Hummingbird download program. Program for reading electronic books. What Caliber can do

The name of the program: Caliber
Program version: 3.46.0
Interface language: Multilingual
Treatment: not required

System requirements:

Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 (32-64bit)

Description:
Caliber is a simple and convenient library management program and universal converter e-books with a lot of possibilities.

The program will help you organize your library of books without much difficulty.

It also includes:
a utility for converting one format to another, a news integrator, a program for synchronizing data with an electronic reading device, and a good viewer.

It's a must-have for fans of reading books on portable devices. mobile devices Oh.

Library management
Caliber provides the ability to manage your book collection. The concept of the program is that many identical books in different formats are presented as one book in the library.
You can sort and search books by metadata such as: title, author, publication date, date added, size, book series, rating, etc. There is also support for tags and comments and reviews.
You can easily find the book you need using a simple search or use the advanced search.
The program organizes the books you add into a clear hierarchical folder structure on your hard drive.
Plus caliber can search online book metadata and covers by title/author or ISBN. The metadata search system is defined by plugins and can be easily extended independently.
Book converter
Caliber supports converting many formats.
Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT
Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TCR, TXT
Converting has many options, such as changing the font size, creating a book structure and footnotes, etc.
Synchronization with readers
Caliber uses a modular reader driver system that allows you to add new devices. The program supports many devices. When synchronizing, Caliber itself selects the most suitable format or, if the required one is not available, converts it to the required one. It also adds all the necessary metadata and information about book series to the reader.
Downloading news and converting it into a book
Caliber already contains 3 hundred news sources. And after reading the manual, it will not be difficult for you to add new sources
Built-in book reader
Caliber contains built-in readers for all supported book formats.
Web content server
Caliber contains a built-in web server for remote library management. She can also download and send books to you by email.

Have you encountered difficulties reading an e-book due to incompatible formats and software? Or maybe you decided to create or organize an electronic library on your PC. What to do? Use specialized software. Let's look at what the Caliber program is, how to install and use it.

What is it for

There are books on the Internet in the following formats: EPub, Mobi. How to read them? The existing one does not always cope with such formats. What to do if there are a lot of books? A good solution is to create an electronic library with subsequent synchronization. It is more convenient to control it from a PC than from a reader. Higher speed of information processing. These and other useful functions are solved by the Caliber program in Russian.
If the reader holds a lot of books, the indexing speed will be lower. Therefore, it is convenient to save the library on your PC and load 1-2 books that you read into the reader. Let's look at how to download the Caliber program and work with it.

What Caliber can do

The incompatibility of formats prompted developers to create the Caliber program. Its capabilities are:

Works with the library. Save books in different formats, edit metadata;
Reading. Supports work with 24 formats. Has clear navigation and page viewing;
Ability to access the library through a browser;
Receiving news from online sources;
Synchronization. Works with devices from different manufacturers. Downloading occurs via the Internet, cable, local network;
Conversion. Allows you to save the book in a format convenient for you. Next, send it to a reader or email;
Working with additional add-ons. Using plugins, the functionality of the program is expanded.

How to install

To download the Caliber program in Russian for free, go to its official website at: http://calibre-ebook.com/. Click “Download Caliber”.
Select the OS.
A window will open where we will download the latest version. Click the “Download” link.
The download will start automatically. The installer file will have the extension "msi". We launch it by double-clicking on it with the left mouse button. We agree with the license. When the installation is complete, click the “Finish” button.
The installation wizard will open. Select the language and folder where the library will be located.
In the next step, select the reading device. The screenshot shows that devices from many manufacturers are supported.

If the device is not in the list, select the Generic profile.

Depending on the choice will be available additional features. For example, if you chose Kindle, sending will occur via the Internet. It is now possible to specify the recipient's email address. Click Next.

The program shell uses the Qt library (a framework for software development in C++).
The program will start automatically.

Interface

All program functions are grouped. They are accessed using the buttons located at the top of the window.
On the left is a panel that allows you to manage the library. A search filter by tags is available. The column located in the center displays a list of references. On the right is information about the selected book. It is taken from the metadata.
At the bottom, when you click the “Layout” button, switching modes will be displayed. This makes work comfortable.

How to add

There are two ways to download a book. Find the “Add” button. When you click on the black triangle, the following options will appear:

From one directory;
Taking into account subcategories;
Add from archive;
By ISBN;
Load a blank book.

How to read

Select the book and click “View”.
A new window will open. The navigation bar is located at the top. There is a search, the ability to create bookmarks so that the text opens from the place where you left off. Pages are scrolled using buttons; if necessary, switch to a mode where there is no pagination. Customize the font and text layout.

The main advantage of the viewer is support for many formats

How to convert a book from one format to another

Select the book, then click the “Convert” button.

In the new window at the top right, select the desired format.

News feeds

The developers have added a feature that allows you to read news offline. Click the “Collect” button. A list of news feeds will open. Select from the list or add a new channel and set up download schedules.

Synchronization

The most convenient way is using a cable. To download to the device, connect the reader to the PC. Select the book, right-click on it, then “Send”.
Other methods are available by clicking the connect button.

Working with plugins

Thanks to open source code and API documentation (available at: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/creating_plugins.html), the functionality of the program is expanded. New additions are available on the official blog at: http://blog.caliber-ebook.com/. To work with them, go to “Options” - “Get plugin”.

They are divided into 4 categories:

Custom. To create books, maintain statistics;
Receiving metadata from sites;
Conversion. Contained in the program;
Connecting to a device.

To install them, click “Options” - “Get”.

TOP 3 useful plugins

Save Format. Changes file export. Changes saving formats;
Find Duplicates. Searches for duplicates (by titles) using metadata;
Reading List. Creating reading lists.

Conclusion

We looked at how to download Caliber for free. It should be installed for all e-book readers. Supports common formats. Has a user-friendly interface. Thanks to its open source code, it allows you to install additional extensions that make synchronization and operation easier.

Part 1: Managing Your Library, Reading Books, Sharing Your Library

The e-book market meets the demands of a very demanding buyer. What's even better is that these devices are becoming more affordable and technologically advanced. However, along with support for many document formats, there is no functional software for working with e-books. As a result, the user is content with limited tools out of the box.

One of the most pressing issues is creating an electronic library on a computer, followed by synchronization via USB or wireless connection. Equally important is exporting books in a format suitable for reading on a device. The Caliber program will help you cope with such tasks.

Actually, the incompatibility of formats, software and operating systems was the impetus for the development of Caliber in 2006. Kovid Goyal, the author of the project, created a converter of books into the LRF format, relevant for Sony Reader. Since then, the program has acquired many functions and works under Windows control, Mac OS and Linux (the review will cover the Windows version). The main features of the program are revealed in the following areas:

Library management
The program allows you to store books of various formats, combine them into collections, edit metadata (information about the author, publisher, etc.), search for information on the library, perform operations with files, such as import, export, deletion.
Reading books
Caliber can be used to read or preview books in CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB format books , TCR, TXT, TXTZ, with convenient navigation and customization of page display.
Web server
The Caliber backend is one of the most interesting opportunities, thanks to which users can access the digital library through a browser. The web shell is necessary when working with a number of devices over a wireless connection, as well as for organizing access to the library over a local network or via the Internet.
Collecting and storing news from online sources
At first glance, this function applies specifically to RSS aggregators. In the case of Caliber, you can create a file from RSS feed news for reading on electronic device, including on schedule.
Device synchronization
Caliber supports all kinds of devices from well-known vendors and allows you to download books different ways: via the Internet, via a local network or directly when connected via a USB cable.
Converting eBook formats
The program has a built-in powerful converter that works with popular file formats (see above) and exports to AZW3, EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR , TXT, TXTZ. Thanks to this, it is easy to save the book in the desired format and immediately send it to your device or send it by email.
Plugin support
It is important that Caliber supports extensions. Thanks to this, users have the opportunity to improve the functionality of the program by enabling this or that option freelance, through a plugin. If you wish, you can write your own addition, corresponding to the developer’s website.

Documentation is only available on English language, and not all key functions explored in numerous Caliber reviews. However, it cannot be said that a news aggregator or web server is of less interest than a book converter. Therefore, it makes sense to consider the program’s tools in detail.

First launch of Caliber

At the first stage, the Calibri setup wizard prompts you to select a location for storing books, as well as localization. The list contains Russian, but the translation is poorly done. For this reason, during familiarization with the program, moments of misunderstanding arise. Although, for the most part, the translation is acceptable.

The second stage is choosing a device to synchronize with Calibri. An impressive number of devices from the following manufacturers are supported: Amazon, Android, Apple, Barnes & Noble, SONY (see screenshot). If the device is not listed, you can select a generic profile.

Depending on your selection, you will have access to some options and additional information. For example, in order to synchronize with applications on iOS in the future, you may need to configure the Caliber virtual server (see the corresponding chapter of the review), which will be discussed. In the case of Kindle, if books are sent via the Internet, you can specify the recipient's email.

After closing the dialog, the program starts. A few words need to be said about the interface. The fact is that most user comments relate not to the functional, but specifically to the visual side of the program. The Caliber shell uses a cross-platform library, as a result of which the “non-native” interface is somewhat out of touch with the general Windows style. A more significant drawback is that scrolling lists and opening dialogs is not always smooth, and slow responsiveness in general.

However, these “roughnesses” are fully compensated by the functionality of Caliber and cross-platform in particular: here you can recall the supported devices and OS, between which import, export and synchronization are possible.

The Caliber toolbar has a clear distinction between functions; all actions are grouped and displayed as buttons on the Actions panel at the top of the window. Full-screen mode allows you to see all available commands on the panel, but in a more compact mode, one bar is not enough.

Icons can be made smaller, and button layout can be customized through the “Toolbar” section. Context menus, columns and other interface elements can also be modified.

Library management

The main window of the program is represented by the library, which is the core of the program and its main tool. In the left panel, a filter by attributes and search (tag browser) are available. The central column is reserved for a list of books. On the right is information on the selected list item, taken from the book's metadata. Switching modes are available at the bottom of the window, where you can additionally hide one of the side panels or switch the display mode of books - in the form of covers or a grid. Thanks to this, the panels are flexibly customizable, making viewing books informative and convenient.

Initially, most columns in Caliber are enabled: author, date, size, rating, etc. In order to change established order, you need to use the context menu by clicking on any list header, or drag the column header to the desired location. Using the template language, you can create columns with your own data, including metadata (the “Add custom column” option).

There are several ways to add books. The most obvious is the Add Books button on the toolbar. The available drop-down list options include adding a book from one directory (option 1), adding taking into account subdirectories (option 2) or several (option 3) books per directory. You can also create an empty record or add a book by number.

It has been noticed that to add a small number of books, it is enough to drag the books into the window, but adding folders and catalogs is only possible through the interface. Although you need to be careful, since as a result of indiscriminate import you will have to clean the list of unnecessary elements. It also makes sense to define a file ignore list in the “Adding Books” menu, “Automatic Adding” tab.

The second way to replenish your library is to search for and purchase books on public and commercial sources (“Download books” action). Caliber only provides a shell for searching by title, author, and keywords. Other functions (purchase, download) are available through the browser after going to the site. The list of stores is customizable; by excluding unnecessary elements, you can optimize the search.

There are clearly not enough Russian-language resources, with the exception of those placed at the end of the list. The available search in Russian does not cover the widest area: in fact, this is information from.

When you add a book, the files are automatically saved on your computer in subfolders organized by the “Author” and “Title” attributes. There is no point in adding files to the Caliber directory yourself: they will be deleted.

Metadata is stored in a separate metadata.db file for each book, which is also convenient for moving the database, creating a backup copy, or, say, synchronizing with Dropbox or similar services. However, from Google Drive, at the time of writing, the . It's easy to import or export libraries to another computer - just move the folder with books and specify it in the step-by-step setup wizard.

Thanks to virtual libraries, books can be organized into collections. The interface supports tabs (“Virtual library - Show virtual libraries as tabs”), which makes managing a large library even more convenient. As a result, the necessary books will always be at hand and searching will not be so in demand.

By the way, searching through several virtual libraries is not supported; it is carried out only through a common database. Otherwise, this feature is integrated throughout Caliber. Above the center column is available quick search, it acts as a filter. Another way to view is Quickview mode: by highlighting a value in a column and pressing Q, a list is available by selected criterion: for example, by author, publisher, genre.

Advanced search (button to the left) allows you to search by content as well as fields. You can use logical operators, regular expressions, and tags in the input line. Requests can be saved for later use (use the field in the upper right corner for this).

Metadata editor

Experience with Caliber suggests that search is particularly effective when using metadata. The more information about a file, the greater the chance of quickly finding it using the Tag Explorer.

In the editing dialog, fields such as title, author, series, tags, text/HTML comment and others are available. If you have a book's ISBN number, the easiest way to get the necessary information is from the Internet, using data from the services isbndb.com, Amazon, Google Books. In the settings, sources are pre-selected and fields for importing information are marked; the downloaded metadata can be checked against previous information.

In general, there are several things that are handy when working with metadata. First, books can be edited in order by selecting them in the list and clicking the edit button. When importing data from the Internet, just select the files, select the “Download metadata and covers” command - all files will be processed in order. The second point - even in manual mode Many fields do not need to be filled out from scratch; it is enough to use drop-down lists in the fields. And thirdly, the editor supports search and replace, as well as regular expressions.

Reading books in Caliber

The Caliber viewer is available in a separate window by clicking the “View” button on the action bar. The file to read can be selected both in the library window and directly through the application menu.

At the top there is a navigation area, from where you can move to a position in the text or by following the index. There is a text search. You can navigate between chapters through the “Contents” slide-out panel; the corresponding button is located to the left of the viewing area. It is possible to create bookmarks in a document. The help mode allows you to hover the cursor over the text to find out the coordinates of a particular section of the paragraph in the form of a number; subsequently, it is entered into the navigation field using the index.

You can maximize the window to full size or switch to full screen mode. Pages are turned using keys or buttons on the panel. It is possible to switch to multi-threaded mode (without pagination), but for some reason you cannot switch to two-page display. There are also no other options that are quite obvious to the viewer: adjustment to the width or size of the window. Among other “little things” that are familiar from their presence in e-books: there is no option to switch to “night” reading mode, you cannot leave notes in the book.

On the other hand, this Caliber app offers many visual options: choosing a font typeface, adjusting the placement of text on the page, colors, background, and swiping behavior. Page display is also controlled using easy-to-understand CSS syntax, and you can add a style sheet in the Custom Style Sheet tab. On the Mobileread thematic forum there are ready-to-use examples that will be useful to all those who are not familiar with CSS syntax.

Perhaps the most strong point viewer - it supports many formats. However, reading PDF files is problematic due to long opening times, slow content scrolling, and incorrect display.

DJVU format files do not open even if there is a corresponding plugin in Caliber, although they are perfectly recognized in .

Thus, in order to step to a qualitatively new level, this application lacks several standard options and conflict-free recognition of at least the DJVU and PDF formats.

Library sharing

Sharing access may be needed if the book needs to be transferred to another device (Kindle, Android, iOS) over a local network, via wireless connection or via the Internet. In the case of iOS, the server is needed to read books for applications such as Stanza or Marvin.

The server actually does not require any preliminary configuration. As a last resort, you should check your firewall or antivirus settings to see if the port used by Caliber is blocked. The network access configuration is located in the settings section of the same name. Here you can set the username and password for connection. When organizing access to the library via the Internet, you need to configure port forwarding on the router.

To start the server, use the command “Connect/Share - Start content server”. As a result, the server content is available at http://:8080/.

Each book has a permanent address and description based on metadata. The user can navigate through the content: through virtual libraries, tags, publishers and other attributes, and track new items. Search is supported - in earlier versions there were problems with Russian-language names, but now there are none. There are various display modes, including for mobile devices.

As you can see, the web server is quite simple, you can use it for personal purposes or share books with friends. A “full-fledged” version of the server lacks, at a minimum, access rights and advanced security settings. But this is clearly not a priority function of the program.

Another networking feature of Caliber is sending e-books by email. A mailing list is used for this. When sending, books can be converted into one or more specified formats, specified through a separator.

For Android devices, there is an application that can be used to create a wireless connection between Caliber and your phone.

Program interface: Russian

Platform:XP/7/Vista/8

Manufacturer: Kovid Goyal

Website: caliber-ebook.com

Caliber– a rather interesting utility for all fans of e-books, which has quite a lot of organization capabilities electronic libraries, reading e-books and converting file formats between each other.

Key features of Caliber

To begin with, we note that this software is absolutely free and has no restrictions on use. In addition, the application is cross-platform and can work in completely different operating systems. Finally, the program has an open source source, so that, if desired, any user can change the program at his own discretion or add something new to it.

As for the organization of the electronic library, it has a clear hierarchical structure. Moreover, after organizing the e-books, in the absence of a program, you can still easily find the required file on your computer’s hard drive. Enough interesting feature The organization of files is also due to the fact that the same book in different formats is presented in the library structure as one book. In addition, the program supports a fairly impressive number of e-book formats. These are CBZ, CBR, CBC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR and TXT. The most interesting thing is that the program easily allows you to convert formats between each other. And, whatever. And, of course, the application also provides a built-in “book reader”.

A rather unusual feature of this utility is that it is capable of preparing files for use on completely different mobile devices or readers. Moreover, when synchronizing with such devices, the program automatically selects the required format, and if it is not available, converts it to the most suitable format for a certain type of device. Plus, the application is capable of independently searching the Internet for, say, book covers and uploading metadata to digital libraries. In addition, there is support for news that can be converted into a regular e-book. To date, more than three hundred news feeds are supported.

Finally, the application contains a web server for remote access and management of libraries and allows you to send books using accounts Email. In addition, the search system is quite interesting. This can be done by title, author, publication date, date added, size, book series, rating, and much more. There is also support for tags, comments and reviews.

So, we can say that this application is quite universal, both in terms of reading and organizing electronic libraries, and in terms of converting various formats of electronic books among themselves. Moreover, the program is an indispensable tool when synchronizing with different types readers, because it automatically determines the required format for playback on a particular device. In general, it was completed with an A plus.

Caliber is a program for Windows, Mac and Linux that has absolutely all the tools for working with books. This is not just “another e-reader.” Caliber allows you to convert books to different formats, use your computer as a cloud library, and have access to all the major online libraries.

And, of course, in addition to everything else, Caliber is still “another e-reader.”

When you first launch Caliber, it will offer to use your computer as a cloud library for mobile devices. The function is very interesting and allows you to connect from your gadget to your computer and download from it all the books that you have selected in advance. Unfortunately, this feature only works with iOS devices that have the Marvin reader installed, which we already did.

Caliber's search includes resources such as Litres, Google Books, Amazon, Biblio, and dozens of others. However, no one is stopping you from downloading your books yourself and then uploading them to Caliber.

A separate advantage was the conversion function. The program supports more than 15 formats and allows you to customize every little detail during conversion. For me, as a person who often converts PDF books to EPUB or FB2, this turned out to be very useful. Because in other programs the layout is very confusing.

Caliber is the ultimate tool for working with books. I don't think I can think of a single competitor. If you often download books from your computer, convert them, or read them, then you should definitely try it.