Suggestion: Improve default ebook viewer layout for better first-time experience

marco-pi · 06-19-2025, 06:24 PM

Hi Kovid and team,

I'm a long-time user of Calibre who recently reopened the ebook viewer after a long time — and I was reminded of how powerful the software is. However, I also remembered why I initially found the viewer somewhat uninviting.

The default layout stretches text across the entire screen width, which can feel awkward and hard to read — especially on modern wide monitors. Many users (myself included, in the past) may assume that the viewer lacks polish or customization simply because the default experience is visually overwhelming.

Only after diving into the preferences again did I realize that setting a maximum screen width for the text column (e.g., 600px) and keeping height as 0 vastly improves the experience, providing a clean, centered, Kindle-like reading layout.

Suggested improvement:
Set the default text column width to around 600–700px.

Leave height as 0 (full vertical use).

(Optional) Enable minimal UI or fullscreen (F11) on first launch.

These small changes could significantly improve first impressions and make new users more likely to adopt the viewer as their primary reading tool.

Thank you for your ongoing work on Calibre. This project is a gem, and I deeply appreciate your dedication.

Best regards,
A happy and now properly-centered reader. 😄

kovidgoyal · 06-19-2025, 09:26 PM

By default the viewer opes a 600 px wide window anyway, so you wont see a screen full of text unless you maximise or fullscreen the viewer.

Given that restricting the fullscreen to onlya single column of text by default seems rather counter intuitive to me. If you maximize the viewr the assumption is you want to use the space.

06-19-2025, 06:24 PM	#1
marco-pi Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2025 Device: none	Suggestion: Improve default ebook viewer layout for better first-time experience Hi Kovid and team, I'm a long-time user of Calibre who recently reopened the ebook viewer after a long time — and I was reminded of how powerful the software is. However, I also remembered why I initially found the viewer somewhat uninviting. The default layout stretches text across the entire screen width, which can feel awkward and hard to read — especially on modern wide monitors. Many users (myself included, in the past) may assume that the viewer lacks polish or customization simply because the default experience is visually overwhelming. Only after diving into the preferences again did I realize that setting a maximum screen width for the text column (e.g., 600px) and keeping height as 0 vastly improves the experience, providing a clean, centered, Kindle-like reading layout. Suggested improvement: Set the default text column width to around 600–700px. Leave height as 0 (full vertical use). (Optional) Enable minimal UI or fullscreen (F11) on first launch. These small changes could significantly improve first impressions and make new users more likely to adopt the viewer as their primary reading tool. Thank you for your ongoing work on Calibre. This project is a gem, and I deeply appreciate your dedication. Best regards, A happy and now properly-centered reader. 😄

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06-19-2025, 09:26 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,320 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	By default the viewer opes a 600 px wide window anyway, so you wont see a screen full of text unless you maximise or fullscreen the viewer. Given that restricting the fullscreen to onlya single column of text by default seems rather counter intuitive to me. If you maximize the viewr the assumption is you want to use the space.

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