Calibre

From Kovid Goyal:

Calibre is a program to manage your eBook collection. It acts as an e-library and also allows for format conversion, news feeds to eBook conversion, as well as e-book reader sync features and an integrated e-book viewer. It features library management, format conversion (all major eBook formats), syncing to e-book reader devices, fetching news from the Web and converting it into eBook form, viewing many different e-book formats, and giving you access to your book collection over the internet using just a browser.

What's new in this version:

Linux: Add support for the global menubar in Ubuntu Unity (The menu that is displayed in the top most on screen bar). It now works both with the main calibre program and the e-book editor. You can customize what appears in the menubar via Preferences->ToolbarsGet Books: Add a new store, Bubok (bubok.es)Driver for Tolino Vision 2.Review downloaded metadata: Allow merging downloaded and current identifiers by long-clicking ... See all new features » Current Version

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4.1 out of 218 votes

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"Program deletes files without warning"

July 28, 2014  |  By NCSympa

 |  Version: Calibre 1.46

Pros

Organizes documents

Cons

Cumbersome way to organize files putting each one in separate folder. The most serious problem is that the program may automatically delete your document without warning. Later when you try to access the document, you discover it no longer exists. I have had this program delete documents multiple times. It does not give you the option of a warning but just does it. This is a very significant problem and users need to be aware of it.

Summary

The most serious problem is that the program may automatically delete your document without warning. Later when you try to access the document, you discover it no longer exists. I have had this program delete documents multiple times. It does not give you the option of a warning but just does it. This is a very significant problem and users need to be aware of it.

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5 stars

"One of the better programs."

June 21, 2014  |  By Bob1019

 |  Version: Calibre 1.40

Pros

Everything seems to work as it should - very complete.

Cons

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo

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1 stars

"Crashed for the 6th time"

April 24, 2014  |  By pjh1398

 |  Version: Calibre 1.33

Pros

The management tool is fantastic. I like the fact you can customize the plug-ins for this allowing you to modify the program to best use. It makes modifying the Metadata very easy as well as renaming and tagging files. The library feature is very nice because you can set up various libraries to hold books. For example I have a Fiction, Non Fiction, as well as a few others making it easy to organize. I also modified it to let me put Genre on it instead of using the tags

Cons

It crashed AGAIN. The only program I have that crashes more is Adobe Digital Reader. Every 3rd or 4th time I modify a file, it locks up and I have to use Alt/Ctrl/delete to get out of it. It has severe emotional problems when I add a larger ebook selection to it as well as when I move ebooks. At least it doesn't crash when I do that, yet. It wants to be too many things therefore it hogs resources. I can't run anything else when I run something like conversion. Frankly I get sick of staring at the program struggling to process the conversion for minutes on end. 15 minutes is my limit and I'll stop the program just to get out of it. When you ask a question, you get 'Calibre' speak which, I'm sorry, normal humans don't want to deal with. We just want the program to work. It sounds more like hedging than answers. Lots of new gadgets, lots of features but nothing needed for a good management system.

Summary

It's no longer fast, easy and fun. The program is trying to be everything to everyone instead of what it should be, a simple management program with an attached ereader. It is the only choice at the moment so you are stuck with it if you want to do intensive management and convert files easily. If I was offered a good alternative, I would even pay for the alternative just so I wouldn't have to deal with Calibre's problems. If you have a life and don't want to learn Calibre speak, it isn't the program for you.

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2 stars

"Is NOT a reader. Only organizes."

March 02, 2014  |  By ScurvyMcRickets

 |  Version: Calibre 1.26

Pros

None so far. I keep all of my files organized. Well I guess it's cool that you see the book covers.

Cons

Only downloaded this because I thought it was a reader, but it's not. If it was a reader and I didn't have to download a separate program to actually open my books it would be great. As it is, it's like iTunes with out a music player. just a program to keep everything organized...which is what file directories are for. No need to make a book playlist.

Summary

Think iTunes if iTunes didn't play music. It's just a library and it can sync to other devices.

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5 stars

"Darn good e-reader"

January 24, 2014  |  By Lestwist40

 |  Version: Calibre 1.21

Pros

Everything works good and always the maker of this software updates this often.

Cons

Found some bugs that always got fixed later.

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1 stars

"Packed with adware!!"

January 23, 2014  |  By tyrus4191

 |  Version: Calibre 1.20

Pros

I've always felt confident with using CNET's download.com previously, but downloading Calibre brought all kinds of adware to my computer. That's with me deselecting all of their free offers. I'm not sure if I've found all of it yet. Beware!!

Cons

I've always felt confident with using CNET's download.com previously, but downloading Calibre brought all kinds of adware to my computer. That's with me deselecting all of their free offers. I'm not sure if I've found all of it yet. Beware!!

Summary

CNET needs to have a higher standard for what programs it's making available on its site.

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2 stars

"Combines some nice features with some BIG problems."

January 14, 2014  |  By BoopShooba

 |  Version: Calibre 1.19

Pros

Imports books easily, decent reader, with special DRM-stripper plug-in allows backing up of Nook and Kindle files. Easy to learn and use, with a farily intuitive interface, and good on-board documentation. Allows metadata to be edited (but saves in a separate file, so you can't move the new metadata back to your reader). And, it's free.

Cons

The biggest con is that this program is a resource hog. I've found dozens of users who have posted on the web about this, users of both PCs and Macs. This is especially bad when doing book conversions: Calibre runs CPU usage up to 100% on all cores, and gloms onto 2Gb or more of RAM. The net effect is that you can't use any other programs while Calibre conversion is running, or the CPU overheats and the system locks-up.

When this problem was brought to the attention of the developers, they declared it "invalid", and dismissed the issue out of hand.

Summary

This has the potential to be a very good program. Unfortunately, the huge (and apparently unmodifyable)resource requirement for conversion will render the software useless for that function on many users' systems. This, coupled with the unresponsiveness of the developers, has caused me to lower my rating by two stars, and abandon the software.

There is other free eBook software out there, and until Calibre fixes the resource-hog issue, I will be supporting that other software.

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5 stars

"Great Product"

December 19, 2013  |  By Smartymalin43

 |  Version: Calibre 1.15

Pros

Best piece of software I've used in years!

After writing a book I wanted to put it on my Kindle and Calibre was great. However, intially I saved my book as a pdf and imported it to Calibre and then onto my Kindel. The problem with this was, 1. I couldn't adjust the font size and 2. every two lines was followed by a space. The solution was to save my word document as a HTML. This worked great! Well done Calibre.

Cons

None that I know of

Summary

Great software, does exactly what it said on the can. I liked it so much I even made a small donation

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5 stars

"Just got better!"

December 16, 2013  |  By LesleyZA

 |  Version: Calibre 1.15

Pros

Not only does this program convert seamlessly from epub to mobi, it now has a built-in editor.
Fabulous that I can connect my Kindle and manage my books from Calibre.

Cons

None that I have found. OK, so books bought from Amazon has DRM which the program respects.

Summary

This is one indispensable program for anyone with a large book collection. And anyone who has a Kindle but has friends who read on their iPads!
I love the fact that I can tag my books which means that if I've forgotten the name of the author (happens often!)but know it's a book on wildlife, it's a doddle to find what I'm looking for.

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5 stars

"Great tool for novice E-book users."

October 27, 2013  |  By rlmalphus

 |  Version: Calibre 1.8

Pros

Easy to use.

Cons

None found to date.

Summary

This is a valuable tool for E-book readers and it's free!

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Linux: Add support for the global menubar in Ubuntu Unity (The menu that is displayed in the top most on screen bar). It now works both with the main calibre program and the e-book editor. You can customize what appears in the menubar via Preferences->ToolbarsGet Books: Add a new store, Bubok (bubok.es)Driver for Tolino Vision 2.Review downloaded metadata: Allow merging downloaded and current identifiers by long-clicking the revert button.Template language: New function user_categories() to return the list of User Categories for a given book (only works in the GUI).E-book viewer: Add an option to prevent tapping on the page from turning pages.Re-enable the system tray icon on linux. System tray icons now work in any desktop environment that supports the StatusNotifier spec, such as Ubuntu Unity, KDE 4+, GNOME 3, etc.System tray icon: On windows if the calibre window is minimized, fix clicking on the system tray icon not restoring the window.E-book viewer: Clear history when reloading the book, to avoid errors, since the locations pointed to by the history may no longer be valid anywayLinux: Force use of GNOME button layout for dialogs when running under the GNOME, UNITY or MATE desktop environmentsCheck Book: Silence incorrect warning about guide references to cover image in AZW3 FormatFix text entry widgets' popup completion window not working well with windows on-screen keyboard.Edit Book: Fix links that are absolute paths causing crashes in windowsFix the read metadata from format button in the edit metadata dialog not working for FB2 files.Planet Python and Krebs on security recipe by Jelle van der WaaTyzdenCountryfile.comFAZ netThe New YorkerWindows, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista

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