I have close to 18k ebooks in a library, and every other program I've tried to use in the past falls over dead when facing that.
Calibre doesn't fall over. Instead, it happily and quickly sorts and searches and downloads metadata, and syncs to my Kindle (converting formats if required in the process).
It's the most un-Mac-like program I use on my Mac, certainly, and some days I might even describe it as ugly or unfocused, but there are literally no alternatives that work nearly as well, and there's something to be said for that. And "unfocused" just means it has a lot of features I don't need, but other people may rely on those features and not need the features I use.
I don't like it but it's the best we have. If there would be more lightweight, prettier alternative I'd use that but for now there really isn't an alternative and I'm grateful for the author to keep working on it.
for the same reason I like Emacs. It's just about the only ebook tool that literally does everything. From being a good reader in itself, to conversion, to mailing books to my kindle etc.
I've been using it for years and I begrudge/resent it every time I have to use it; I only use it as little as possible. I'm baffled by all the people who heap praise on it.
afaik it's the only ebook manager + automatic metadata search + conversion tool between multiple formats that exists. Unfortunately for me, the author refuse to implement a functionality to reuse an existing book repository architecture
Despite the godawful UI, feature-wise it's a one of a kind software, so some people are forced to use it.
> Despite the godawful UI
Simple is beautiful. It's also not that hard to use.
I have close to 18k ebooks in a library, and every other program I've tried to use in the past falls over dead when facing that.
Calibre doesn't fall over. Instead, it happily and quickly sorts and searches and downloads metadata, and syncs to my Kindle (converting formats if required in the process).
It's the most un-Mac-like program I use on my Mac, certainly, and some days I might even describe it as ugly or unfocused, but there are literally no alternatives that work nearly as well, and there's something to be said for that. And "unfocused" just means it has a lot of features I don't need, but other people may rely on those features and not need the features I use.
I wish most software would be like Calibre. Feature-packed yet discoverable with an almost no bullshit / no wasted space UI
It does what people want/need - - mostly conversions, metadata edition and sync with an e-reader - with a relatively frictionless interface.
I use it to convert ebook formats and remove DRM when needed, it does that efficiently and easily, I am not aware of any serious competitors.
I don't like it but it's the best we have. If there would be more lightweight, prettier alternative I'd use that but for now there really isn't an alternative and I'm grateful for the author to keep working on it.
for the same reason I like Emacs. It's just about the only ebook tool that literally does everything. From being a good reader in itself, to conversion, to mailing books to my kindle etc.
For way too many years, there was no other way to read Apple's own E-books on a Mac. It was baffling. That's how I discovered Calibre.
Now that Books was finally added to Mac OS, I've put all of them in there so I can sync collections across all my (albeit Apple-only) devices.
I've been using it for years and I begrudge/resent it every time I have to use it; I only use it as little as possible. I'm baffled by all the people who heap praise on it.
I suspect the reason you have to use it is because it does things that no other piece of software does. Some people find that praiseworthy.
I really like the ability to email an ebook to my Kindle, even auto-converting it to the correct format.
afaik it's the only ebook manager + automatic metadata search + conversion tool between multiple formats that exists. Unfortunately for me, the author refuse to implement a functionality to reuse an existing book repository architecture