Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Berk
I could never find my way around BD myriad small icons.
|
It is irritating, isn't it? All those features should be accessible through the menus, too. The documentation sucks as well. But one gets used to it...
Calibre on the other hand is an automatic conversion tool (let's put the databasing functions aside). You put stuff in, it shoots new stuff out. You can tweak certain settings, but you can't
edit the file before conversion. You have no way of knowing what the end result will be.
If you have a book in format A, and want to convert it to format B and are already very satisfied with the layout and content of said book, calibre is the tool for the job. If the book needs work, BD should be used. The only point that is worth noting is that Calibre is very mature and constantly being worked on by Kovid.
But BD is a nightmare. It has a myriad of bugs, quirks and idiosyncrasies. Its development is dead, and the program is quite dated. Those of us who use it do so because there's nothing better out there, and we need an ebook editor. Hopefully there will be a better tool come February (I'm planning to start work on something of the sort myself by the end of January).
With BD, you get more freedom. More work (and frustration), yes, but more freedom too. In the end, the two programs are vastly different because they are designed for different things. Calibre is a
converter, BD is an
editor. Comparing them is academic.