Frequently Asked Questions

E-book Format Conversion

What formats does calibre support conversion to/from?

calibre supports the conversion of the following formats to LRF: HTML, LIT, MOBI, PRC, EPUB, CBR, CBZ, RTF, TXT, PDF and LRS. It also supports the conversion of LRF to LRS and HTML(forthcoming). Note that calibre does not support the conversion of DRMed ebooks.

What are the best formats to convert to LRF?

In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, HTML, PRC, RTF, TXT, PDF

Why does the PDF conversion lose some images/tables?

The PDF conversion tries to extract the text and images from the PDF file and convert them to and HTML based ebook. Some PDF files have images in a format that cannot be extracted (vector images). All tables are also represented as vector diagrams, thus they cannot be extracted.

There are no images in the LRF file after conversion from HTML, or, why is only one HTML file being converted and not the others it links to?

If you use the GUI to convert an HTML file, you have to create a zip file with the HTML file and any images/extra files it references and then convert that ZIP file to LRF.

How do I convert my file containing non-English characters?

There are two aspects to this problem:

1. Knowing the encoding of the source file: calibre tries to guess what character encoding your source files use, but often, this is impossible, so you need to tell it what encoding to use. This can be done in the GUI via the Source encoding field in the Look & Feel section. The command-line tools all have an --encoding option.
2. Embedding fonts: If you are generating an LRF file to read on your SONY Reader, you are limited by the fact that the Reader only supports a few non-English characters in the fonts it comes pre-loaded with. You can work around this problem by embedding a unicode-aware font that supports the character set your file uses into the LRF file. You should embed atleast a serif and a sans-serif font. Be aware that embedding fonts significantly slows down page-turn speed on the reader.

How do I use some of the advanced features of the conversion tools?

You can get help on any individual feature of the converters by mousing over it in the GUI or running html2lrf --help at a terminal. A good place to start is to look at the following demo files that demonstrate some of the advanced features:

• html-demo.zip
• txt-demo.zip

Device Integration

What devices does calibre support?

At the moment calibre has full support for the SONY PRS500 and PRS505. However, using the Save to disk function you can use it with any ebook reader that exports itself as a USB disk.

I used calibre to transfer some books to my reader, and now the SONY software hangs every time I connect the reader?

You should not use both calibre and Connect to transfer books to the reader. You can fix this problem by:

• Removing any storage cards from your reader.
• Deleting the file media.xml from the reader’s main memory using windows explorer (search for the file to find all locations where it is present). Note that by doing this you will lose all your collections, bookmarks, history etc.
• Unplugging the reader and waiting till the list of books shows up again
• Re-connecting the reader and starting the SONY software

Can I use the collections feature of the SONY reader?

calibre has full support for collections. When you add tags to a book’s metadata, those tags are turned into collections when you upload the book to the SONY reader. Also, the series information is automatically turned into a collection on the reader. Note that the PRS-500 does not support collections for books stored on the SD card. The PRS-505 does.

Library Management

What formats does calibre read metadata from?

calibre reads metadata from the following formats: LRF, PDF, LIT, RTF, OPF, MOBI, PRC, EPUB. In addition it can write metadata to: LRF, RTF, OPF

Where are the book files stored?

calibre use a database to store all books. When you import new books or convert an existing book, the book files are stored in compressed form in the database. The database is a single file named library1.db and you can see where it is (or change its location) by clicking the configuration button (the button with the icon of a hammer next to the search bar).

Can I save my books to the disk?

You can save your books to the disk by selecting the books and clicking the “Save to disk” button. Your books will be saved in nicely organized folders.

Content From The Web

I obtained a recipe for a news site as a .py file from somewhere, how do I use it?

Start the Add custom news sources dialog (from the Fetch news menu) and click the Switch to advanced mode button. Delete everything in the box with the recipe source code and copy paste the contents of your .py file into the box. Click Add/update recipe.

I want calibre to download news from my favorite news website.

If you are reasonably proficient with computers, you can teach calibre to download news from any website of your choosing. To learn how to do this see Adding your favorite news website.

Otherwise, you can register a request for a particular news site by adding a comment here.

Can I use web2lrf to download an arbitrary website?

web2lrf --url http://mywebsite.com default

Miscellaneous

Why the name calibre?

Take your pick:

• Convertor And LIBRary for E-books
• A high calibre product
• A tribute to the SONY Librie which was the first e-ink based e-book reader
• My wife chose it ;-)

Why does calibre show only some of my fonts on OS X?

calibre embeds fonts in ebook files it creates. E-book files support embedding only TrueType (.ttf) fonts. Most fonts on OS X systems are in .dfont format, thus they cannot be embedded. calibre shows only TrueType fonts founf on your system. You can obtain many TrueType fonts on the web. Simply download the .ttf files and add them to the Library/Fonts directory in your home directory.

The graphical user interface of calibre is not starting on Windows?

There can be several causes for this:

• Any windows version: Try running it as Administrator (Right click on the icon ans select “Run as Administrator”)
• Any windows version: Search for the files calibre2.ini and calibre.ini on your computer and delete them. Search for the file library1.db and rename it (this file contains all your converted books so deleting it is not a good idea. Now try again.
• Windows Vista: If the folder C:UsersYour User NameAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram Filescalibre exists, delete it. Uninstall calibre. Reboot. Re-install.
• Any windows version: Search your computer for a folder named _ipython. Delete it and try again.

If it still wont launch, start a command prompt (press the windows key and R; then type cmd.exe in the Run dialog that appears). At the command prompt type the following command and press Enter:

calibre-debug -c "from calibre.gui2.main import main; main()"

Post any output you see in a help message on the Forums.

I want some feature added to calibre. What can I do?

You have two choices:

1. Create a patch by hacking on calibre and send it to me for review and inclusion. See Development.
2. Open a ticket (you have to register and login first) and hopefully I will find the time to implement your feature.