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Electronic Books - books in digital file format- have been with us since, indeed before, the start of the Internet. Project Guttenberg (www guttenberg dot org), which has a library of almost 50,000 free eBooks,was founded decades ago. In the last few years eBooks have grown in popularity. Linux gives us access to open source software to read, manage and create eBooks.

 

Tutorial Goal : Install and basic usage tips for Calibre eBook reader with footnote reference to Sigil

                          eBook creation tool github binaries.

System :         Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca x86 / 64 bit Cinnamon 2.4 Kernel 3.13.0 -37.

                          Calibre Version 1.25.0 from LM Software Manager at March 2015.

Call Out :         DuckDuckGo (DDG) search words are given to point to a web site for detail on each

                          specific tool to first evaluate its applicability for your needs and system set up.

 

OVERVIEW

Calibre is an eBook reader program that can read many formats (once the book is not Digital Rights management DRM encrypted protected) including MOBI, EPUB, RTF, TXT, PDF. It also provides a cataloging system to organise the saved digital books.

Sigil is a program to create an ebook, for example in EPUB format. Unlike Calibre it is not in the Linux Mint Software Manager or Synaptic but its' source code binaries are still available on github. Recommend reader only use this source if familiar with downloading/compiling/installing manually.

ELECTRONIC BOOK FORMATS

EBooks come in various formats, but there are two major ones. The Mobipocket book company developed the MOBI format and it was acquired by Amazon around 9 years ago who use it for the Kindle. The second major format, EPUB ( Electronic PUBlication), is a no license fee Open Standard that is used by other book providers (Apple iBooks store, Sony Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook etc) An EPUB eBook is simply a combined zip type file containing several other files stored together that include words, images, stylesheets, fonts and details like author or title. EPUB’s standard format (where words and text are in HTML mark up format ) means it can be read on many e-readers or converted to other e-readers not using EPUB.

CALIBRE EBOOK READER AND MANAGER

Web Site:      DDG Search Words “Calibre Official Site” →http: calibre-ebook dot com

                        At time of writing this site gives latest version of 2.22.0 manual download instructions,

                        as well as a donate support button and Demo Tutorial videos.

To Install:    LM Menu-> Software Manager-> enter “calibre” (lower case, without the quotes) in the

                       search bar. Then, double left mouse click on Calibre and then click install.

                             Alternatively from the Terminal (LM Menu->Terminal-> type at  the $ prompt:

                                                     sudo apt-get install calibre

Install Wizard: The first time you use Calibre it will give you some options  including where you would like                             to install the Calibre book catalog management library.

          If you accept the default option, then this library will be placed Calibre Library folder located in:

                                       Files -> /Home/your username/Calibre Library

To Access:      LM Menu -> Office-> Calibre

Usage Tips: When opened from LM Menu, you will see here a “Quick-Start Guide” in .epub format with help on how to use the software. For example how to : Open an eBook; Convert format and Catalog sort Organise your Ebooks by title/author etc. If you have previously downloaded an eBook that is not already stored in the Calibre Library folder then you can simply open the .epub file using Calibre by navigating to the file and double mouse left click. The eBook file then opens with Calibre and the left hand column gives you a GUI menu of options- Font size to read the book; Scroll page forward/ back; Contents; Bookmark.

EPUB CREATOR EDITOR

Sigil is an editor that allows user to create EPUB files. And to see to XHTML code of an EPUB book, enabling make advanced changes to your book. At the time of writing this tutorial it looks like the Sigil download is no longer actively maintained for easy install on Linux. The official site is given below for users familiar with installing from git hub source binaries. https://github.com/user-none/Sigil. Calibre thought to be devloping an ebook editor feature within Calibre that should over time add more Sigil type features to create/edit .epub files.

Web Site:        DDG Search words “ Sigil Official Site” → http: sigil-ebook dot com

                         DDG Search Words “ Sigil User Guide”

SOME EBOOK SITES

As web URL's can change over time here are DuckDuckGo Browser search words to find some sites:

DDG Search Words “ Project Guttenberg → www guttenberg dot org

Usage example: Navigate to Guttenberg site, then select “Book search” tab → “popular” Tab

                              Left mouse Click “The Prince” (by Nicollo Machiavelli)

                              Scroll down to end of this page to ' Download This eBook”

                              Left Mouse Click “ EPUB no images”

                  (Another option is on Right Hand Side can send to Dropbox/ G-Drive or OneDrive)

                  In Linux  Mint (LM) a menu Pops up “ opening …. .epub” and presents the choice to

                           “Open With : Ebook Viewer” ( Default here will be Calibre) or to “ Save File”

 

DDG Search Words “ Scribd” or “Free Tech Ebooks” or “DailyLit” or “GetFreeEbooks”. These are mainly English, but if any reader has recommended eBook sites in other languages, then please feel free to share /add them for the International Linus Mint  community in the tutorial comments box below.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

ConorCork, March, 2015.