Ehon: The next Calibre?

xnowimcoolx · 06-19-2011, 02:23 AM

Didn't really know were to put this so I put it here. Sorry if it's the wrong place, it just reaffirms Calibre is still the best option out there.

Ehon (http://www.ehonapp.com/en/index.php) describes itself as a "digital comic book and ebook management program for your Mac." The program (from the pictures) looks amazing and apparently has an "Integrated Reader Engine" (which doesn't mean much!). So I dove in, and here is a bit of a (very quick, badly written) review.

First, Ehon looks great. It's crisp, clean and modern - if you like the layout of library tools such as delicious, you'll like this layout. Everything is logical and simple to understand. That said, the detailed book view is huge, and can't be made smaller or hidden, so it's constantly there, taking up a lot of screen space.

There are plenty of the ways to edit the detail of your ebooks/comics but nothing is customizable, you're stuck with their options - although you can tag. Smart folders are a nice addition that make organizing ones library a little easier.

I was beginning to think I had almost found a calibre replacement (not that I was looking) but after the first 5 minutes of using the program, things started to get a little rocky.

I uploaded my library into ehon easy enough, but there was little info attached to the file: A cover, Author (under 'series' for some reason), and Title - that's it - which is probably to be expected. Small hiccup I thought, I'll import the info from Amazon or Google. This is not an option with Ehon - so I gave up on that and browsed a little more.

The list menu (as opposed to the bookshelf menu) is not customizable at all. The books can be viewed by Title or Series (most the books I have aren't part of a series). This is frustrating because I like to organize by author, last name. And even if they had an organize by author section I would be forced (because of how it's laid out) to organize author, first name.

Then I decided to read a .mobi file on my computer. Can't do that. Has to be ePub.

Surely a PDF? Nope.

Conversion? No.

Device support? No.

Ehon turned out to be a beautiful and hollow shell, with nothing inside. I have a feeling (based on a couple hints here and there) that this is a comic book viewer/library in which the developers quickly through in a sparse ebook reader tool into, just to reach that crowd. However, don't be fooled by it's spit and polish, Calibre is head over heals ahead of this program!! With a complete lack of Cover/Info Fetching, News Fetching, .mobi & pdf support and no device support in site, this is not the tool for any ebook reader.

kovidgoyal · 06-19-2011, 02:37 AM

If you want to find ebook software that looks better than calibre on OS X, that I suspect will be really easy. Finding something that has 1/10th the feature set of calibre will be impossible.

lestatar · 06-19-2011, 02:37 AM

^ Not a Mac guy, but thanks for the firsthand review. Stuff like this is always helpful everywhere on forums...Too bad - sounds like a pretty face with not much substance underneath. A bit too common these days and not just for software sadly.

Maggie-Me · 06-20-2011, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you want to find ebook software that looks better than calibre on OS X, that I suspect will be really easy. Finding something that has 1/10th the feature set of calibre will be impossible.

Jus another opurtunity to say THANKS!

Sweetpea · 06-20-2011, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you want to find ebook software that looks better than calibre on OS X, that I suspect will be really easy. Finding something that has 1/10th the feature set of calibre will be impossible.

So, got a task there! Make sure that it is both the best looking and containing the most features

But, OT, this is what I've noticed several times: it either looks awesome, or it works awesome. There are not a lot of applications that fit both categories...

Starson17 · 06-20-2011, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Make sure that it is both the best looking and containing the most features
But, OT, this is what I've noticed several times: it either looks awesome, or it works awesome. There are not a lot of applications that fit both categories...

Calibre is GPL. I suspect anyone who is motivated enough could fork Calibre and put a pretty OSX face on it. Of course, it wouldn't take long before the speed of Calibre development would march on and the pretty face would begin to look like it covered an aged body

I'll take "works awesome" over looks every time.

zed88 · 06-20-2011, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xnowimcoolx

I have a feeling (based on a couple hints here and there) that this is a comic book viewer/library in which the developers quickly through in a sparse ebook reader tool into, just to reach that crowd.

With a name like Ehon, it sounds like it was originally a Japanese manga viewer.

Manichean · 06-20-2011, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

So, got a task there! Make sure that it is both the best looking and containing the most features

There was some guy a few weeks ago who wanted to do some UI changes and mocked up some pretty slick-looking images of what he intended to do. However, it appears he didn't appreciate criticism- he got offended and left. That said, I'm sure that improvements to the UI (emphasis on "improvements"

) will be included if submitted to Kovid.

user_none · 06-20-2011, 06:43 PM

The major problem with good looking UIs is they tend not to be very useable. Basic things work fine but anything outside of a few basic functions and they start to fall apart.

witeowl · 06-20-2011, 09:14 PM

Meh. "Good looking" is a matter of opinion (also, water is wet). Personally, I don't want an iTunes for my books, thank you very much.

theducks · 06-20-2011, 09:30 PM

Hear Hear!

I never saw the reason for the 'Skin' thing

.
Tuning the font size and adjusting the system colors for readability has usually satisfied me.

A logical (tab key order) , well laid out, meets my needs.

Tabbing through the Metadata-editor screen is less than optimum, having to tab through all those 'flip value' buttons (the buttons are usually used for exceptions). Title->Author->Series->Series index->Tags
the rest usually import or download

tupperware · 07-11-2011, 05:55 AM

Just installed Calibre because my girlfriend wants a lot of romance novels on a new tablet we just got. I'm a recently converted Linux user and one of my main convert reasons was trying to keep as many of the programs as I use streamlined in style and layout. It's one thing I never really liked much about Windows.

So I think one angle to consider is that, many of the people who are OCD enough to catalog and properly identify all of their books are also probably OCD enough to want all of their apps following the same appearance (KDE / Gnome). I'm currently using Gnome as my desktop manager at the moment and find Calibre a little out of place, but from what I've been reading, there is being some work done to rectify this some.

I'm kind of new to Calibre though, are there any options to recolor the paneling from the yellowish shade to anything else? I'm using a brushed metal theme under Gnome and would at least like to change it to a matching gray at the very least.

And thanks for a piece of software to make something like this easy

EowynCarter · 07-11-2011, 09:09 AM

Well, calibre does lots for book management (too much even), but lacks the basics for what is just as important : file management.

Look ? Ah, well, my software looks worse than calibre does right now

I've never been much of a designer.

PeterT · 07-11-2011, 09:49 AM

I suppose I am always amused by people who complain about Calibre storing data in locations it chooses. If Calibre were to utilize BLOBs (Binary Large Objects) in a database to store the eBooks no one would have any access to them at all. Yes, the databases would be larger than many people are accustomed too, but then there would be no question at all about path names et al.

Of course, then we would all be miserable in that we would have no ability to easily tweak content.

EowynCarter · 07-11-2011, 10:39 AM

Quote:

If Calibre were to utilize BLOBs (Binary Large Objects) in a database to store the eBooks no one would have any access to them at all. Yes, the databases would be larger than many people are accustomed too, but then there would be no question at all about path names et al.

My problem with the bad folder organization is precisely that i can't easily access the books outside calibre.
it forces me to use calibre to sync books with my e-reader, but I like to just copy - past. I don't want to be dependent on the software.

06-19-2011, 02:23 AM	#1
xnowimcoolx Connoisseur Posts: 61 Karma: 3100 Join Date: May 2010 Device: Kindle 2	Ehon: The next Calibre? Didn't really know were to put this so I put it here. Sorry if it's the wrong place, it just reaffirms Calibre is still the best option out there. Ehon (http://www.ehonapp.com/en/index.php) describes itself as a "digital comic book and ebook management program for your Mac." The program (from the pictures) looks amazing and apparently has an "Integrated Reader Engine" (which doesn't mean much!). So I dove in, and here is a bit of a (very quick, badly written) review. First, Ehon looks great. It's crisp, clean and modern - if you like the layout of library tools such as delicious, you'll like this layout. Everything is logical and simple to understand. That said, the detailed book view is huge, and can't be made smaller or hidden, so it's constantly there, taking up a lot of screen space. There are plenty of the ways to edit the detail of your ebooks/comics but nothing is customizable, you're stuck with their options - although you can tag. Smart folders are a nice addition that make organizing ones library a little easier. I was beginning to think I had almost found a calibre replacement (not that I was looking) but after the first 5 minutes of using the program, things started to get a little rocky. I uploaded my library into ehon easy enough, but there was little info attached to the file: A cover, Author (under 'series' for some reason), and Title - that's it - which is probably to be expected. Small hiccup I thought, I'll import the info from Amazon or Google. This is not an option with Ehon - so I gave up on that and browsed a little more. The list menu (as opposed to the bookshelf menu) is not customizable at all. The books can be viewed by Title or Series (most the books I have aren't part of a series). This is frustrating because I like to organize by author, last name. And even if they had an organize by author section I would be forced (because of how it's laid out) to organize author, first name. Then I decided to read a .mobi file on my computer. Can't do that. Has to be ePub. Surely a PDF? Nope. Conversion? No. Device support? No. Ehon turned out to be a beautiful and hollow shell, with nothing inside. I have a feeling (based on a couple hints here and there) that this is a comic book viewer/library in which the developers quickly through in a sparse ebook reader tool into, just to reach that crowd. However, don't be fooled by it's spit and polish, Calibre is head over heals ahead of this program!! With a complete lack of Cover/Info Fetching, News Fetching, .mobi & pdf support and no device support in site, this is not the tool for any ebook reader.

07-11-2011, 09:09 AM	#13
EowynCarter Wizard Posts: 4,337 Karma: 4000000 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Paris Device: Cybooks; Sony PRS-T1	Well, calibre does lots for book management (too much even), but lacks the basics for what is just as important : file management. Look ? Ah, well, my software looks worse than calibre does right now I've never been much of a designer. Last edited by EowynCarter; 07-11-2011 at 09:13 AM.

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06-19-2011, 02:37 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,310 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	If you want to find ebook software that looks better than calibre on OS X, that I suspect will be really easy. Finding something that has 1/10th the feature set of calibre will be impossible.

06-19-2011, 02:37 AM	#3
lestatar LB's lolz Mutt Minion Posts: 2,902 Karma: 5700001 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Hong Kong now but NYC forever Device: Kindle3, GalaxyTab, BB Bold9700, BB 8300, Sony Clie, Palm Vx, Palm III	^ Not a Mac guy, but thanks for the firsthand review. Stuff like this is always helpful everywhere on forums...Too bad - sounds like a pretty face with not much substance underneath. A bit too common these days and not just for software sadly.

06-20-2011, 06:43 PM	#9
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,487 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	The major problem with good looking UIs is they tend not to be very useable. Basic things work fine but anything outside of a few basic functions and they start to fall apart.

06-20-2011, 09:14 PM	#10
witeowl Hopeless Geek Posts: 119 Karma: 203608 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Reno, NV Device: Nook Color (manual nooter)	Meh. "Good looking" is a matter of opinion (also, water is wet). Personally, I don't want an iTunes for my books, thank you very much.

06-20-2011, 09:30 PM	#11
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,014 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Hear Hear! I never saw the reason for the 'Skin' thing . Tuning the font size and adjusting the system colors for readability has usually satisfied me. A logical (tab key order) , well laid out, meets my needs. Tabbing through the Metadata-editor screen is less than optimum, having to tab through all those 'flip value' buttons (the buttons are usually used for exceptions). Title->Author->Series->Series index->Tags the rest usually import or download

07-11-2011, 05:55 AM	#12
tupperware Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Streak 7	Just installed Calibre because my girlfriend wants a lot of romance novels on a new tablet we just got. I'm a recently converted Linux user and one of my main convert reasons was trying to keep as many of the programs as I use streamlined in style and layout. It's one thing I never really liked much about Windows. So I think one angle to consider is that, many of the people who are OCD enough to catalog and properly identify all of their books are also probably OCD enough to want all of their apps following the same appearance (KDE / Gnome). I'm currently using Gnome as my desktop manager at the moment and find Calibre a little out of place, but from what I've been reading, there is being some work done to rectify this some. I'm kind of new to Calibre though, are there any options to recolor the paneling from the yellowish shade to anything else? I'm using a brushed metal theme under Gnome and would at least like to change it to a matching gray at the very least. And thanks for a piece of software to make something like this easy

07-11-2011, 09:49 AM	#14
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,471 Karma: 78880114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	I suppose I am always amused by people who complain about Calibre storing data in locations it chooses. If Calibre were to utilize BLOBs (Binary Large Objects) in a database to store the eBooks no one would have any access to them at all. Yes, the databases would be larger than many people are accustomed too, but then there would be no question at all about path names et al. Of course, then we would all be miserable in that we would have no ability to easily tweak content.

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