle and K2 owners to email stuff to their devices.
Bummer. Calibre doesn’t run on Vistax64. ‘Looks like I’m left with the Mobipocket Creator and Feedbooks.com.
Calibre works FINE on my vista 64 system with sony prs 505. no crashes etc….
I have been using Calibre (before it was called Calibre) for a couple of years now. I use it with a Sony 505 (well 3 of them actually mine and my kids) and I love it. it is especially useful for book collections and changing the metadata for each book individually and converting all kinds of formats into the one you want. Put it with Gutenburg.org and you have an insanely huge home library.
I don’t read newspapers and such so I haven’t tried the RSS feature but I am becoming curious about magazines and things.
Calibre is excellently maintained for a free (donations helpful) software. It’s creator rocks and its the best thing for multiple devices, I switched from a PDA reader to the Sony reader a while back and it converted all my unsecured MS reader format books into the Sony LRF or Epub formats. I have 1000+ ebooks so easy management is key to me.
I highly recommend it
I have been using Calibre for about a years now, and it works fantastic with my Sony PRS 505 and my iPod Touch.
When hooked up to a network and a wifi you can transfer your titles over to your iPod Touch using the Stanza reader.
The conversion works great to, as long as the original title is properly formated. I get a lot of titles from Gutenberg so have had some practice in that area.
I do recommend if you use multiple reading devices that this software is the way to go.
And I personally have never had any problem with it crashing.