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Worldwalker · 05-31-2010, 02:26 PM

I have a 505, so I can't help much with the highlighting questions, but to answer #1:

The advantage of epub over pdf is that pdf is really designed for the printed page. It has problems resizing/reflowing for a 6" screen. Quality ranges from okay to bad to "OMG kill it with fire!" I understand it's slightly better with the 600, but not to the point of reliable usability. Remember that the whole point of pdf is to make a standard-sized page (8.5x11 or A4) look exactly the same no matter what and where it's displayed. For obvious reasons, that doesn't work so well when you've got a fraction of the "paper" size to work with.

Why would you use calibre? Simple: it organizes your books. I have a big long rant down in the calibre support forum (by the way, there's both a Sony forum and a calibre forum here) where I try to explain it from a user's perspective: read this.

The reason you don't like how calibre stores books is you're using the filesystem for metadata. Which works to a point, but it's terribly inadequate (that's why they invented databases). With calibre, you avoid that issue entirely and use metadata for metadata. The files don't matter; you just ignore them. Go read that post I linked and you'll understand. Calibre is about organizing ebooks, not about organizing files.

Why use calibre? Because if you want to select, for example, all your SF (but not fantasy) books by David Weber that are from the Baen Free Library (i.e., that you can pass on to a friend) but weren't co-written with Eric Flint, so you can send them to an SF-loving, Flint-disliking friend ... you can do that with a few clicks. You can organize books by series (including their number in that series), by multiple authors, by genre, by publication date, by source ... in short, by just about anything else you can think of. All at once.

Then once you've selected them, you can do things with them. Upload them to your reader (main memory or card). Export them to send them somewhere. Convert them to a different format. Bulk-edit their metadata (handy for adding new tags). Whatever you want to do with them -- without being limited by the filesystem, or trying to remember whether you filed that book under "Weber" or "Flint".

Trying to use calibre as a file manager works about as well as trying to use the filesystem as a library manager. It works, kind of, but that's not what it's for. Use it as a library manager and you'll see why we calibre fanatics are so fanatical.

05-31-2010, 02:26 PM	#2
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	I have a 505, so I can't help much with the highlighting questions, but to answer #1: The advantage of epub over pdf is that pdf is really designed for the printed page. It has problems resizing/reflowing for a 6" screen. Quality ranges from okay to bad to "OMG kill it with fire!" I understand it's slightly better with the 600, but not to the point of reliable usability. Remember that the whole point of pdf is to make a standard-sized page (8.5x11 or A4) look exactly the same no matter what and where it's displayed. For obvious reasons, that doesn't work so well when you've got a fraction of the "paper" size to work with. Why would you use calibre? Simple: it organizes your books. I have a big long rant down in the calibre support forum (by the way, there's both a Sony forum and a calibre forum here) where I try to explain it from a user's perspective: read this. The reason you don't like how calibre stores books is you're using the filesystem for metadata. Which works to a point, but it's terribly inadequate (that's why they invented databases). With calibre, you avoid that issue entirely and use metadata for metadata. The files don't matter; you just ignore them. Go read that post I linked and you'll understand. Calibre is about organizing ebooks, not about organizing files. Why use calibre? Because if you want to select, for example, all your SF (but not fantasy) books by David Weber that are from the Baen Free Library (i.e., that you can pass on to a friend) but weren't co-written with Eric Flint, so you can send them to an SF-loving, Flint-disliking friend ... you can do that with a few clicks. You can organize books by series (including their number in that series), by multiple authors, by genre, by publication date, by source ... in short, by just about anything else you can think of. All at once. Then once you've selected them, you can do things with them. Upload them to your reader (main memory or card). Export them to send them somewhere. Convert them to a different format. Bulk-edit their metadata (handy for adding new tags). Whatever you want to do with them -- without being limited by the filesystem, or trying to remember whether you filed that book under "Weber" or "Flint". Trying to use calibre as a file manager works about as well as trying to use the filesystem as a library manager. It works, kind of, but that's not what it's for. Use it as a library manager and you'll see why we calibre fanatics are so fanatical.