Calibre 8.0
151 comments
·March 21, 2025piokoch
9dev
Calibre has the worst possible UI, it's just that nobody knows how to improve it. Icons are beyond meaningless, menus are nested and super-specific, functionality is hidden behind context menus and unintuitive click behaviour, hover title text is abused for option documentation.
Calibre is an incredible piece of software, but of all the things it does great, the UI isn't one of them.
thawawaycold
It really doesn't imho. It does by no mean follow the kind of "sleekness" that you expect from contemporary UIs, but it's perfectly functional and takes the least amount of effort of getting used to, at least from the point of view of someone that does not otherwise particularly love to invest too much time in convoluted UIs (á la GIMP :))
franga2000
> hover title text is abused for option documentation
That's...why it exists?? What else would you do with hover titles besides showing additional information about an options?
9dev
Hover titles are supposed to display complementary information, not be the primary means of documentation about what an option does.
jddj
Interesting.
I recently picked it up for the first time and had no issue whatsoever getting it to do what I needed it to do without any guidance.
Are tooltips abuse now?
9dev
> Are tooltips abuse now?
Here's an example screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/MSBDDmM
sgarland
> icons are beyond meaningless
What? How? “Add Books” is a book icon with a plus sign. “View” is a magnifying glass. “Remove Books” is a recycling symbol. “Preferences” is the usual settings-esque gear icon. “Device” is an e-reader. “Send To Device” is an e-reader with an arrow. I’ll grant you that some are vague, like “Download Metadata” being a globe, but the other major part you’ve glossed over is that all of these have their titles directly underneath them. There is no need to guess as to what they do.
> menus are nested and super-specific
I fail to see how that’s bad. Tree-like menus are extremely intuitive, and prevent having 50 items in a single column.
9dev
Permanent deletions use a "recycle" symbol, advanced search a cogwheel columns a stylised greek pillar (creative at least, that one), while download cover and input options share a downward chevron icon. There's lots of instances where the icons do more to distract you than help usability. Titles are shown underneath main toolbar actions, but not in the statusbar or modal windows, for example.
> I fail to see how that’s bad. Tree-like menus are extremely intuitive, and prevent having 50 items in a single column.
Stuff like "Edit metadata > Merge book records > Merge only formats in first selected book - delete others" feels extremely intuitive for you? Calibre tries to cram every workflow under the sun into tree menus, because it's the easiest way to make commands accessible in a GUI. Meanwhile, stuff like the book details panel is completely underused. And we didn't even talk about metadata plugboards yet.
I love Calibre for being the Swiss army knife of ebook management it is, but sometimes I want to have merely a humble knife to spread butter on my reading habits; something that lets me intuitively CRUD an ebook library without forcing me to think whether I want to add files to my book records, add data files to my book records, or add from folders and sub-folders.
Macha
I wonder if this is a difference in perspective between people who use it as an ebook library manager and as an ebook reader. The ebook reader UI is terrible. Like how do you jump to a page:
1. Right click on the book to get menu at the top of the window.
2. Click go to
3. Pick which type of "go to" you want ("location")
4. You now get a full screen UI with a single input box
5. Now you get to enter a page number.
Other ebook readers, even the crappy DRM-encumbered web apps, give you a slider.
---
Also rendering a page is very slow, so you scroll to go to the next page, and apparently nothing happens for quite some time. Also it takes two ticks of the scroll wheel to paginate, even in the absence of any internal scrolling. So you're wondering if the page is rendering or if you need to scroll more and potentially overshoot.
---
Opening the bookmarks UI reflows the page, potentially pushing what you wanted to bookmark out of sight onto the next page.
illiac786
Not the worst no, but it definitely could be more readable/discoverable.
But the functionality as an ebook manager is insanely great in my view.
I like the retro style, but new users are always completely lost with the UI, its off putting to a lot. I know, I introduced (or tried to) introduce some people to calibre in an effort to show them that Amazon what not the best and only way.
But, again, hats off to those making calibre. I will moan publicly when my PR for GUI improvement are not approved, until then I’ll shut up.
shinycode
I agree I hate to use it because of that, super un-intuitive
rout39574
I expect that a dozen humans coming to Calibre for the first time would articulate at least a half-dozen mutually conflicting perspectives on what would be "intuituve". I further expect that each of them would be mostly articulating "what I'm used to". If you unpack "Intuitive" it's mostly a tribal ingroup statement.
The FOSS author has a choice: they can attempt to chase whatever UX rabbits are scared up by The Market, or they can try to make it straightforward to learn their tool, despite its differences from the momentary fashion. I think the Calibre dev's done an excellent job there.
mppm
It had a perfectly fine UI before it transitioned to the current web-styled thing.
EasyMark
works great for me and I had zero problems figuring it out. What it does is complex. I'm not sure why it would confuse anyone who has used a computer and wants to keep their book files in one place.
haunter
OBS is also a good example of that
nntwozz
Mumble too
www.mumble.info
yzydserd
> Much improved Kobo support. calibre can now natively edit, view and convert KEPUB format files used by the Kobo. It also automatically converts EPUB to KEPUB when sending books to Kobo devices.
Great to see improved Kobo support.
AdmiralAsshat
Most of the Kobo support was already extant in plugins, but their position was precarious because the plugin maintainer for many of those had passed away.
For this release Kovid obsoleted many of those plugins by moving the functionality into the base application. He also has his own Kobo now, so he's able to take on that maintenance.
neor
Never had issues with Kobo devices and Calibre. Is there any advantage to converting books to KEPUB format?
latexr
I’ve been converting to KEPUB[1] for years and two things I noticed immediately as I started doing so and still stick in my mind are more accurate page numbers and faster page-turning performance. Can’t really say anymore how much of a difference it is, since I always convert.
shinycode
https://send.djazz.se uses this under the hood and can be self hosted
wiredfool
Some ebooks that have extremely long chapters have very slow page turning performance towards the end of the chapter. (e.g. most of the Terry Pratchett Discworlds that are essentially one large chapter)
There's probably an O(n^2) page break algo there which is fixed with the kepub format
Sverigevader
It can make a huge difference in performance and batterylife, as well as how well images are rendered. I learned this by chance through this (great) site https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks#kobo-f...
This was after a year or two of suffering through bad performance and a janky experience. Except for the purchased books of course. Somehow I never thought it was possible to fix.
windward
The books I buy from the Kobo store always have the page numbers match up with the rendered pages. The books I... acquire through other means... do not.
Gareth321
I haven't tested this yet but kepub imbeds progress data, which means this can probably be synced with Calibre. This is very nice for those of us which keep a larger library and change readers over time. Prior to this, we had to use a very janky workaround to sync this data. Most of us just didn't bother, so when moving books around, the progress data would reset.
9dev
Footnotes open in popup windows over the current page instead of teleporting you to the end of the book, is one feature that I love.
mariusor
I think that for some reason they use different renderers, and the kepub one consumes less battery.
inatreecrown2
I think you can get more format options with kepub, also page numbers are more accurate?
Moosdijk
I used addon kobo support with calibre previously. It looks like they incorporated their functionality into the main app.
Nice, but not game changing.
shiandow
Oh I'll have to test that one. Turns out that the text justification kobo uses is very sensitive to the HTML structure.
submeta
I absolutely love this app. It manages my whole digital library with hundreds of ebooks and pdf books. And its developer Kovid Goyal is very responsive. Have reached out to him several times in the forums, he answers questions, fixes bugs fast. And he releases updates every week I think.
Zotero and Calibre are my most important tools for managing my digital books and reading material.
walthamstow
Zotero looks interesting, what do you use it for? Does it work in conjunction with Calibre?
submeta
Zotero‘s target group is researchers and academics. But I use it for managing, organizing, and syncing my pdf reading material. So I can read my content on the iPad. Calibre can’t do that. I use Calibre to manage my Kindle content. And to manage my ebooks and pdf books. So there‘s some overlap.
I don’t like the reader of Calibre, I prefer reading on my Kindle or in the iPad. Hence Zotero.
But Zotero is way more than that. You can collect / reference / read and highlight research papers and publications. You can add content via browser plugin or via the DOI number of an article. Super smooth UX.
meerita
The funny thing about Calibre, which I've been using since the beginning, is that the app always has updates—I think they release one almost every day.
diggan
I've been using the Kindle iOS application for reading ebooks for maybe 5-6 years at this point, but last month I archived+de-drm'd all my Kindle books via Calibre and have them stored locally now. Thanks Amazon for forcing me to do this sooner rather than later.
But how do people consume these books on iOS today? I have yet to find any simple and not-get-in-the-way ebook reader for iOS, anyone have any recommendations?
presbyterian
There are a handful of decent e-reader apps on iOS right now, and unfortunately a few of the best, like KyBook, are dead and no longer being maintained. Of the available options now, the best two IMO are either Apple's own Books app or Yomu EBook Reader. ReadEra is also pretty good.
mouselett
Have you tried the built-in Books app on iOS? I find it to be a simple book reader that allows for ePub files to be opened from the Files app without having to sync them manually using something like a Mac.
diggan
> Have you tried the built-in Books app on iOS?
I have not, I still consider myself a iOS newbie and tend to avoid the Apple software because of their lack of features and usefulness. But I'll give Books a try, didn't realize it let you read local files, thanks a lot for the recommendation! :)
selykg
Apple Books is actually pretty good if you have epub. I have used it a fair bit in the past (I now use a Kobo, or physical books primarily). But Apple Books was the best I found on iOS. There were some others that were pretty good but they seem to be unmaintained and/or do some weird things that I didn't particularly like so I went back to Apple Books.
cassianoleal
Same. Either open directly from Files, or drag the books(s) you’re currently reading to it so it’s easier to open and find.
glimshe
Does the de-drm still work? I've tried it through the PC client method and it didn't work.
diggan
Don't know, sorry. I did this the 19th of February according to my logs, via the "DeDRM Plugin (v10.0.3)" in Calibre and it worked fine then at least. Seems this is the repository for the plugin: https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
For downloading the files themselves, I think I ended up using this: https://github.com/treetrum/amazon-kindle-bulk-downloader
Edit: Oh, just saw the warning from the bulk downloader's README now :/
> As of 26th February 2025, Amazon has removed the ability to download backups of your Kindle books. Unfortunately, this means that this tool is no longer functional.
glimshe
Oh well. While before authors could make money off legit users who wouldn't buy without this ability, now these users will have to skip the middle man and go straight to the pirates.
A_D_E_P_T
I think that it might still be possible to connect your Kindle to your computer via USB cable and back up the files that way.
goosedragons
Depends on the method. If you have an old Kindle that doesn't get KFX files like a Kindle 3 that should work. Some older versions of Kindle Desktop can still work but maybe not for all books.
The Kobo (obok) and ADE methods are still fine and easy to do. I wouldn't bother buying new books from Amazon anymore personally.
SanjayMehta
1. Bluefire Reader: this does epub and PDFs although I’ve rarely used it for the latter. Also handles Adobe DRM which I have personally never used. A couple of issues I’ve noticed with this app: it crashes when you delete a book. Search does not work in some epub files.
2. tiReader: handles more file formats than Bluefire, but is slower and has a strange UI which confuses me even after using it for months. Search works more consistently than in Bluefire.
3. Apple’s own Books app. I don’t like how it mangles epub files rendering them unexportable but it’s great for PDFs
skydhash
> But how do people consume these books on iOS today?
I don't read much on iOS, but I bought MapleRead[0]. It's quite nice and support OPDS endpoints. Books has a nicer UI, but I dislike the focus on the marketplace (same with Music, I don't like not being able to disable the store when I'm not using it and don't plan to)
Dennip
I use one called KyBook atm that i've got no real complaints about. If you can set up calibre-web or something similar you can get local network sync working and it can see your library when you're at home and download the books to the device for when you're away.
n8henrie
I just send the liberated epub back to my kindle address (via calibre) and read them as "documents" in the kindle app for iOS. Unless this has recently changed it works fine, and (critically) my last read location syncs with my Kindle.
theshrike79
Calibre is IMO best used in a Docker container, set it up once and then forget it.
Drop your books in a directory on your NAS, let Calibre pick them up from there and do your actual processing with Calibre-web.
thawawaycold
I'm repeatedly telling myself to do that because I've ended up having multiple copies of the same documents scattered over different devices instead of centralizing my calibre instance. When I considered doing that on fated weekend I abandoned the idea under the impression of not having the possibility of sync reading position, annotations on PDFs and most importantly lacking the support for my e-book... though most likely I simply missed the finer details on how to do all of that
theshrike79
I think you can use Calibre-web as a "store" for Kobo devices pretty easily (basically swap one URL in a config file on the device).
I gave up on the synced reading position at the same time I sold my Kindle, but I can live with that.
Getting stuff on the device is a bit of a hassle too, because I can't exactly go plug it in to my NAS, but exporting 50+ books to a directory and copying them manually takes a few minutes and I'm set for a year or more - so it's time well spent :D
Having everything (except for comics) consolidated in one place is the main reason I tolerate Calibre's quirks and eccentricities. It's ... opinionated, but it's still by far the best tool available for the price.
latexr
> Getting stuff on the device is a bit of a hassle too, because I can't exactly go plug it in to my NAS
Kobo can connect to Dropbox. They hide the option on older models but you can re-enable it with NickelMenu[1]. If you don’t want the Dropbox app installed on your machine, you can use Rclone[2] to sync files to it on demand. With a bit more setup, you can even set up Rclone on the Kobo itself and trigger it via NickelMenu to pull new books. This last part is a bit more involved.
vincentkriek
Kobo Sync as it's called in the documentation (https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/wiki/Kobo-Integratio...) works very well, and is very easily enabled (updating a single line in a config file on the ereader that appears when you mount it on your computer).
It will convert books to Kepub automatically and you can select to only sync certain shelfs.
awill
If true this would be a huge reason to get a kobo over a kindle. I use calibre and have owned multiple kindle and just plug in once every few months to copy books over usb.
thawawaycold
nice to know! would be great to have some similar degree of support for boox devices but I gather it would be much more fiddly
ChrisRR
What's the benefit to putting it in a docker container?
Gareth321
Yeah I see no benefit here. The benefit they're referring to is pointing to a separate library location, but that can be done using the normal app.
theshrike79
Because then I can store all the books on my NAS and easily share the Calibre library with calibre-web, which again is accessible from the internet.
I could install it on my laptop, but then nobody else could access it when it's in my backpack :D
ChrisRR
But why containerise it on your NAS?
paprots
[dead]
ajsnigrutin
Why add docker overhead, if you can just natively install it like any other software?
infecto
I think the OP was unclear. He is suggesting running it on a NAS or similar, storing the files on network storage and then simply being able to use calibre-web instead of having to install it on different devices.
Gareth321
For any newbies, this is not a panacea. Calibre Web is vastly more restricted in functionality.
theshrike79
I can, but don't want to run it on my desktop or laptop. Then it's not available when either is turned off.
skydhash
I have three calibre instances. One one my desktop as it's always turned on. One on my home server, where it serves as a content server. One on my laptop if I'm away from home. I use rsync (Easy to get conflicts with Syncthing) to propagate changes.
When I'm on the laptop and I get some new ebooks, I just put them in a staging folder that I push over to the desktop over sftp. I may also add them to the laptop's instance and rsync the folder, but I tried to only add books to the desktop instance.
I used flat folder organization on my ereader and don't use calibre to transfer files to it. Mostly because I use koreader, which doesn't scan the storage. Also, I have my whole library on the device, so calibre is there for backup and cleaning.
Hikikomori
I use google drive with my Kobo, just drop the files there and its synced over wifi. Am I missing out on something with Calibre?
theshrike79
Calibre can update the metadata on your books semi-automatically. Grab hi-res covers, get the back cover texts, mark the book as a part of a series (and which number it is).
It can also automatically convert the books to different optimised formats, for example: you don't need a 4000x3000 resolution full colour front cover if you're uploading the book to a 6" BW eInk reader.
Also Kobo has their own "KEPUB" format that is optimised for their devices and converting standard EPUB to that format results in faster page turns etc.
lxgr
Calibre is amazing, but I have one big gripe with it: In its default settings, both the main application and the ebook reader insist on modifying the source file even when only viewing it (to store the current page).
I think I've even seen (self-published) ePubs getting contaminated with these annoying bookmark tags, and as a result had Calibre open them on some random page (presumably precisely the one at which the editor or author have closed it before deciding that it's now fit for publishing).
Imagine VLC storing the current playback position in every audio or video file! I think not even iTunes does/did that, unless the user actively edits some metadata, and that wasn't very considerate with source files either.
And then, on the other hand, Calibre does not automatically propagate actual metadata updates to the ePub file even after explicitly editing them in the library manager view – the one place where that's usually arguably user intent... (Except when opening and closing the book source editor without touching anything, because that rewrites the metadata at every opening time in its default settings, i.e. not at saving time! Make it make sense...)
The most infuriating thing is that these decisions can all be overridden with some preferences – it just happens that the default is exactly the opposite of what I'd expect to happen. (The reader should not write things by default, but if it must, the metadata editor should damn well too.)
scrollop
Oh, that is very annoying - thanks, will find the settings.
TMWNN
> The most infuriating thing is that these decisions can all be overridden with some preferences
What settings should we change to avoid this behavior you described?
yazantapuz
As always, many complaints about the UI. I will say what I always say about Calibre: I love Calibre, and I double-love its user interface, maybe a little arcane, but free of modern ux nonsense.
xd1936
Is the author still weird about maintaining his own dependencies[1]? I haven't used this program in a while.
ronjouch
This specific point about maintaining his own version of python2 to not move to python3 was addressed by Calibre contributors who did the job (that author didn't want to do) of migrating to python3.
CodeyWhizzBang
I am very struck by this remark:
"Kovid has stated numerous times that any patches which work towards python3 compatibility without hurting python2 functionality or performance would be happily accepted. Oddly enough, no one has ever taken him up on that, though a number of people have insisted it is very important that he himself do that work."
poulpy123
Still not possible to use your own directory architecture manifestly
bayindirh
I don't find this as a grave problem, since I see the folder as an exposed database which I shouldn't muck with. What's your gripe about it?
eviks
An exposed database you can manage/navigate with better tools like your file manager or the Everything search engine without having to launch a much less frequently used app
ajsnigrutin
And not just that, it's also future-proof, so if calibre ever "dies", and you find your old backups 10, 20 years after, you'll still be able to get all the books out!
This is not true for many programs, even opensource, where data gets stored in many different obscure ways that cannot be retrieved/restored later, sometimes even if the software still exists (but is a few versions newer and doesn't recognize old formats anymore).
null
skydhash
You don't have too. You can actually script something out as the actual database is sqlite and the information is replicated inside each book folder.
poulpy123
I already have my files sorted and organised
Macha
I'd settle for at least not converting kanji to pinyin
lukebuehler
Question for Calibre fans, what do you use to convert your ebooks to audio books or just general TTS?
And, since managing your own (usualy de-DRMed) files is important to you, do you also feel like you want offline audio files?
I'm asking because I'm working on an app for myself that converts my Calibre and Zotero books to clean mp3s for listening on my own. I also find that offline conversion results in much better quality TTS outputs instead of apps like ElevenReader or Speechify.
fivestones
Is your app open source? What do you use for the offline conversion that gives you better quality than the ElevenReader app?
Interested to try it out.
ReptileMan
Nice to see. Although for the reading of the books itself I have moved to Thorium. Much smoother experience. And use Calibre for organizing. Their built in reader needs some love and attention.
Edit: I meant Thorium Reader https://www.edrlab.org/software/thorium-reader/
thawawaycold
I'm looking up Thorium right now, I initially assumed you were referring to the homonymous browser (also their website feels organized a bit weirdly to me). Seems a solid option for epubs, admittedly the builtin calibre reader is a bit lackluster.
mdaniel
There was recently an LCP content extraction blog that targeted Thorium's Chrome Dev Protocol: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43378627
This is one of those application that I love. Does it job well, nobody is trying to make interface "modern", that is use sweet colors, big squares everywhere with weirdo icons that you need to guess what they are supposed to mean. Starts fast, works fast, does not encourage me do buy some subscriptions, register somewhere, connect to some "service", just does it job perfectly.
Unfortunately with every year there are less and less such applications, but they are still out there, e.g. SumatraPDF or KeePassXC.