Sunday, May 01, 2011

Calibre: e-book management




















Calibre is free and open source e-book computer software that organizes, saves and manages e-books, supporting a variety of formats.[1] It also supports e-book syncing with a variety of popular e-book readers. Calibre is cross-platform (programmed in Python and C) and is intended for the three main operating systems, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Calibre was originally called libprs500, but was renamed in mid-2008.
  • Original author(s)    - Kovid Goyal
  • Developer(s)    - Calibre Team
  • Initial release   -  October 31, 2006; 4 years ago (2006-10-31)
  • Stable release    - 0.7.58  (April 29, 2011; 1 day ago (2011-04-29)) [+/−]
  • Development status     -Active
  • Written in  -   Python, C
  • Operating system   -  Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
  • Platform   -  Intel x86 - 32-bit, x64
  • Available in   -  37 languages (fully or partially translated)
  • Type  -   E-book management utility (utility software)
  • License   -  GNU GPL
  • Website    - calibre-ebook.com

Features

Library management

Calibre is primarily an e-book cataloging program. It is designed around the concept of the logical book, where a single database entry corresponds with the same book in a variety of formats. Calibre supports the following formats for cataloging: AZW, AZW1, CBR, CBZ, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, IMP, LIT, LRF, LRX, MOBI, ODT, OEBZIP, OPF, PDB, PDF, PML, PMLZ, PRC, RAR, RB, RTF, SNB, TPZ, TXT and ZIP.

Calibre supports sorting the books in its database by:
  •     Title
  •     Author
  •     Date
  •     Publisher
  •     Rating
  •     Size (Max size of all formats)
  •     Series





    It also supports extra metadata fields that can be searched on:
    •     Comments: A general purpose field that can be used to describe the book.
    •    Tags: A flexible system to categorise books.
    Calibre also supports metadata retrieval via the Internet for a book based on its ISBN number or its title/author, instead of manually entering the metadata.
     Format conversion
    • Calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert any of the following input formats to any of the output formats.
    • Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDB, PDF, PML, PRC^, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT
    • Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, LIT, LRF, MOBI, OEB, PDB, PDF, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT.

    (^PRC is a generic format, calibre supports PRC files with TextRead and MOBIBook headers)[4]

    Format conversion includes support for advanced typesetting features such as tables, dropcaps, inline[disambiguation needed] images, and embedded fonts.
    Calibre supports e-book syncing with the iPhone using Lexcycle Stanza.





     Syncing

    Calibre currently supports the Sony PRS 300/500/505/600/650/700/900, Cybook Gen 3, BeBook (mini), Amazon Kindle (1, 2 (international and DX), and 3), Kobo, iPhone (with iBooks (via iTunes or ePub download) or Lexcycle Stanza reader software), Palm Pre, Entourage Edge, Longshine Shinebook, Ectaco Jetbook, Irex Illiad/DR1000, Foxit eSlick, PocketBook 360, Itallica, eClicto, Iriver Story, Airis dBook, Teclast K3, SpringDesign Alex, Hanvon N515, Binatone Readme, and Android phones (with the WordPlayer reader software) and both Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 phones using the Freda reader software. Also, Calibre can export any ebook, allowing it to be synced to any device that can be mounted via USB.[5] Version 0.6.27 (December 11, 2009) added support for the Barnes & Noble Nook.[6] If a book has more than one format available, Calibre automatically chooses the best format when uploading to the device.

    News retrieval

    Calibre can be configured to automatically fetch news from a number of websites/RSS feeds, format the news into a e-book and upload the e-book to a connected device. At the moment there is support for generating LRF/EPUB e-books. The e-books include the full versions of the articles, not just the summaries. Supported news sites include Newsweek, New York Times, the BBC, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and ESPN.

     E-book viewer
    Calibre comes packaged with an all encompassing e-book reader, which can read any of the aforementioned formats in the format conversion category.

    Content server
    Calibre also supports a built-in web server that allows users to access their e-book collection using an Internet browser and an Internet connection. The web server also allows the user to e-mail books and download news automatically.


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