Calibre

Calibre is an open-source management app for e-books. It’s available on PC, Linux, and Mac. There is no mobile version of the software. You must download it from their site. (Yes, the site looks old-school, but the software works well.)

Calibre is described as an e-book manager on its page and the app store. Users can read digital books through the app, convert documents, and organize their library. You can also format books through this app. Books can be downloaded for reading or users can convert files into various e-book formats. The files can then be uploaded to e-readers or retailers. Be aware the Digital Rights Management on commercial books might hinder conversion. Calibre will not allow users to convert all books. DRM is there to protect the rights of published authors.

The app converts files into over a dozen digital forms, including ePub, mobi, docx, and pdf. Newer versions of the software may not include mobi as it has been discontinued by Amazon. In other words, Calibre can convert your docs into usable e-books with a few clicks. Unlike Vellum, Calibre only converts e-books, but the results are good and usable for upload to retailers.

There are several companion apps for the software that help manage larger libraries. But we’ll save that for another post.

Calibre is free and open-source. It’s easy to use for novices and experts alike. And with the open-source, experts can tweak the software if they wish. Did I mention the app is free, completely free? They accept donations which I’ve done twice now as I use it so much.

Next week, we will learn how to use Calibre.