Using Calibre as a reader

mtravellerh · 01-08-2009, 07:03 AM

Now I do not know if this sounds dumb, but I am using Calibre as ebookreader on my Aspire One with Win XP.

I have only free or undrmed ebooks on that netbook and imported everything, mobis, Lits, htmls, epubs and so on into Calibre. Then I view them with the integrated e-book viewer.

What's really great is the fact that I can make a full screen view and rotate the screen so that I can read the ebooks much like real books, turning pages with space button.

The viewer interface opens all those books and renders them really well, even remembering the last position. Now if it was a little easier to open the books (right click plus clicking view is not really fast). Or is there a keyboard shortcut to simplify opening the books in read mode?

Till now, I mostly used Calibre for ebook creation and conversion!

Edit: I found it. I gather I was a bit blind or it was just too obvious. Pushing V opens the books!

Kovid, did you ever think of "marketing" Calibre as a reading software? The rendering of the epubs is way better than with ADE, anyway.

DDHarriman · 01-08-2009, 07:13 AM

No dumb at all.

I think it's a great tool for reading (on top of all the rest), and serves perfectly for that purpose.

Good reading,

kovidgoyal · 01-08-2009, 12:27 PM

I don't really market calibre at all, but if I did, sure I would advertise the reader part of it. The reader has other advanced features you wont find in any other reader software, like a reference mode that allows you to refer to parts of the book by paragraph number.

pilotbob · 01-08-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Now if it was a little easier to open the books (right click plus clicking view is not really fast). Or is there a keyboard shortcut to simplify opening the books in read mode?

Or... you could click the View button in the tool bar. Alas, I don't think calibre has any keyboard shortcuts. But, it has surprised me before.

BOb

zelda_pinwheel · 01-08-2009, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Or... you could click the View button in the tool bar. Alas, I don't think calibre has any keyboard shortcuts. But, it has surprised me before.

BOb

it has lots, actually (i love keyboard shortcuts). the one i use most often is E to edit meta data. you can also use V for view to read the book. in the menu the shortcut is displayed to the right of each command.

jj2me · 01-09-2009, 04:33 PM

1. Is there a way to change the size of Calibre's View window so it fits full screen?
2. Is there a gesture to change pages? Or a key character or sequence?

Just asking about existing capabilities, not suggesting any enhancement. Because mine is a special situation: Looks like no new Sony Reader out of CES (Sony's Flickr site shows eReader photos of the guy in the window), so I'm trying to use my 5" Sony U750P touchscreen PC as a reader with the wonderful Calibre.

The 6" View window doesn't fit in my 5" screen. A little bit of scrolling is required on each page. And the page turn icon is kinda small to hit with my finger, and a bit of a reach up and over the screen. A page turn gesture like the PRS-700's would be great, or a keyboard page-turn shortcut might work even on this keyboard-less UMPC--I could maybe find a touchscreen app that could make a macro from a gesture.

kovidgoyal · 01-09-2009, 04:46 PM

convert to EPUB instead of LRF the EPUb viewer has a full screen mode

wallcraft · 01-09-2009, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj2me

so I'm trying to use my 5" Sony U750P touchscreen PC as a reader with the wonderful Calibre.

You might also try FBReader, since it is designed for small screens and touch devices. It will probably require customizing, see Visual Tour of FBReader on a Pepper Pad 3. It won't do LRF, but it has some ePub support (no TOC, no SVG, no CSS).

jj2me · 01-09-2009, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

convert to EPUB instead of LRF the EPUb viewer has a full screen mode

It's fantastic! Change font size and it's still full screen. And the page turn buttons are on the left, so no longer a reach. Thanks so much.

I can't understand why anyone would buy a Kindle for the ability to pay for a few newspaper and magazine subscriptions, when Calibre offers more (and mostly free) selections?

pilotbob · 01-09-2009, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj2me

I can't understand why anyone would buy a Kindle for the ability to pay for a few newspaper and magazine subscriptions, when Calibre offers more (and mostly free) selections?

Interesting that you say that as you use a $2000 device to read your ebooks on. (No I'm not judging.)

BTW: What type of battery life do you get on the MID?

BOb

llasram · 01-09-2009, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It won't do LRF, but it has some ePub support (no TOC, no SVG, no CSS).

Actually the last time I tried FBReader -- the version packaged under Debian, anyway -- it did in fact render SVG. Unfortunately, it also (a) ignored the 'width' and 'height' attributes and CSS properties, rendering the images massively out-of-scale and (b) rendered both the images and the alternative content within the <object/> tag including the SVG. Alas, a no-win for everyone concerned :-/.

jj2me · 01-09-2009, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Interesting that you say that as you use a $2000 device to read your ebooks on. (No I'm not judging.)

BTW: What type of battery life do you get on the MID?

BOb

So you know about this old device? Yes, $2,000 in Dec. '03. But sitting idle lately, and little resale value. I get maybe 3 hours on my old '04 extended battery with wireless on, less than 2 hrs. on my original standard battery.

moosejons_dad · 01-10-2009, 11:51 AM

You might want to consider using the space bar to advance the reading of an article on the calibre reader, as I think this would add to the ease of using it from a computer.
Also, I find when I now advance any article with the prs-500 by hitting the page down, I miss at least two lines of the article.. Maybe is only happens with the 500 and perhaps using the space bar would correct this problem.

pilotbob · 01-10-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jj2me

So you know about this old device? Yes, $2,000 in Dec. '03. But sitting idle lately, and little resale value. I get maybe 3 hours on my old '04 extended battery with wireless on, less than 2 hrs. on my original standard battery.

No, didn't know about is specifically. Had to google it to see what it was. I found a review that said "price as reviewed" was $1,999. Still much more expensive than a $350 Kindle or $250 Sony.

It must be hard to use as a book reader with a 2 hours battery life. But, as long as you are reading, I am happy. The more readers in the world, the better.

BOb

TetraKM · 03-09-2009, 01:54 PM

I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts and love the way you have incorporated them so you don't have to press the Alt key all the time to access them (I especially like using the context sensititve key on my keyboard - how sad am i)

I would hoever like to be abel to tab down the Metadata section to get to the button to search for metadata - i find when you tab you get stuck in the summary section which is fine when you want to enter information however most of the time this has already been done - anychance of getting a specific Alt plus underlined button to jump to the buttons at the bottom of the window please

01-08-2009, 07:03 AM	#1
mtravellerh book creator Posts: 9,657 Karma: 3856660 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Luxembourg Device: Kindle Scribe	Using Calibre as a reader Now I do not know if this sounds dumb, but I am using Calibre as ebookreader on my Aspire One with Win XP. I have only free or undrmed ebooks on that netbook and imported everything, mobis, Lits, htmls, epubs and so on into Calibre. Then I view them with the integrated e-book viewer. What's really great is the fact that I can make a full screen view and rotate the screen so that I can read the ebooks much like real books, turning pages with space button. The viewer interface opens all those books and renders them really well, even remembering the last position. Now if it was a little easier to open the books (right click plus clicking view is not really fast). Or is there a keyboard shortcut to simplify opening the books in read mode? Till now, I mostly used Calibre for ebook creation and conversion! Edit: I found it. I gather I was a bit blind or it was just too obvious. Pushing V opens the books! Kovid, did you ever think of "marketing" Calibre as a reading software? The rendering of the epubs is way better than with ADE, anyway. Last edited by mtravellerh; 01-08-2009 at 07:09 AM.

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01-08-2009, 07:13 AM	#2
DDHarriman Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 4380 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Almada, Portugal Device: Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS 505, Kindle DXG and Samsung Galaxy Note	No dumb at all. I think it's a great tool for reading (on top of all the rest), and serves perfectly for that purpose. Good reading,

01-08-2009, 12:27 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	I don't really market calibre at all, but if I did, sure I would advertise the reader part of it. The reader has other advanced features you wont find in any other reader software, like a reference mode that allows you to refer to parts of the book by paragraph number.

01-09-2009, 04:33 PM	#6
jj2me Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 8820388 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: Sony PRS-505, -350; Kindle 3 3G, DX, PW 2; various tablets	1. Is there a way to change the size of Calibre's View window so it fits full screen? 2. Is there a gesture to change pages? Or a key character or sequence? Just asking about existing capabilities, not suggesting any enhancement. Because mine is a special situation: Looks like no new Sony Reader out of CES (Sony's Flickr site shows eReader photos of the guy in the window), so I'm trying to use my 5" Sony U750P touchscreen PC as a reader with the wonderful Calibre. The 6" View window doesn't fit in my 5" screen. A little bit of scrolling is required on each page. And the page turn icon is kinda small to hit with my finger, and a bit of a reach up and over the screen. A page turn gesture like the PRS-700's would be great, or a keyboard page-turn shortcut might work even on this keyboard-less UMPC--I could maybe find a touchscreen app that could make a macro from a gesture.

01-09-2009, 04:46 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	convert to EPUB instead of LRF the EPUb viewer has a full screen mode

01-10-2009, 11:51 AM	#13
moosejons_dad Zealot Posts: 100 Karma: 18 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: N.J. Device: Sony Readers PRS-500 exchanged by Sony for PRS-600, PRS-505,IPAD3,mini	You might want to consider using the space bar to advance the reading of an article on the calibre reader, as I think this would add to the ease of using it from a computer. Also, I find when I now advance any article with the prs-500 by hitting the page down, I miss at least two lines of the article.. Maybe is only happens with the 500 and perhaps using the space bar would correct this problem.

03-09-2009, 01:54 PM	#15
TetraKM Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 114 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: Sony 505	I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts and love the way you have incorporated them so you don't have to press the Alt key all the time to access them (I especially like using the context sensititve key on my keyboard - how sad am i) I would hoever like to be abel to tab down the Metadata section to get to the button to search for metadata - i find when you tab you get stuck in the summary section which is fine when you want to enter information however most of the time this has already been done - anychance of getting a specific Alt plus underlined button to jump to the buttons at the bottom of the window please

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