Are you one of the lucky ones who electronic reader (eReader) as a gift over the holidays? Or perhaps you have had one, but it hasn’t been what you expected? Or is this one of the items that you would love to have, but aren’t really sure if you would use it? Oftentimes, the difference between success and failure is just having the right tools.
The EBook Addiction
I am on my 4th Sony Reader, a PRS-700. My previous units have gone to a son, my wife, and a sister-in-law. Two of my sons have ordered B&N Nook units and are hoping for delivery this month. Another cousin has just ordered a Kindle and is waiting with anticipation for it to arrive. But, my love of electronic books goes back much further than that. I purchased my first Tablet PC (An HP TC1000 Slate) in 2000 and one of the most important applications available was the Microsoft Reader. I quickly learned how to compile DOC, RTF, TXT and HTML files into the LIT format. For me, the Gutenberg Project was amazing, finding all those classic volumes available, just for download. Along the way, I also discovered Baen Publishing and WebScriptions, where all the ebooks are DRM free, and even compared to the paperback editions, cheap! BTW, check out all their free downloads.
Early Efforts with EBooks
When I purchased my first Sony Reader, it was essentially the only game in town. And I knew, for me, the secret was going to be figuring out how to move all those Microsoft-formatted LIT files to the Sony Reader, somehow. I found several command-line utilities (ConvertLIT and LIT2LRF) and eventually the tools at ABC Amber Conversion (ABC Amber Text Converter). These work, and most of the time, work well. But it was such a chore! There had to be a better way.
Calibre is Simplifying Ebooks
This is when I discovered Calibre Ebook Manager. Simply put, if you have an ebook reader, you need this program. Since Oct. 2006, this has been the very best way that I have found to manage and convert the ebooks that I read on my device. It runs on Linux, OS/X, and Windows. And the best news I had received in a long time was that it now supports 64-bit Windows platforms. This dramatically speeds up the conversion process. Another interesting tidbit is that you can store multiple versions of an ebook in Calibre: one for the Sony Reader, one for the Android phone, one for the Stanza reader on the Touch, etc. You get the idea. Take a look at what this excellent software can do.
From the Calibre site
Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:
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- Library Management
- E-book conversion
- Syncing to e-book reader devices
- Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form
- Comprehensive e-book viewer
- Content server for online access to your book collection
Calibre can convert from a huge number of formats to a huge number of formats. It supports all the major e-book formats. The full list of formats can be found below.
The conversion engine has lots of powerful features. It can rescale all font sizes, ensuring the output e-book is readable no matter what font sizes the input document uses. It can automatically detect/create book structure, like chapters and Table of Contents. It can insert the book metadata into a “Book Jacket” at the start of the book.
Calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert every input format in the following list, to every output format:
Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT
Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TCR, TXT
** PRC is a generic format, calibre supports PRC files with TextRead and MOBIBook headers
The best source formats to convert, in order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, EPUB, HTML, PRC, RTF, PDB, TXT, PDF
What devices does calibre support? At the moment calibre has full support for the SONY PRS 300/500/505/600/700/900, Barnes & Noble Nook, Cybook Gen 3/Opus, Amazon Kindle 1/2/DX, Longshine ShineBook, Ectaco Jetbook, BeBook/BeBook Mini, Irex Illiad/DR1000, Foxit eSlick, PocketBook 360, Italica, eClicto, Iriver Story, Airis dBook, Hanvon N515, Binatone Readme, various Android phones and the iPhone/Touch. In addition, using the Save to disk function you can use it with any ebook reader or device that exports itself as a USB disk.
This is an outstanding open source project with real value and utility for a wide range of people. I highly encourage you to take a look and see if it can benefit you too. If you do find it useful, take a look at how you can help by jumping into the project or just making a donation. You will feel better for it and help keep this amazing project going.
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