Libra Comprehensive Calibre Set-Up Guide + Questions

[Librarian X-ray]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Personally, I'm not big on stats though I do find the reading time remaining numbers to be an endless source of amusement. The main reason for my preference for epub is the better typography—whatever else I may have to say about Adobe, most of which is not praise—they do understand typography. At one point, kepub had faster page turns and annotations were easier but those advantages have pretty much disappeared with newer firmware.

Would you recommend EPUB over KEPUB then? If thats so, would i be okay removing the kobotouch extended plug in? Also, if you have any es xpierence with the book cover questions i had above that would be great all of this is new for me since I came from kindle.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by NormalToblerone

Would you recommend EPUB over KEPUB then? If thats so, would i be okay removing the kobotouch extended plug in? Also, if you have any es xpierence with the book cover questions i had above that would be great all of this is new for me since I came from kindle.

Either works. My preference for epub is based on items such as kerning, ligatures and font rendering which are not going to even be noticed by most people. The only time I use kepub is the few books that have images that are high enough resolution that I want to be to zoom them while reading. Generally, you can tell those books in my library by the sheer size (one ebook jumped from 0.6MB to 53.3MB when I embedded a high resolution map which was downloadable from the author's website).

As for the book covers, I download higher resolution covers and then generate covers at my preferred resolutions from them and use the ModifyEpub plugin to embed them as the last step in my import & cleanup routine. This keeps the thumbnails on my Kobos around the same size since they are generated from the cover image embedded in the epubs.

My work flow is basically the ebooks are imported into my Intake library, metadata, covers, etc. are cleaned up (this often involves using either Sigil or the calibre editor) and then the ebooks are moved to my Main library.

[Librarian X-ray]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As for the book covers, I download higher resolution covers and then generate covers at my preferred resolutions from them and use the ModifyEpub plugin to embed them as the last step in my import & cleanup routine. This keeps the thumbnails on my Kobos around the same size since they are generated from the cover image embedded in the epubs.

What resolution do you usually shoot for? I have some covers that are high res and some that are smaller because I used calibre's download covers and metadata tool. I then clean up the book by polishing the epub with the updated metadata. Does kobo automatically make the book thumbnails the same size when transferring over to the device or will they be different sizes. I know lots of people ask about the size of the images on screen sleep, but my "concern" is on the book thumbnails haha

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For the first Step 3, just use the "Tablet" profile. There won't be any actual difference, but, if you have another device, it's a little less confusing.

Once a device has been connected/linked to Calibre, is there a way to reset it?

I think I chose the wrong profile for my Glowlight 3 and would like to switch to the other Nook profile, but am not sure if that is possible at this point.

[Librarian X-ray]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Once a device has been connected/linked to Calibre, is there a way to reset it?

I think I chose the wrong profile for my Glowlight 3 and would like to switch to the other Nook profile, but am not sure if that is possible at this point.

Wouldn't just changing the conversion profile when converting fix the issue?

[Librarian X-ray]

@davidfor @DNSB I guess I'm still confused on what kobotouchextended does for covers. I don't know if it will make them the same size on thumbnails and on the screen saver :/

[Ripplinger]

As others previously suggested, you should just read on the reader first, both epub and kepub books, to see which you really prefer.

For myself, I'm with DNSB and prefer epub for all the reasons he stated. Kepubs always leave me with messed up text on the first and last lines with dangling letters cut off unless I want to fidget to get line height just so. I also have no interest in stats about pages read per hour or whatever else they record about your reading time. The only thing I show are the pages numbers at the bottom as "45 / 301" for example. And the miniclock in the lower right corner with remaining battery.

About covers... high resolution covers make zero sense on an ereader. The image is shown in B&W anyway, and you look at it a second or two while opening up a book (assuming you're using a sleep cover like the majority). I like the covers to be uniform in size, so I uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio", and check "Upload B&W covers". The distortion is slight, especially for as short a time as you actually see the cover, so I just prefer them neater looking and all the same size. Either driver for epub or kepub will do that. It's not the same thing as watching a movie in the wrong aspect ratio, you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference unless you compared them. Even if I didn't use a sleep cover and had the reader display the book cover while not in use, I'd still opt for not keeping aspect ratio on covers. I really dislike the sidebands that will show when a cover doesn't fill the screen. But that's me, you may prefer something different.

So just start reading and see what the differences are for yourself before you decide on either epub or kepub.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by NormalToblerone

Wouldn't just changing the conversion profile when converting fix the issue?

Sorry. I'm not sure what you mean.

Nooks take ePubs. The books on my computer are all ePub.

It turns out there are two different Nook profiles in Calibre. One drops all the ePubs in a single folder, the other makes an author folder for each book you add. That second one is what Calibre and my Glowlight 3 uses and it seems to be causing issues.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

About covers... high resolution covers make zero sense on an ereader. The image is shown in B&W anyway, and you look at it a second or two while opening up a book (assuming you're using a sleep cover like the majority). I like the covers to be uniform in size, so I uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio", and check "Upload B&W covers". The distortion is slight, especially for as short a time as you actually see the cover, so I just prefer them neater looking and all the same size. Either driver for epub or kepub will do that. It's not the same thing as watching a movie in the wrong aspect ratio, you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference unless you compared them. Even if I didn't use a sleep cover and had the reader display the book cover while not in use, I'd still opt for not keeping aspect ratio on covers. I really dislike the sidebands that will show when a cover doesn't fill the screen. But that's me, you may prefer something different.

Given that I use the screensaver directory, I seldom see a cover other than when I open a book and promptly skip over it. As for the lettterboxing or pillarboxing? I prefer it to some of the aspect ratio distortions I've seen. But then photography has been a hobby for a lot of decades so I may be more sensitive to ovals where circles should be as an example.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Sorry. I'm not sure what you mean.

Nooks take ePubs. The books on my computer are all ePub.

It turns out there are two different Nook profiles in Calibre. One drops all the ePubs in a single folder, the other makes an author folder for each book you add. That second one is what Calibre and my Glowlight 3 uses and it seems to be causing issues.

I thought the Nook device interface plugin had a configurable save template? Is that incorrect? AFAIR, there is only one device interface plugin for the eInk Nooks. The input plugins nor output plugin should have no effect on the device interface.

Or is one of your Nooks using the MTP device interface?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by NormalToblerone

@davidfor @DNSB I guess I'm still confused on what kobotouchextended does for covers. I don't know if it will make them the same size on thumbnails and on the screen saver :/

I get the feeling people are misunderstanding what you want when you say you want the covers all to be the same size.

You want to look at My Books and have all the cover icons be the same width and height. I don't know if there's a plug in that does that.

For the screen saver, there's an option on the device to stretch the cover to fit. I use it and have never seen a cover that was noticeably distorted.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NormalToblerone

What resolution do you usually shoot for? I have some covers that are high res and some that are smaller because I used calibre's download covers and metadata tool. I then clean up the book by polishing the epub with the updated metadata. Does kobo automatically make the book thumbnails the same size when transferring over to the device or will they be different sizes. I know lots of people ask about the size of the images on screen sleep, but my "concern" is on the book thumbnails haha

I shoot for a cover resolution of at least 1600 lines. If you have the Kobo metadata download installed you can get most covers as high-res covers from Kobo when you go to download covers in the metadata editor.

The thumbnails are not a problem side loaded ePub or KePub from Calibre.

[ZodWallop]

If this gets too involved, I'll start it as a new thread in the Nook section. I don't mean to hijack.

Originally Posted by DNSB

I thought the Nook device interface plugin had a configurable save template? Is that incorrect?

How would I check that? Alas, I'm not at home right now to be able to check it.

AFAIR, there is only one device interface plugin for the eInk Nooks. The input plugins nor output plugin should have no effect on the device interface.

There's at least two. Let me clarify. I have a 2015 Glowlight Plus and a Glowlight 3. Both run the same firmware.

When I plug the Plus in to Calibre, my Device icon is a Nook ST. When I sideload with Calibre it sends ePubs only. All ePubs are dopped into the same folder on the Nook.

When I plug the 3 in to Calibre, my Device icon shows the very first Nook (the one with the colored bar at the bottom). It creates folders for the authors and puts sorts the ePubs that way.

On the home screen, on both, you should see your current read and most recently added books. On the Plus, it works as expected.

On the 3, after ejecting, it cycles through all the books on the device, and the books in the top bar are seemingly random. Also, if you reopen the book you were reading, it will choose a random book you were reading.

As an experiment, I've been plugging in the 3 and instead of using Calibre, I've been dropping all the ePubs into a single folder like what happens on the Plus. That seems to help.

What I would like to do is switch the profile for the 3 to use the same profile as the Plus.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

If this gets too involved, I'll start it as a new thread in the Nook section. I don't mean to hijack.

That might be better or in the Calibre Devices subforum.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

How would I check that? Alas, I'm not at home right now to be able to check it.

I checked and in calibre 4.21, there are two Nook device interface plugins. One is for "Nook Color Device Interface", the other is "Nook Device Interface". Both of them have a spot for the Save template. The other option, since Nook uses Android, is that it is presenting as a MTP device. I'm not certain as to how calibre would handle an Android device using the PTP or USB Mass storage interfaces other than treating them as attached storage for send to disk.

If you click on the device dropdown when your Nooks are connected what do you see when you click on Configure this device?

[Librarian X-ray]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

As others previously suggested, you should just read on the reader first, both epub and kepub books, to see which you really prefer.

For myself, I'm with DNSB and prefer epub for all the reasons he stated. Kepubs always leave me with messed up text on the first and last lines with dangling letters cut off unless I want to fidget to get line height just so. I also have no interest in stats about pages read per hour or whatever else they record about your reading time. The only thing I show are the pages numbers at the bottom as "45 / 301" for example. And the miniclock in the lower right corner with remaining battery.

About covers... high resolution covers make zero sense on an ereader. The image is shown in B&W anyway, and you look at it a second or two while opening up a book (assuming you're using a sleep cover like the majority). I like the covers to be uniform in size, so I uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio", and check "Upload B&W covers". The distortion is slight, especially for as short a time as you actually see the cover, so I just prefer them neater looking and all the same size. Either driver for epub or kepub will do that. It's not the same thing as watching a movie in the wrong aspect ratio, you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference unless you compared them. Even if I didn't use a sleep cover and had the reader display the book cover while not in use, I'd still opt for not keeping aspect ratio on covers. I really dislike the sidebands that will show when a cover doesn't fill the screen. But that's me, you may prefer something different.

So just start reading and see what the differences are for yourself before you decide on either epub or kepub.

Basically the answer i needed. I just want the little book thumbnails in kobo's version of "my library" to all be uniform size and neat. So from what I got, just to clarify, is to have "upload covers" checked and "blsck and white" checked. Everything else is left alone. How do I select between epub and kepub sending in kobotouchextended?