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The Calibre Content Server

manual.calibre-ebook.com

71–80 of 145 posts

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#71
post #4

I've always just used Calibre because it's a nice way for me to strip DRM and then archive my books. I've never really used it any kind of active way. Since I buy pretty much everything from Amazon, I already effectively have a content server. Does anybody have a link to an online server (with public domain books)? I'm curious to see what the presentation is like. What's the typography like? Does the screen dim after…

My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible. Most of my purchases are from Weightless Books [1] which sells only DRM free books and magazines. Granted, this is a limited and small market (SF related stuff) but if I have a choice of getting a book DRM free from a vendor or getting it from Amazon, I would avoid Amazon, even if its price was cheaper. [1] https://weightlessbooks.com/

> My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible.

This severely limits what ebooks one can read. I used to torrent DRM-free epubs and buy the paper copy so I could support the work without appearing to support DRM. Lately though I've been skipping the torrent part and just buying the paper books.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#72

Related but slightly off topic: Am I the only one who is turned off to calibre due to how "heavy" and clunky it feels? I suspect this is due to the program being written in Java. I think the author does great work maintaining the project but frankly wish it was more modern. Perhaps this is a good side project for me to delve into ;) EDIT: thanks to users who clarified that Calibre is written in python.

First things first its python and qt. To me it feels quite responsive. I also have no idea what "modern" means in this context unless you mean flat with few buttons or options. Calibre can be styled by choosing a qt5 style for your system. If your default is ugly you ought to change it. Such styles can be chosen in your gui configuration menu or via qt5ct at least under linux. This is what it looks like for me. http:…

Calibre feels like a set of tools which can be accessed by a UI, its not really intuitively organized. There's not much of a sense of a hierarchy of concerns for instance. Still, credit to the maintainer, it's an amazing piece of work.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#74
post #73

Semi-related: I wrote a fb messenger bot [1] which can send any ebooks (including epub) to your kindle. It's handy if you've only got access to an epub, and a bit less clunky than sending via email. [1] https://m.me/kindleebooksender

Just so you're aware, I added it and Messenger automatically sent the "Get Started" text, and the typing animation ran for about 30 seconds until it stopped with nothing happening.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#75
post #73

Semi-related: I wrote a fb messenger bot [1] which can send any ebooks (including epub) to your kindle. It's handy if you've only got access to an epub, and a bit less clunky than sending via email. [1] https://m.me/kindleebooksender

I'm not on messenger but that's pretty cool. Is it one at a time? What's the upload limit?

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#76
post #4

I've always just used Calibre because it's a nice way for me to strip DRM and then archive my books. I've never really used it any kind of active way. Since I buy pretty much everything from Amazon, I already effectively have a content server. Does anybody have a link to an online server (with public domain books)? I'm curious to see what the presentation is like. What's the typography like? Does the screen dim after…

My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible. Most of my purchases are from Weightless Books [1] which sells only DRM free books and magazines. Granted, this is a limited and small market (SF related stuff) but if I have a choice of getting a book DRM free from a vendor or getting it from Amazon, I would avoid Amazon, even if its price was cheaper. [1] https://weightlessbooks.com/

Kobo has a fairly excellent selection of ebooks, some of which have DRM, but there are straightforward tools for removing it, if that's your cup of tea.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#77
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible. Most of my purchases are from Weightless Books [1] which sells only DRM free books and magazines. Granted, this is a limited and small market (SF related stuff) but if I have a choice of getting a book DRM free from a vendor or getting it from Amazon, I would avoid Amazon, even if its price was cheaper. [1] https://weightlessbooks.com/

> My response is to avoid buying ebooks from Amazon if possible. This severely limits what ebooks one can read. I used to torrent DRM-free epubs and buy the paper copy so I could support the work without appearing to support DRM. Lately though I've been skipping the torrent part and just buying the paper books.

I wonder how many people do this and if it over inflates piracy figures or physical book readership

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much as I love pyGTK, apps written in it feel pretty chunky :/ Here's looking at you, Mint Menu (not nearly as bad as Electron though)

I disagree, while Electron apps have trade offs, I never experience the experience of clunkiness I find with Calibre.

Try resizing a window in any Electron app. Bonus points if you have display scaling enabled.

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#79
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you differentiate between DRM-free and DRM-protected books on Amazon? Up until I have read this comment, I didn't even know that Amazon support DRM-free books.

Tor doesn't put DRM on any of it's titles. For an example, look up Cory Doctorow's book Walkaway . At the bottom of the book description it says: > At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. Unfortunately, they don't always tell you. If you look up Little Brother (another of Doctorow's books), it doesn't say anything about DRM even though the book do…

All of Cory Doctorow's books are available DRM free and free-as-in-beer free from his website, craphound.com

He's always made a point of that

Re: The Calibre Content Server

#80

Related but slightly off topic: Am I the only one who is turned off to calibre due to how "heavy" and clunky it feels? I suspect this is due to the program being written in Java. I think the author does great work maintaining the project but frankly wish it was more modern. Perhaps this is a good side project for me to delve into ;) EDIT: thanks to users who clarified that Calibre is written in python.

> Perhaps this is a good side project for me to delve into ;)

By all means, please do. There are no alternatives out there to calibre. I think its an excellent app once you get used to it, but competition is healthy.

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