Overall Impressions

I’m carrying a whole library with me, either on my Samsung Galaxy Tab or on my Kindle eBook reader. EBooks are cheaper than paper books, easier to procure, lighter and more fashionable. But they are available on many formats and Kindle Touch can read only .mobi format or pdf, so I need a conversion software from ePub to mobi or even from Pdf to mobi and a management software that doesn’t fail my expectations. Calibre is one of the most advanced eBook management utility and conversion tool available on the market and it get better with each version. The latest version, Calibre 0.8.24 supports all the available eBook formats and it can easily convert from one format to another, (pdf to mobi, pdf to epub, epub to pdf, doc to pdf, epub to pdf, etc. ). The DRM protected books are the only ones which can’t be converted.

Calibre

Interface and features

If you haven’t used a ebook manager before, don’t worry, there’s a wizard that guides you through the basic features of the utility. First, you need to select the directories in which you want to import your books and the eBook reader you use, be it a Nook reader, a Kindle or a Sony Reader. I have a Kindle Touch and it gets along pretty well to the eBook software. In short, Calibre is a virtual library with a lot of options and plug-ins that you can choose to install later.

The application helps you to import all the eBooks you have, getting the metadata you need to start organizing everything. Calibre simply connects to Amazon, for example, or Google Books, in order to determine the genre, synopsis, covers that might help in the process of sorting the books. If the books are in a format that your eBook Reader can’t read, it can also make the conversion. In my case, .mobi format was the one I needed to convert other books. The book conversion doesn’t take too much, less then 2 minutes in most cases.

If you own a Kindle, in order to convert from pdf to mobi, doc to mobi, epub to mobi, etc, Calibre sends an email to Kindle website and the books are easily converted. There is a glitch, regarding the number of emails and of books to be converted in the same time. After an email, it suddenly stops and you have to wait for the other to be sent, too.

You can also use Calibre as an eBook reader, if you like to read your books on a PC display, but it’s less recommendable. If you’re getting bored of e-Ink black and white readers, you can buy an Android e-Reader, which is pretty similar to a modern tablet, but using a technology similar to e-Ink,  that captures ambient light in order to create color, like the butterfly wings. This kind of display called Mirasol display  doesn’t hurt your eyes, like the LED or LCD display do.

An unique feature Calibre has is the ability to provide the News from the best-known news channels in the world. You can easily program Calibre to download the news on a schedule and to send it to the eBook reader you possess.

Pros:

-it offers a professional eBook library management application;

-it converts the eBooks to the formats your device is capable to read;

-it can synchronize other e-book reader devices;

-it can download news from the net and convert the news into e-book form;

-you can access your e-book collection online.

Cons:

-it should send the e-books to Kindle by email, but it cannot be used to send two emails at a time.