Calibre vs Collectorz.com Book Collector

2023. Calibre 7.0 adds innovative notes feature, audio EPUB support



Kovid Goyal, the creator of Calibre, has unveiled Calibre 7.0, the latest stable release of the widely acclaimed cross-platform, open-source e-book management software. With this update, users gain the capability to store notes enriched with links, images, and formatted text for elements such as authors, series, publishers, and tags. Calibre 7.0 revolutionizes the e-book landscape by introducing support for "Audio EPUB" books, featuring pre-recorded voices reading the text, although the developer acknowledges potential issues with this feature on Linux systems due to patented codecs. Additionally, the release addresses a longstanding user request by allowing seamless storage and management of "data" files associated with a book, making the process of adding extra data files straightforward through a simple selection and right-click action.


2023. CLZ Books allows to use multiple folder levels



Collectorz.com has unveiled a significant update for its CLZ Books mobile app, introducing a remarkable feature that enhances browsing and filtering capabilities for your book collection. This new update allows users to utilize multiple levels of folders, unlike the previous version which only supported one level. Previously, you could only organize books using Author folders, Publisher folders, Subject folders, Location folders, and so on. However, with the latest version, you have the freedom to combine folder options. For example, you can now employ Publisher folders and within each of them, have Author folders. Additionally, the app now includes a selection of pre-loaded multi-level folder favorites that are both enjoyable and practical, such as Publisher/Author, Publication Year/Author, and Purchase Year/Store, among others. To utilize the multiple levels of folders, simply choose one of the folder favorites that contains multiple fields, like Publisher/Author. By selecting a Publisher folder, you can navigate to the corresponding Author folders for that specific Publisher. Furthermore, tapping on an Author folder will display books from that specific combination of Publisher and Author.


2023. Calibre improves metadata editor



Calibre has released a new version 6.17, which brings several new features and enhancements. One notable addition is the support for WOFF format fonts and CID keyed fonts in font subsetting, resulting in further reduction of file sizes. Additionally, when data files are present, the book details now include a convenient link to open the data files folder. The template language has been upgraded with various functions that allow users to query the extra files associated with a book. In the Edit book feature, users can now compress images in the WEBP format. The comments editor has also been improved, offering buttons to easily create links to data files and folders when inserting a link. Furthermore, users can now display the id, formats, and path columns through Preferences, allowing for more customization. A new button has been added to the trash bin, enabling users to easily clear its contents. Lastly, the metadata editor now utilizes a dedicated editor with a preview option for custom columns that store Markdown formatted text.


2023. Book Collector adds 3 completely new data fields and 4 new sync fields



The new version of Book Collector (v23) has added 3 completely new data fields and 4 new cloud-sync fields. The new fields (Signed By, Dust Jacket and Number Line) were added to all of our book database solutions (mobile, web and desktop). Also, you can now finally sync these existing Book Collector fields through the CLZ Cloud to the CLZ Books mobile app (Cover Artist, Foreword Author, Ghostwriter and Box Set). The similar updates have also been released for the CLZ Books mobile apps and Book Connect web-based software so all 7 fields now nicely sync between all of them.


2023. Calibre now allows to read books aloud with more voices



New Calibre's update brings more voices to Read Aloud feature. It works only on Windows because uses Microsoft speech subsystem. When Read aloud is speaking, you can make the control bar translucent so that words under the bar are visible. There is a number of other new features. Spell check dialog now allows Up and Down arrow keys to work regardless of focus. Edit book feature now allows automatic fixing of various simple CSS errors. And File browser allows using keyboard shortcuts to re-order the spine. Also from the library you can now open the book folder easily. Add by ISBN feature now allows adding using identifiers other than ISBN as well. The update is bundled Qt to 6.4 this means calibre on macOS is now only supported on Big Sur and newer.


2022. Ebook catalog software Calibre 6.3 fine-tunes full text search



In several updated Calibre developers added some new improvements and bug fixes for full-text search, introduced in version 6. They added a button to re-index a book - useful if the book's contents have been changed outside calibre. Search queries start supporting quoting using "docstrings" for easier escaping. The search now ignores soft hyphens when extracting searchable text from books (though you will have to re-index your library to take advantage of this). The e-book viewer now allows searching for nearby words using a new "Nearby words" search mode. New fts_search and fts_index commands allow to perform full text searching from the command line.


2022. Calibre 6.0 now has text to speech and full text search



Calibre has recently released a significant update to its ebook management software, introducing several noteworthy features. The standout feature is Full Text Search, which offers the option to index your entire library, enabling you to search for specific words or phrases throughout your collection. To utilize this feature, simply click on the FT button located to the left of the search bar, allowing you to initiate the library indexing process. Once indexing is complete, you can perform searches within your library. Another prominent addition is the Read Aloud feature, which leverages your computer's default voice assistant, including Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, to read any ebook in your library. Furthermore, you have the flexibility to adjust the playback speed, catering to your preferred pace. Additionally, Calibre now provides support for Apple Silicon CPU architectures without the need for Rosetta translation. This enhancement is particularly significant, as the app is now optimized for Apple laptops and the Apple Studio computer, equipped with the M1 and M2 chips, respectively.


2022. eBook management software Collectorz adds vertical book cards



Vertical Cards, recently introduced in Collectorz.com Book Collector mobile apps have become instantly very popular, so now they are available in all five Connect flavors too: the Card View. And because Connect already had a view called “Card View”, the developers renamed the old view to “Horizontal Cards” and named the new one “Vertical Cards”. Here’s how to switch to new “Vertical Cards” view: on the toolbar above your collection list, click the 2nd button from the left, called “Vertical Cards”.


2022. Book collection software Collectorz.com added Month folders, Cover-paste feature



Book collection software Collectorz.com has added some new features. In the Cover tab of your Edit screen you can now paste an image from the clipboard. A quick popup will appear with the pasted image, asking you if you want to past it as front or back cover. In addition to existing “Year” folder options (e.g. for “Added Year”, “Purchase Year”, etc… ) the developers added two more “granular” folder options. You can now folder by “Month” (e.g. “Purchase Month”) or by the exact day (e.g. “Added Date”). These Month and Date folder options are now available for all your date fields. The final and smallest tweak: the “Move to Other Collection” command is now available for one specific items, from the toolbar above its Details Panel. The developers also did a small re-design to the screen that pops up for selecting which collection to move to.


2021. Calibre added support for the 11th Gen Kindle Paperwhite 5



Ebook management software Calibre has just added support for the brand new Kindle Paperwhite and you can now manage your e-readers collection when having it plugged into your PC or MAC. Furthermore, this release adds support for EPUB 3 landmarks in the Set Semantics tool under the Edit Book component and moves the option that allows Calibre to recognize numbers when sorting from Preferences > Tweaks to Preferences > Behavior. Calibre is one of the best ebook management software in the world, millions of users use the program. It can do some powerful stuff, such as fetch missing metadata on ebooks that you downloaded from the internet, such as book covers. It has an ebook viewer, which can edit titles, can download magazines from the internet and import your collection of books from your PC right to the e-reader, at the click of a button. Calibre


2020. Calibre 5 adds highlighting to ebook viewer



Cross-platform eBook management, reading, and editing software Calibre saw a new release. There has been a lot of work on the calibre E-book viewer. It now supports Highlighting. The highlights can be colors, underlines, strikethrough, etc. and have added notes. All highlights can be both stored in EPUB files for easy sharing and centrally in the calibre library for easy browsing. Additionally, the E-book viewer now supports both vertical and right-to-left text. calibre has also moved to using Python 3. This is because Python 2 was end-of-lifed this year. This should be completely transparent to calibre users, the only caveat being that some third party calibre plugins have not yet been ported to Python 3 and therefore will not work in calibre 5


2019. Calibre 4.0 improves Content server



The new version of popular ebook management software Calibre is making its Content server ever more capable. It has gained the ability to Edit metadata, Add/remove books and even Convert books to and from all the formats calibre itself supports. It is now a full fledged interface to your calibre libraries. Besides, the new version is built on the new web browser engine Qt WebEngine. The change to use Qt WebEngine has entailed a complete rewrite of various parts of calibre, including the E-book viewer, PDF Output, Book details etc. Every attempt has been made to preserve features and functionality in a backwards compatible way, see below for a list of some known incompatibilities.


2019. Calibre adds support for the Nook Glowlight Plus 7.8



Calibre has just announced that they have official support for the new Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight Plus. This means when you plug the e-reader into your PC via the USB cable, it will now be recognized. This new is good news for anyone who uses the software and has their own collection of ebooks, comics, magazines or newspapers they want to read on their Nook.


2018. Calibre added support for the Kindle Paperwhite 4



The popular ebook management program, Calibre, has introduced support for the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 4. As a result, the program can now recognize your Paperwhite device, enabling you to seamlessly transfer a wide range of content such as documentation, ebooks, manga, PDF files, and more directly to your Paperwhite. In addition, Calibre has introduced new features including metadata plugboards, which allow you to define plugboards that modify comments metadata, and a convenient keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+M) in the E-book viewer for easily toggling between paged and flow mode. Calibre is compatible with Windows, MAC, and Linux operating systems. With its comprehensive metadata support, Calibre makes it simple to fix any issues with ebooks downloaded from the internet, such as incorrect author information or missing cover art, with just a few clicks of a button.


2018. Book Collector 18 adds auto-coud-syncing



Book Collector, a popular ebook catalog software for Mac, has introduced Auto-Cloud-Syncing as promised, along with numerous enhancements to its main screen, resulting in improved speed and stability. At the heart of its cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile, and web) is the free CLZ Cloud service, which acts as the cohesive element binding them together. A vast number of users rely on CLZ Cloud syncing to seamlessly transfer data across their desktop, Connect, and mobile software, enabling them to update their online collection list or maintain an online backup of their valuable database. With automatic syncing enabled, any additions or edits made in Book Collector are instantly uploaded to the CLZ Cloud. Whether you make changes using the CLZ Books mobile app or directly in Book Connect, simply launch the software, and the modifications will be automatically downloaded.


2017. calibre 3.0 improves Content server



The latest release of the ebook catalog software, Calibre 3, is now available. One of the most prominent additions is a completely revamped calibre Content server. This enhanced server enables users to wirelessly browse their calibre book collection on modern smartphones and tablets, and even read books directly within the phone's browser. Notably, the books are stored in offline storage on the device, eliminating the need for a continuously active internet connection or the Calibre software running in the background. Additionally, Calibre 3 now offers native support for high-resolution (Retina) screens and allows the installation of various icon themes to cater to different preferences. It also introduces the capability to convert supported book formats into Microsoft Word (DOCX) files. Furthermore, users can seamlessly transition between Word documents and e-book formats, enabling greater flexibility and convenience.


2017. Book Collector adds completely new Add Books screen



Book Collector for Windows v17.1.1 introduces a fully revamped Add Books screen, featuring a fresh design that enhances both usability and visual appeal. The new layout adopts a simple two-panel design, with search results displayed on the left and a preview on the right. Notably, the Search Results section now includes cover images, providing a more engaging browsing experience. Additionally, selected search results can now be automatically previewed without the need for double-clicking. The integration of the ISBN Barcode Queue and Search Results into a single list streamlines the process of adding books by ISBN. For adding books by title or author, an automatic preview is available. Furthermore, the Add button presents a convenient small menu for selecting either "Add to Collection" or "Add to Wish List," although this feature can be disabled via the "Adding to Collection/Wish List" option found in "Tools > Options > Add/Update Books Automatically."


2014. Calibre 2.0 gets ebook editor



Kovid Goyal has recently launched the latest version of his ebook manager, Calibre 2.0. The standout feature of this update is the inclusion of an e-book editor that supports editing EPUB and AZW3 (Kindle) formats, equipped with a range of powerful tools and features specifically designed to simplify the editing process. Moreover, the software now features a "Compare Books" tool, allowing users to easily view and highlight all the differences between two books side by side. While calibre has previously supported connectivity with Android devices on various operating systems, this capability has been extended to macOS as well. Users can now effortlessly connect their Android phones or tablets to calibre on macOS, just as they could on Windows and Linux. Additionally, users now have the ability to define simple rules to display emblems (small icons) next to book covers in the cover grid. For example, a heart emblem can be assigned to books highly rated by the user, or a tick mark can be applied to indicate books that have been read. Another notable addition is the "Mark Books" tool, which allows users to temporarily mark books with a pushpin icon. These marks are automatically cleared upon restarting calibre.


2013. Calibre 1.0 is available for download



WoW! Seven years after it was first released, the free ebook management software Calibre has reached version 1.0. According to the author (Kovid Goyal), lots of new features have been added to the library organizer in this new version — a grid view of book covers, a new faster database backend, the ability to convert Microsoft Word files, tools to make changes to ebooks without needing to do a full conversion, full support for font embedding and subsetting,  an easy to use tool to edit the Table of Contents in ebooks, rewritten PDF Output engine, new tool "Polish books" that allows you to perform various automated cleanup actions on ebooks.


2013. Calibre Server - access your book collection via the Internet



Probably you didn't know it, but Calibre includes the inbuilt web server - Calibre Content Server for remote library management. Besides it can download and send you the books by email. The Calibre server makes your ebooks available to the gadgets within your home or office wireless network. And if you can set up port forwarding on your router - you access your library from a remote location. You can set a password to restrict access. By default access is unrestricted. The content server lets you see the whole Calibre database on your device, which is great, although if you have a lot of books in your library - it can be slow and you have to keep hitting the “Next” button to advance to the next group of books hour after hour. Using this approach you are using the device to choose the books to download. This approach is effective if you’re just browsing your Calibre database looking for a book to download to your mobile device. But if you wish to use the search power of Calibre to locate books that meet specific criteria to download, then Calibre Server is useless. ***