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Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

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Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#61

Post by Geezus_42 »

konart wrote: post #50
asimpletune wrote: post #11

Sometimes I feel that if Calibre just looked better people would realize how amazing it is. It’s honestly not that bad (I actually love it) but I think people can’t get past the aesthetic.

Nah, it is bad. It's ok if you are using it to maintain something like a public library and want control over every little detail. But if you just want to store your personal lib - it's just too much of "how do I do X" every time. And why would anyone force themselves with its "aesthetic" when you can spin up calibre-web container and get a nice UI and an OPDS in a few seconds?

I still can't get Calibre-web to display any books. I followed the linuxserverio docs and can't find any errors. It even says it successfully connected to the calibre.db, but still no books.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#62

Post by jwells89 »

oakhaven wrote: post #60

Yesterday I realized that I can just copy an epub to a directory on my Kobo reader to the `root/ ` of the mountpoint in /media/oakhaven/koboreader (on Ubunutu 22.04). It will show up in the list of books on the device. For some reason I thought that uploading books to the Kobo reader was somehow complicated, and I only used Caliber to get books from laptop to Kobo. I know Calibre has lots of other functions, but I di…

This is actually one of the reasons why I bought a Kobo instead of a Kindle or whatever else was available a few years ago. When you plug them in they mount like any other USB mass storage and you copy your stuff to them… no need for special formats or anything either, standards like ePub work great.

It kinda made me wonder how Kindles remain so popular. First mover’s advantage? I dunno, but an eReader that can’t read ePubs and PDFs feels a bit like an audio player that can’t play MP3s and AAC.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#64

Post by arusahni »

oakhaven wrote: post #60

Yesterday I realized that I can just copy an epub to a directory on my Kobo reader to the `root/ ` of the mountpoint in /media/oakhaven/koboreader (on Ubunutu 22.04). It will show up in the list of books on the device. For some reason I thought that uploading books to the Kobo reader was somehow complicated, and I only used Caliber to get books from laptop to Kobo. I know Calibre has lots of other functions, but I di…

I'd suggest piping your epub through kepubify [1] before transferring it to your e-reader.

[1]: https://pgaskin.net/kepubify/

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#65

Post by Cockbrand »

asimpletune wrote: post #45
Cockbrand wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you mean not just the aesthetics, but the entire UI/UX, and I agree. Calibre is a very powerful and capable app, hindered by its unintuitive and clunky UI.

The UI is actually fine to me. I say that as someone who uses it a lot though. What specifically do you not like about it?

The UI does not conform to any UI guidelines known to me, certainly not the macOS ones. In fact, the macOS UI guidelines are violated in a lot of places (e.g. icons in menus). The icons themselves are unfamiliar and kinda random, also with distracting colors. There are way too many options directly available, making the UI complicated and intimidating. I'd like the UI to be much sleeker and opinionated towards the layperson. Like I said, Calibre is a very powerful tool, and I appreciate that. Its advanced features are very welcome, but they should be presented differently in the UI.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#66

Post by jwells89 »

asimpletune wrote: post #45
Cockbrand wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you mean not just the aesthetics, but the entire UI/UX, and I agree. Calibre is a very powerful and capable app, hindered by its unintuitive and clunky UI.

The UI is actually fine to me. I say that as someone who uses it a lot though. What specifically do you not like about it?

Speaking personally it doesn’t seem to be designed with the same principles/patterns of most software out there (regardless of platform or era), making its UI operate in ways that run counter to expectations. It’s an odd duck, which doesn’t make it bad but does greatly increase friction in usage.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#67

Post by Uvix »

jwells89 wrote: post #62
oakhaven wrote: post #60

Yesterday I realized that I can just copy an epub to a directory on my Kobo reader to the `root/ ` of the mountpoint in /media/oakhaven/koboreader (on Ubunutu 22.04). It will show up in the list of books on the device. For some reason I thought that uploading books to the Kobo reader was somehow complicated, and I only used Caliber to get books from laptop to Kobo. I know Calibre has lots of other functions, but I di…

This is actually one of the reasons why I bought a Kobo instead of a Kindle or whatever else was available a few years ago. When you plug them in they mount like any other USB mass storage and you copy your stuff to them… no need for special formats or anything either, standards like ePub work great. It kinda made me wonder how Kindles remain so popular. First mover’s advantage? I dunno, but an eReader that can’t rea…

Most readers only buy books from their device’s store, so they don’t need to worry about sideloading. And then once they’ve done so, they are hesitant to switch because it’s hard or impossible to extract yourself from Amazon or B&N or Apple’s ecosystem without losing content.

Ideally everybody would only buy DRM-free ePubs and audiobooks but realistically people don’t care. And I don’t see a repeat of Apple forcing DRM-free music happening here.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#69

Post by Uvix »

pooralaska wrote: post #46

does it mangle japanese titles/authors by transcribing to pinyin chinese like calibre does? do the drm plugins work? might check it out and switch.

By mangling, you’re just referring to the folder/file names in the Calibre Library folder, right? The actual metadata in the app/book are fine?

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#70

Post by Snow_Falls »

codpiece wrote: post #68

This is great, thank you! I really love Calibre, but like you, I find the UI difficult. I will download and install today! Good luck!

What do you find difficult about the calibre interface? It seems quite intuitive to me. To be fair, I only add metadata (tags, scores, descriptions, covers, series info etc) and polish ebooks. I just add books to my ereader after that.
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