Managing e-books with Caliber. The pleasure of using free software

There are programs that are difficult to use and others that are very easy.. There are also programs that are a real pleasure to use. In my case it is Caliber.

I dedicated the three items before proving that trying to do something with the kindle books we buy that doesn't match Amazon's monopoly whims is a real headache. You end up lowering the books you bought to the left to be able to change the font, take notes comfortably and work with the software of your choice. Do not insist, I will not recommend no page. where to do it.

Managing e-books with Caliber

Proprietary formats such as those adopted by Amazon and other manufacturers of e-book readers are an obstacle to taking advantage of the inherent advantages of e-books. Particularly that of combining, modifying and sharing content. That is, that of everything that helps to incorporate knowledge and that has nothing to do with violating copyright.

Fortunately, open standards help to combat this situation.

In the case of Caliber we are referring to three different programs installed from a single package:

• An e-book manager.
• An editor in .epub or .azw format
• An e-book viewer.

Regarding the editor, you cannot create a file from scratch. But, that is solved by exporting a document in .epub format using LibreOffice.

The Caliber versions are as follows:

• windows 32 bit
• windows 64 bit
• Portable windows (Ideal for carrying your book collection on a pendrive
• MacOS
• Linux: In this case you can use the repositories, the package flat pack or the following commands:

sudo -v && wget -nv -O- https://download.calibre-ebook.com/linux-installer.sh | sudo sh /dev/stdin

Caliber does not have an application for Android mobiles, although the application installed on the computer can be accessed wirelessly from the device's browser or, if it is connected via USB, browse the device's files using the program. The same goes for iOS devices.

Starting the book manager

The first time we start the program, we must choose the language and the place where the library will be housed. If we want to use a different one than the one proposed by default, we must choose an empty folder. In other words, you cannot choose a directory where you already have books stored. It is possible to use an external disk, although when connecting to another caliber installation you will have to manually tell it where the library is stored.

The next thing is to choose a reader device configuration. If yours is not listed, select Generic e-ink device.

You can start the wizard again as many times as you want by pressing the button on the right side of the toolbar. With this you will see the preferences button and, if you go down this panel a button called Run the welcome assistant.

The initial screen of Caliber shows us a series of buttons that have an arrow that gives access to a drop-down menu.

To start getting the most out of Caliber we have to add books. This can be done in different ways:

• Add books from a single folder: Selecting this option opens a file explorer that allows us to access a predetermined folder. There we can choose which books to import.
• Add books from folders and subfolders. We choose a folder and the program searches recursively. Unless we indicate otherwise, it will import a single file per subfolder, assuming the others are the same title with other formats.
• Add several books from an archive (ZIP / RAR): This is ideal to have to take the trouble of decompressing the books that you downloaded from the Internet or that you had compressed in some storage medium.
• Add blank book: With this option you can enter the data of one or more books that you do not yet have in your collection so that you do not have to do it when you add it.
• Add from ISBN: If you knows the code ISBN this option allows you to write it in the form. Caliber will search and download the data automatically. IF you already have it downloaded you can add the path to the file and it will add it to the library.
• Add files to selected book records: Allows you to add files to the folder corresponding to each stored book.
• Add empty file to selected book records: Add a blank file in different formats. This is also a good option to later create a book with the editor.

As the last option on this menu is very extensive, it remains for the next article.

We can also add books by dragging it from the source folder and dropping it on the sale of the program.