calibre
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What is calibre?
calibre keeps all your ebooks in one library on your own computer, with the details you need to find any book quickly. It converts books into the format your e-reader needs and sends them to the device for you. It is free and open source and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
calibre is a desktop ebook manager for Windows, macOS and Linux. It can view, convert, edit and catalogue ebooks in all the major formats, fetch book metadata from the internet and send books to ebook reader devices. It can also download news as ebooks and share your library with other devices through a built-in web server.
Core capabilities
- Converts books from formats such as DOCX, PDF and HTML into EPUB, AZW3 or MOBI.
- Includes an ebook viewer with highlights, bookmarks, search and read aloud.
- Content server shares your library with phones and tablets through a browser.
One library for all your ebooks
calibre stores books and their metadata in a library that you manage from the main window. It can download metadata for books from the internet, and you can edit the details of one book or many at a time. Search and sort, saved searches, full-text search, virtual libraries and the tag browser help you find books in a large collection. Notes can be added for authors and series, and the cover grid and bookshelf views show the collection visually.
- Library
- Metadata
- Search
- Virtual libraries
Convert, read and edit books
The converter handles dozens of file types and can produce EPUB, AZW3, MOBI and PDF. Conversion settings cover look and feel, page setup, structure detection, table of contents and heuristic processing, and the same options are available on the command line through ebook-convert. The built-in viewer supports highlights, bookmarks, search, dictionary lookup and read aloud. The Edit book tool changes EPUB and Kindle books directly, with a live preview, a CSS panel and checkpoints.
- Conversion
- EPUB
- Viewer
- Editor
Install it yourself under GPL-3.0
calibre is a desktop application with installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, and a portable version is also offered. The Content server, started from Connect/share, serves your library to browsers on other devices, and the standalone calibre-server program can run it as a service on a Linux server. Fetch news turns articles from news sites and RSS feeds into ebooks, and a plugin explorer installs extensions. calibre is released under the GPL-3.0 licence and is developed by volunteers with support from donations.
- Desktop
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- GPL-3.0
Where it fits
Use cases
- 01
Organise a large ebook collection
Drag book files into calibre or use the Add books button, then download metadata for them from the internet. Edit metadata for one book or many at once, and use saved searches, full-text search, the tag browser and virtual libraries to find books quickly. The cover grid and bookshelf views give a visual overview of the collection.
- 02
Send books to an ebook reader
Connect the reader and wait for calibre to detect it, then select books and click Send to device. If a book is not yet in a format the reader supports, calibre converts it first. The welcome wizard sets calibre up for your reader the first time you start it.
- 03
Read your library from a phone or tablet
Click Connect/share and choose Start Content server, then open the address and port shown, port 8080 by default, in a browser on your home network. The browser viewer works with taps and swipes and remembers your reading position across devices. On a server without a desktop, run the standalone calibre-server program and turn on user accounts with --enable-auth.