MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How to allow our books to be converted to all ereader formats with calibre?

itimpi · 10-19-2010, 07:55 AM

As I understand it when you use the Calibre viewer if the format is not already ePub it does a conversion to ePub and then shows the result. You therefore cannot rely on the Calibre viewer to be representative of the real e-reader devices.

I ahve never checked to see how true the PC/Mac versions of specific viewers are to the real devices, but I would expect them to be closer to that the calibre viewer. It could also be worth trying the iOS (iPhone/iTouch/iPad) versions of these applications to see if they are truer which they may well be the case considering the different form factor. The iPad may be a good test vehicle as it has viewers (Kindle, B&N, Kobo etc) that are meant to be equivalent to most of the dedicated e-reader devices as well as having a raft of ePub capable readers (iBooks, Stanza, QuickReader etc)..

10-19-2010, 07:55 AM	#16
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	As I understand it when you use the Calibre viewer if the format is not already ePub it does a conversion to ePub and then shows the result. You therefore cannot rely on the Calibre viewer to be representative of the real e-reader devices. I ahve never checked to see how true the PC/Mac versions of specific viewers are to the real devices, but I would expect them to be closer to that the calibre viewer. It could also be worth trying the iOS (iPhone/iTouch/iPad) versions of these applications to see if they are truer which they may well be the case considering the different form factor. The iPad may be a good test vehicle as it has viewers (Kindle, B&N, Kobo etc) that are meant to be equivalent to most of the dedicated e-reader devices as well as having a raft of ePub capable readers (iBooks, Stanza, QuickReader etc).. Last edited by itimpi; 10-19-2010 at 07:58 AM.