Calibre vs Collectorz.com Book Collector

2024. Calibre added support for new Kobo color e-readers



Ebook management software Calibre has updated its Kobo driver to add support for the new color Kobo devices. Besides, the new version of the software includes other new features. In the Edit book dialog now you can add a setting to control cursor width under Preferences->Editor settings. The Regex-function mode allows to show a confirmation popup when closing the function editor when there are unsaved changes. Spell check now allows to exclude words in ALL CAPS or with numbers or in camelCase/snake_case from the list of words. The search now allows easy inverting the current search via the right click menu on the search box.


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



Kovid Goyal, the mastermind behind the wildly ingenious Calibre, has dropped Calibre 7.0 into the digital ether—a new stable version of the much-beloved, cross-platform, open-source e-book organizer that has kept readers and their libraries in delightfully structured chaos. In this spectacularly brainy update, users now have the thoroughly useful ability to attach notes festooned with links, images, and whimsically formatted text to authors, series, publishers, and tags. But wait, there’s more! Calibre 7.0 boldly steps into the sonic unknown with "Audio EPUB" books, where text is read aloud by recorded voices—though Linux users may encounter a small, patent-induced hiccup on that front. And, for a finale that would make even the most bureaucratically inclined Vogon swoon, the update finally answers long-standing pleas by allowing "data" files to tag along with your books, managed with a simple, glorious right-click. Revolution, thy name is Calibre 7.0.


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 just released a major update to its ebook management software. The standout feature is Full Text Search; Calibre can now optionally index all the books in your library, allowing you to search your entire collection for a specific word or phrase. To use this new function, click on the FT button to the left of the search bar. This will enable you to index your library and, once indexing is complete, perform searches. Another significant new feature is Read Aloud, which will use your computer's default voice assistant to read any ebook in your collection. This includes Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa and Cortana. You can even adjust the playback speed for those who prefer to speed it up or slow it down. Calibre also now supports CPU architectures, including Apple Silicon, without the need for Rosetta translation. This is a major enhancement, as the app is now optimized for the M1 and M2 chips in Apple laptops and Apple Studio computers.


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



Ebook management software Calibre has introduced support for the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 4. This means your device will now be recognized by the program, allowing you to transfer documents, ebooks, manga, PDF files and various other content directly to your Paperwhite. Additional new features include metadata plugboards (which allow the definition of plugboards that also modify comments metadata) and a new keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+M) in the E-book viewer for switching between paged and flow mode. Calibre is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. It offers extensive metadata support, so if an ebook you downloaded from the internet has the book title listed instead of the author, or is missing cover art, this can be easily corrected with a few clicks.


2018. Book Collector 18 adds auto-coud-syncing



Popular ebook catalog software for Mac, Book Collector, now includes the anticipated Auto-Cloud-Syncing feature, along with numerous enhancements to the main screen, making it both faster and more reliable. The free CLZ Cloud service is central to all its cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile and web), serving as the connector that integrates them. Tens of thousands of users utilize CLZ Cloud syncing to transfer data between their desktop, Connect and mobile applications, update their online collection list, or simply maintain an online backup of their valuable database. With automatic syncing, you can add or modify books in Book Collector and these updates will upload to the CLZ Cloud immediately. If you make changes using the CLZ Books mobile app or directly in Book Connect, just launch your software and the changes will automatically download.


2017. calibre 3.0 improves Content server



Ebook catalog software Calibre 3 has been released today. The most significant new feature is a completely revamped Calibre Content Server. This Content Server lets you wirelessly browse your Calibre books on any modern smartphone or tablet and even read the books directly in your phone’s browser. The books are stored in offline storage on the device, so you don’t need to keep Calibre running or maintain a constant internet connection to read them. Additionally, Calibre 3 now natively supports high-resolution (Retina) displays, offers the option to install various icon themes (with many available to suit different preferences) and can convert all the supported book formats to Microsoft Word (DOCX) files. Alongside the support for conversion from Word, you can now seamlessly switch between Word documents and e-book formats to your heart’s content.


2017. Book Collector adds completely new Add Books screen



Book Collector for Windows v17.1.1 introduces a completely revamped Add Books screen. The screen has been entirely redesigned to be both more user-friendly and visually appealing. The new two-panel layout displays search results on the left and a preview on the right. Search Results now include cover images. An automatic preview of the selected result (no need for double-clicking) is shown. For ISBN additions, the ISBN Barcode Queue and Search Results are now merged into a single list. When adding by title/author, automatic previews are available. The Add button now opens a small “Add to Collection” versus “Add to Wish List” menu. This can be turned off using the “Adding to Collection/Wish List” option in “Tools > Options > Add/Update Books Automatically”.


2014. Calibre 2.0 gets ebook editor



Kovid Goyal has released the latest version of his ebook manager Calibre 2.0. The most significant new feature is an e-book editor, which can edit e-books in both the EPUB and AZW3 (Kindle) formats, offering numerous powerful tools and features designed to make e-book editing easier. In addition to the ability to edit books, the software now includes a new "Compare Books" tool that allows you to view all the differences between two books, highlighted and side-by-side. Calibre has long supported connecting to Android phones and tablets on all operating systems except macOS. This gap has now been addressed. You can simply plug in any Android phone or tablet on macOS and Calibre should automatically detect and connect to it, just as it already does on Windows and Linux. Additionally, you can now set up simple rules to display emblems (small icons) next to book covers in the cover grid. For instance, a heart icon next to books you have rated highly or a check mark next to books you have read and so forth. There is also a new tool called Mark Books that can be used to temporarily mark books. The mark appears as a small pushpin icon next to the book and all marks are automatically cleared when Calibre is restarted.


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.