Books available in digital form are becoming more popular. But it is an E-book manager that adds real value to your reading habit, especially if you own a large catalog of eBooks. The likeliness of managing and organizing your eBooks increases if you have the right software. Calibre eBook management software for Windows offers these advantages.
Calibre eBook reader for Kindle
Calibre is a free cross-platform eBook reader & management software. It works great for Kindle & helps display, edit, create & convert e-Books. It qualifies as a comprehensive e-book viewer as it supports and covers all the major eBook formats. The software supports eBook devices from all the major manufacturers.
Calibre Features
The main interface looks clean and well sorted. For instance, you can find the following tabs with their functions under ‘Actions’ toolbar.
- Add Books
- Edit Metadata
- Convert Books
- View
- Fetch News
- Get Books
- Remove Books.
Functions of different Calibre features
Calibre manage your eBooks, Newspaper, Magazines and even comics. The first time you download and install Calibre, you see the Calibre Welcome Wizard. It lets you decide the location for storing your digital files. After that, you can specify the eBook device you use. If you find that the eBook device is not listed under the ‘Manufacturers’ list, you can choose a ‘Generic’ device.
- Add Books -Allows you to add books to your collection. The menu has seven variations that can be accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
- Edit Metadata – This option lets you edit the metadata of books, i.e., changing the Covers, Titles, etc. of the books. It also allows you to add or remove e-book formats from a book.
- Convert Books – Readily allows to convert books in desired formats like XML, CSV, BiBTeX, EPUB, and MOBI. It is very a simple one-click affair.
- View – This action instantly displays the book in an e-book viewer program. The freeware supports three built-in library views to browse your book collection. Using covers, titles, tags, authors, publishers, etc. You can also configure which formats should open with the internal viewer via Preferences > Interface > Behavior.
- Fetch News – Use this feature to download news from websites like The Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, and more and convert them into eBooks so that you can read them in your leisure time.
- Get Books – Makes it easier for you to purchase or download books just by mentioning the name or title of the book.
- Remove Books – Self-explanatory!
So, the large buttons of the main window take care of most of your needs, and well-sorted context menus make it easier to find things you are looking for quickly. The results for ‘Get Books’ automatically display eBook seller websites with the lowest price editions. Thus, saving your valuable money.
Calibre supports almost every single e-Reader and is compatible with more devices with every update. You can transfer your e-books from one device to another in seconds, wirelessly, or with a cable. No additional tools are required. Also, Calibre will send the best file format for your device, converting it if needed, automatically.
Lastly, as you can see, the software is replete with useful features, but still, if you find something missing, there’s a built-in plugin explorer that you can try. The vast library of plugins available can help you enhance Calibre’s utility furthermore. Just browse through them directly and install them with just one click.
In all, one can safely assume that Calibre is created for book lovers and by book lovers. Also, since it is an open-source project, hundreds of volunteers develop Calibre and deliver updates regularly so that it doesn’t fall short of expectations.
