5 ms·

I really only have 3 use cases for Calibre : "sync my device with my library", "convert format", and "strip DRM". I can never figure out how to do those things

I really only have 3 use cases for Calibre : "sync my device with my library", "convert format", and "strip DRM". I can never figure out how to do those things without massive research each time I need to do them. Maybe it's just me, but I do find the UI horribly confusing.

stoolpigeon 3y ago
Number 3 makes it worth it alone. If I buy something I want to be able to back it up and own it. Number 2 is awesome because when people publish without DRM, effectively I don't need to worry about the format. The first has never been that big a deal to me but I'll always have it on a machine I use for the other two.
5e92cb50239222b 3y ago
$ ebook-convert source.fb2 .epub I don't know about the other two, never needed them.
ghostpepper 3y ago
I think you can do most/all of that from the command line using tools like ebook-convert
- Vivtek 3y ago
  ebook-convert is Calibre. But you're right that you can use it from command line (which is what I do as well).
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    Yes, but you avoid the interface. You figure out which command line flags you want to use (mainly for converting to PDF), save them somewhere, and then just use that command forever.
freedomben 3y ago
For the last several years I've had terrible luck with number 3, though I supect that's entirely amazon's fault rather than calibre. It's a real shame too because I used to buy a lot of books, but once I couldn't read them on the device I wanted (like Remarkable tablet) there's no point in buying anymore so I stopped. I still buy from DRM-free sellers, but most of the books I want to read are only available through the popular e-reader store.
- fbdab103 3y ago
  Similar boat, I have not been able to open some books for the last few times I have tried.
  - unethical_ban 3y ago
    Amazon books published after some date in 2023 have new formatting/encryption. Now I think for those new books, you need to do some hoop jumping about "send to device" with an old kindle or PC.
    - rolobio 3y ago
      This is correct. My answer is simply to not buy any Kindle books. In the future, I may buy some again if I can strip DRM.
      - criddell 3y ago
        Not all Kindle books have DRM. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to figure out which books have it and which do not. Is there a place that sells ebooks that with easily strippable DRM?
        rolobio 3y ago
        Not that I know of. I had a book I was trying a buy a couple weeks ago, everywhere I found it had DRM. So I gave up. They lost a sale.
michaelmrose 3y ago
1: Sync 1a: Plug in device via USB, right click, send to device 1b: with your android/ios device connect wirelessly with the calibre companion app, right click, send to device Tips: calibre companion avoid the need to fiddle with a usb cord and worry about your device properly talk to your computer something that is harder than it ought to be with phones/tablets ondevice:false shows you all the books in your library that aren't on the connected device and can be combined with any other query eg tags:scifi and ondevice:false. If its harder than this you may be selected a device that was not only proprietary and shitty but also uncommon so that calibre don't know how to work around its shittiness. 2: right click book book convert individually/bulk convert Tips: If you want to know what things are not in your preferred format say you want epub and not mobi you can search for formats:mobi and not formats:epub. This makes it easy to ensure everything is in a format that for instance works well with your device. Don't expect conversions to and from PDF to work well. If might turn out readable but it wont be optimal. It works MUCH better converting between more standardized ebook formats. 3. You CAN configure calibre to strip DRM on import automatically but this is inherently going to be a continuing struggle because its an arms race. Consider just not buying books that are protected by DRM. You can virtually always get a book without DRM, get a pirated version that doesn't by its nature have DRM, or a physical book. Hell if you like buy a physical book and donate it and enjoy your pirated book without guilt. If you find the interface confusing in the settings you can literally customize - the items that show up in the toolbar - the items that show up in the toolbar when a device is connected - the context menu that pops up when you click a book in each type of view if need be You can further customize short cuts including single key shortcuts If you do 3 things you can have 3 buttons in the toolbar or if you please 3 single character shortcuts. Want e to edit the books info and s to send it to your connected device then configure it so.
bane 3y ago
I have a pretty sizable library of e-books (comics, magazines, regular books, PDFs, papers, etc.). The way I manage, organize, and read them is very personal to my workflows and interests. As a result I've pulled together a hodge-podge of different tools to accomplish what I want, and it works very well for me. Calibre is not one of those tools. However, to be fair, I have the feeling that Calibre is mostly the result of Kovid Goyal's version of what I do, but he decided to write some software to do it back when there were fewer choices. As a result, it's highly personal to his interests and workflow, and lots of the complaints about it are really just a result of other people wanting to do things their own highly personal way and running into an impedance mismatch with Goyal's way, just like they'd run into one with how I do things. It's clear that there's huge demand for ebook management software, but there's no comprehensive "Plex" for ebooks, and as a result you end up having to strap together your own stuff to get it working.
the__alchemist 3y ago
Have you found the "strip DRM" step to work for Amazon books released in 2023?
- KallDrexx 3y ago
  It works for me, but I have an older kindle Paperwhite on my account. Because of that I they have an option to download a version of the ebook specifically for that kindle, which calibre can unlock with the serial number of the Kindle.
meristohm 3y ago
In addition to your noted three, I use Calibre for deleting or reducing the size of images (for use on my ereader) and for merging books, like those in a series, cookbooks, and other references.
ekianjo 3y ago
Calibre has an awful UI yet somehow people keep using it because of the lack of decent alternatives.
- IshKebab 3y ago
  Yeah I feel like this is partly why "it's free, therefore you can't complain" is not true. The mere fact that Calibre exists and kind of works means that it is much harder for anyone else to create a competing program with a sane UI. I'm not saying the authors of free software have any responsibility to listen to complaints, but complaints aren't inherently invalid because they're about something that's free.
fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago
The UI is confusing, but I’ve found its searching and multi-dimensional categorizing to be unmatched
thiht 3y ago
Calibre has the worst UI of any software I’ve ever used.
- allarm 3y ago
  I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s not ideal for sure, but it’s good enough to get things done. I’ve definitely seen worse, the Avaya call center configuration tool comes to mind. Also this comment feels a bit rude to the author of Calibre - I’ve been using it for many years and it’s very helpful - I don’t think there’s any other book catalog software with similar feature set. If you feel that the ux/ui is bad - consider helping to improve it, it’s an open source software.
  - thiht 3y ago
    > I don’t think it’s that bad It is. It doesn’t make Calibre less useful to say it. Calibre is a remarkable piece of software, which solves real issues and without real alternatives. But it’s UI happens to be bad. I just try to use the CLI whenever I can, at least I don’t have to spend 10 minutes figuring out which button does what I want.

stoolpigeon 3y ago

Number 3 makes it worth it alone. If I buy something I want to be able to back it up and own it. Number 2 is awesome because when people publish without DRM, effectively I don't need to worry about the format. The first has never been that big a deal to me but I'll always have it on a machine I use for the other two.

5e92cb50239222b 3y ago

$ ebook-convert source.fb2 .epub I don't know about the other two, never needed them.

ghostpepper 3y ago

I think you can do most/all of that from the command line using tools like ebook-convert

Vivtek 3y ago
ebook-convert is Calibre. But you're right that you can use it from command line (which is what I do as well).
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Yes, but you avoid the interface. You figure out which command line flags you want to use (mainly for converting to PDF), save them somewhere, and then just use that command forever.

freedomben 3y ago

For the last several years I've had terrible luck with number 3, though I supect that's entirely amazon's fault rather than calibre. It's a real shame too because I used to buy a lot of books, but once I couldn't read them on the device I wanted (like Remarkable tablet) there's no point in buying anymore so I stopped. I still buy from DRM-free sellers, but most of the books I want to read are only available through the popular e-reader store.

fbdab103 3y ago
Similar boat, I have not been able to open some books for the last few times I have tried.
- unethical_ban 3y ago
  Amazon books published after some date in 2023 have new formatting/encryption. Now I think for those new books, you need to do some hoop jumping about "send to device" with an old kindle or PC.
  - rolobio 3y ago
    This is correct. My answer is simply to not buy any Kindle books. In the future, I may buy some again if I can strip DRM.
    - criddell 3y ago
      Not all Kindle books have DRM. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to figure out which books have it and which do not. Is there a place that sells ebooks that with easily strippable DRM?
      - rolobio 3y ago
        Not that I know of. I had a book I was trying a buy a couple weeks ago, everywhere I found it had DRM. So I gave up. They lost a sale.

michaelmrose 3y ago

1: Sync 1a: Plug in device via USB, right click, send to device 1b: with your android/ios device connect wirelessly with the calibre companion app, right click, send to device Tips: calibre companion avoid the need to fiddle with a usb cord and worry about your device properly talk to your computer something that is harder than it ought to be with phones/tablets ondevice:false shows you all the books in your library that aren't on the connected device and can be combined with any other query eg tags:scifi and ondevice:false. If its harder than this you may be selected a device that was not only proprietary and shitty but also uncommon so that calibre don't know how to work around its shittiness. 2: right click book book convert individually/bulk convert Tips: If you want to know what things are not in your preferred format say you want epub and not mobi you can search for formats:mobi and not formats:epub. This makes it easy to ensure everything is in a format that for instance works well with your device. Don't expect conversions to and from PDF to work well. If might turn out readable but it wont be optimal. It works MUCH better converting between more standardized ebook formats. 3. You CAN configure calibre to strip DRM on import automatically but this is inherently going to be a continuing struggle because its an arms race. Consider just not buying books that are protected by DRM. You can virtually always get a book without DRM, get a pirated version that doesn't by its nature have DRM, or a physical book. Hell if you like buy a physical book and donate it and enjoy your pirated book without guilt. If you find the interface confusing in the settings you can literally customize - the items that show up in the toolbar - the items that show up in the toolbar when a device is connected - the context menu that pops up when you click a book in each type of view if need be You can further customize short cuts including single key shortcuts If you do 3 things you can have 3 buttons in the toolbar or if you please 3 single character shortcuts. Want e to edit the books info and s to send it to your connected device then configure it so.

bane 3y ago

I have a pretty sizable library of e-books (comics, magazines, regular books, PDFs, papers, etc.). The way I manage, organize, and read them is very personal to my workflows and interests. As a result I've pulled together a hodge-podge of different tools to accomplish what I want, and it works very well for me. Calibre is not one of those tools. However, to be fair, I have the feeling that Calibre is mostly the result of Kovid Goyal's version of what I do, but he decided to write some software to do it back when there were fewer choices. As a result, it's highly personal to his interests and workflow, and lots of the complaints about it are really just a result of other people wanting to do things their own highly personal way and running into an impedance mismatch with Goyal's way, just like they'd run into one with how I do things. It's clear that there's huge demand for ebook management software, but there's no comprehensive "Plex" for ebooks, and as a result you end up having to strap together your own stuff to get it working.

the__alchemist 3y ago

Have you found the "strip DRM" step to work for Amazon books released in 2023?

KallDrexx 3y ago
It works for me, but I have an older kindle Paperwhite on my account. Because of that I they have an option to download a version of the ebook specifically for that kindle, which calibre can unlock with the serial number of the Kindle.

meristohm 3y ago

In addition to your noted three, I use Calibre for deleting or reducing the size of images (for use on my ereader) and for merging books, like those in a series, cookbooks, and other references.

ekianjo 3y ago

Calibre has an awful UI yet somehow people keep using it because of the lack of decent alternatives.

IshKebab 3y ago
Yeah I feel like this is partly why "it's free, therefore you can't complain" is not true. The mere fact that Calibre exists and kind of works means that it is much harder for anyone else to create a competing program with a sane UI. I'm not saying the authors of free software have any responsibility to listen to complaints, but complaints aren't inherently invalid because they're about something that's free.

fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago

The UI is confusing, but I’ve found its searching and multi-dimensional categorizing to be unmatched

thiht 3y ago

Calibre has the worst UI of any software I’ve ever used.

allarm 3y ago
I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s not ideal for sure, but it’s good enough to get things done. I’ve definitely seen worse, the Avaya call center configuration tool comes to mind. Also this comment feels a bit rude to the author of Calibre - I’ve been using it for many years and it’s very helpful - I don’t think there’s any other book catalog software with similar feature set. If you feel that the ux/ui is bad - consider helping to improve it, it’s an open source software.
- thiht 3y ago
  > I don’t think it’s that bad It is. It doesn’t make Calibre less useful to say it. Calibre is a remarkable piece of software, which solves real issues and without real alternatives. But it’s UI happens to be bad. I just try to use the CLI whenever I can, at least I don’t have to spend 10 minutes figuring out which button does what I want.