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kovidgoyal/calibre

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

★ 24,777PythonAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Calibre is a free, all-in-one e-book manager for organizing your digital book collection, converting between formats, reading on any device, and downloading news articles as e-books.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((calibre))
    What it does
      Organize library
      Convert formats
      Edit e-books
      Download news
    Supported formats
      EPUB
      MOBI PDF
      AZW3
    Use cases
      Personal library
      Device transfer
      Offline reading
    Audience
      Book readers
      Device owners
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Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Convert a PDF or MOBI file into EPUB format so it works correctly on a Kindle or Kobo e-reader.

USE CASE 2

Organize and tag hundreds of digital books in a searchable personal library with cover art and author metadata.

USE CASE 3

Download newspaper articles from the web each morning and package them as an e-book to read offline.

USE CASE 4

Edit the contents or metadata of an e-book directly before transferring it to a reading device.

What is it built with?

Python

How does it compare?

kovidgoyal/calibrehaotian-liu/llavaopenai/gpt-2
Stars24,77724,75524,828
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasyhardhard
Complexity2/54/54/5
Audiencegeneralresearcherresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
GPL, free to use and modify, but if you distribute modified versions you must release your source code under the same license.

In plain English

Calibre is a free, open-source e-book manager that lets you organize, read, convert, and edit your entire digital book collection in one place. Think of it as iTunes for e-books, it keeps your library tidy, handles multiple file formats, and connects to your e-reader device to transfer books directly. The software can view and read e-books in all the major formats (like EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and more), convert books from one format to another so they work on any device, and edit the contents of e-books directly. It can also fetch metadata, things like cover art, author bios, and descriptions, automatically from the internet to fill in gaps in your library. One particularly handy feature: it can download newspapers and magazine articles from the web and package them as e-books so you can read them offline at your leisure. You would use Calibre if you have a growing collection of digital books across different formats and devices and want one tool to manage everything. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. The project is built primarily in Python and is maintained as a volunteer effort with community donations.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I use Calibre to batch-convert a folder of PDF books to EPUB format optimized for a Kobo e-reader?
Prompt 2
Write a Calibre news recipe script to download and package daily articles from a specific news website as an e-book.
Prompt 3
How do I set up Calibre's content server so I can browse and download books from my library in a web browser or tablet?
Prompt 4
What Calibre command-line commands let me bulk edit metadata, title, author, cover, for 200 books at once?
Prompt 5
How do I automatically send a newly converted e-book from Calibre to my Kindle device via USB or email delivery?

Frequently asked questions

What is calibre?

Calibre is a free, all-in-one e-book manager for organizing your digital book collection, converting between formats, reading on any device, and downloading news articles as e-books.

What language is calibre written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python.

What license does calibre use?

GPL, free to use and modify, but if you distribute modified versions you must release your source code under the same license.

How hard is calibre to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is calibre for?

Mainly general.

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