Kobo really rocks

[John F]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I've read this before, but I don't see a relevant Python script in the old DeDRM Tools package for stand-alone DRM removal. I've yet to see anyone say which script you're supposed to use.

You can start looking here:

http://i-u2665-cabbages.blogspot.com...-for-epub.html

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

You can start looking here:

http://i-u2665-cabbages.blogspot.com...-for-epub.html

But don't comment there. I don't think anyone will respond.

[Artemide]

I've recently bought my third ereader, probably one day I have to decide which one to sell.
My strictly personal opinion: Kobo is the best compromise between price/performance/hardware, but..
imho Pocketbook has best ui, more quick for send ebooks wireless to the device (without tricks) and the best battery duration, despect poor hardware quality (I got also a Pocketbook Touch HD 3, returned immediately to Amazon).
Boox Leaf has a beautiful display and many customizations without tricks (it's based on Android), very good battery duration, but imho has the worst ui interface (maybe I'm just newby).
Amazon? System closed is not for me.
Conclusion: I've purchased for make a gift 2 Pocketbook Basic Lux 3, for very basic users and they are happy. If I decide to sell one of my ereaders, it will not be the Pocketbook.

Just remember that what's perfect for me, could be bad for other people

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Artemide

I've recently bought my third ereader, probably one day I have to decide which one to sell.
My strictly personal opinion: Kobo is the best compromise between price/performance/hardware, but..
imho Pocketbook has best ui, more quick for send ebooks wireless to the device (without tricks) and the best battery duration, despect poor hardware quality (I got also a Pocketbook Touch HD 3, returned immediately to Amazon).
Boox Leaf has a beautiful display and many customizations without tricks (it's based on Android), very good battery duration, but imho has the worst ui interface (maybe I'm just newby).
Amazon? System closed is not for me.
Conclusion: I've purchased for make a gift 2 Pocketbook Basic Lux 3, for very basic users and they are happy. If I decide to sell one of my ereaders, it will not be the Pocketbook.

Just remember that what's perfect for me, could be bad for other people

Amazon is not a closed system for anyone with even a little bit of tinkering experience. You can pretty easily convert ebooks bought from other stores to a Kindle format and sideload them. You can even email epubs (without DRM) to your Kindle apps and devices. True, if you're a library user and not in the US, a Kindle may be not a good choice for you. But "the closed system of Amazon" is still pretty much a myth, as of now. Who knows what the situation will be in a few years.

Pocketbooks have too few customization options for my taste, even fewer than Kindles. The lack of the ability to adjust font weight is an absolute dealbreaker for me. Yes, I know you can sideload Android apps to a Pocketbook, but I'm not a fan of those either.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The problem with this is that there's no next best thing to Calibre. There just isn't anything remotely as good. Yes, DRM removal would probably still be possible, but even that might be a lot more difficult for ordinary, non-techy users without Calibre. And speaking of library management... there just isn't anything comparable.

With an Android ereader, or indeed any ereader that supports system folders, Calibre is not strictly necessary. For example, with Koreader Calibre becomes not really necessary. Just drag and drop. And the program can handle just aout any nasty file, unlike Nickle that might explode with a funny epub.

[Pajamaman]

If there were no Android ereaders, I would turn to Kobo, and probably Koreader with it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

With an Android ereader, or indeed any ereader that supports system folders, Calibre is not strictly necessary. For example, with Koreader Calibre becomes not really necessary. Just drag and drop. And the program can handle just aout any nasty file, unlike Nickle that might explode with a funny epub.

Not true in my experience. KOReader can't handle huge books with many thousands of pages, at least not well (I have many omnibus editions). It couldn't even open one of them. Nickel has no problem with such books.

A folder system is pretty useless for managing a library with, say, 10 000-20 000 books. I'd never be able to find anything.

[Quoth]

Directory / Folder based browsing with KOReader, or using Android Pocketbook or Lithium is ghastly compared to native Kobo with Calibre.

I can drag and drop to Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo, Binatone ereaders or aps on Android. It's inferior to managing ebooks without Calibre and I abandoned Kindle because the Collections became essentially Amazon controlled and Series only added later and usually wrong. Only a Jailbroken Kindle is now any good Collection and Series.

I use Calibre to edit title Metadata as now Amazon ebooks have part of the blurb in the title. I make the author names consistent. Manage published & acquired dates. Tags, Series and Collection. Add descriptions in metadata (shows up in Kobo).
KOReader can search Calibre Metadata file, but it's clunky. Browsing author then title needs Calibre to Export the files & directories. Simply downloading and drag/drop doesn't do it!
If you have more than 50-100 titles and certainly more than 1000 then Calibre is needed for "any ereader that supports system folders".

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

With an Android ereader, or indeed any ereader that supports system folders, Calibre is not strictly necessary. For example, with Koreader Calibre becomes not really necessary. Just drag and drop. And the program can handle just aout any nasty file, unlike Nickle that might explode with a funny epub.

KOReader can handle some error ridden books better than Nickel. OTOH, I've had KOReader have issues with large or complex books that Nickel will handle without issue. Since my workflow involves passing any epubs through Sigil and epubcheck before sending them to my ereaders, the ability to handle error ridden books is not important to me.

While KOReader can use calibre's metadata.calibre file to do searches, I find Nickel's search capability to be more powerful. Without calibre, KOReader is limited to directory structures while are almost useless with ~13,000 ebooks on an ereader. I won't even get into the time wasted on maintaining the directory structure without which drag and drop is pretty much useless.

I would love to see someone produce a directory structure which would allow the following book to found easily by title, editor or author without exceeding any limits on file path lengths:

Title: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964

Editor: Robert Silverberg (ed)

Authors: Stanley G. Weinbaum, John W. Campbell, Lester del Rey, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, Lewis Padgett, Clifford D. Simak, Fredric Brown, Murray Leinster, Judith Merril, Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury, C. M. Kornbluth, Richard Matheson, Fritz Leiber, Anthony Boucher, James Blish, Arthur C. Clarke, Jerome Bixby, Tom Godwin, Alfred Bester, Damon Knight, Daniel Keyes & Roger Zelazny

I will admit that I have Plato and KOReader both installed to play with but Nickel is my goto book reader using either RMSDK or the Webkit based renderer.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

KOReader can handle some error ridden books better than Nickel.

Yes, and people use KOReader for the extensive CSS overrides. I prefer to use the Calibre Editor to fix broken or stupidly formatted ebooks. Then for PD anyone can benefit and I fix bought books for the wife.
Margins, line height, font size are the important things. Too many options on KOReader make it very hard to find some of the menu options you might need for searching or navigation or GUI sizes.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Not true in my experience. KOReader can't handle huge books with many thousands of pages, at least not well (I have many omnibus editions). It couldn't even open one of them. Nickel has no problem with such books.

A folder system is pretty useless for managing a library with, say, 10 000-20 000 books. I'd never be able to find anything.

I don't recall attempting to load a very large book in Koreader.

I only organize by author, which I find more than adequate. Series can be simply prefixed.

You have 20,000 books on your ereader? Wow. A significant investment. At my current rate, I don't expect to reach 10,000 before I shuffle off this mortal coil. By that time, I hope to have an ereader with the RAM to handle it, but not yet!

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I use Calibre to edit title Metadata as now Amazon ebooks have part of the blurb in the title. I make the author names consistent. Manage published & acquired dates. Tags, Series and Collection. Add descriptions in metadata (shows up in Kobo).

If you have more than 50-100 titles and certainly more than 1000 then Calibre is needed for "any ereader that supports system folders".

AFAIR You are involved in professional publishing, etc, but I'm just a reader for fun. I don't need all that. I just dump books into author folders. Done! And I can always do a quick search via the default interface or via the app I'm reading. I can even search inside books. More than adequate for my, and I suspect most readers needs.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, and people use KOReader for the extensive CSS overrides. I prefer to use the Calibre Editor to fix broken or stupidly formatted ebooks. Then for PD anyone can benefit and I fix bought books for the wife.
Margins, line height, font size are the important things. Too many options on KOReader make it very hard to find some of the menu options you might need for searching or navigation or GUI sizes.

Yes, Koreader kills almost all know epub germs dead! Most impressive. But I find that most Adroid apps are extremely stable when presented with an unnested brace, etc (the horror!). I find dedicated-Linux based ereaders like Kobo (and Sony RIP) fragile creatures who will faint at very little. I don't recall the same problem with Kindle, but then I would use it with Koreader.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

AFAIR You are involved in professional publishing, etc, but I'm just a reader for fun. I don't need all that. I just dump books into author folders. Done! And I can always do a quick search via the default interface or via the app I'm reading. I can even search inside books. More than adequate for my, and I suspect most readers needs.

In my case I don't always remember the author or even the title. I may vaguely remember what the synopsis was about. In a properly managed calibre library I can still find the book by various tags and user categories, or searching the comments field. In a folder system it would be hopeless. I'd need to manually comb all the author folders (of which I have thousands) one by one. And without tags or synopsis I might still not find the book.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I only organize by author, which I find more than adequate. Series can be simply prefixed.

So how would you organize a book such as the one I listed with and editor and 26 authors into a directory structure that would allow you to locate the book rapidly and, once again, without exceeding path length limits? BTW, that is not the only anthology I own nor is it the one with the most authors, simply one that I had re-read recently.