Free Calibre Quick Start Guide by John Schember Page A

at a number of small independent e-book stores.
    Often you can download these e-books in a variety of formats, but you
won’t always find them in the format your e-book reader supports. Here is
where conversion comes in. There is a very good chance that you will be able
to take an e-book and convert it to a format your reader supports, as long
as the book doesn’t use Digital Rights
Management (DRM) anti-copying technology.
    In the rest of the conversion section I will focus on (1) the Amazon
Kindle which supports the Mobipocket format, aka MOBI, and (2) the Sony
Reader line (the PRS machines like the PRS-600), which supports the EPUB
format, and (3) the Barnes & Noble Nook, which also supports the EPUB
format. (The Nook has some issues with DRMed books .)
2.2: Why are there different e-book
formats?
    Just why do so many different e-book formats exist? Advances in
technology? In fact, that’s a major reason. Just like the transition from
VHS to DVD and now to Blu-Ray, older formats which were created to solve the
problems faced at that time are replaced with newer formats that better meet
need of today's e-book reader devices. A great example of this is the old
books people read back in the 90’s on their PDAs. Those devices were very
limited in what they could display. E-book readers today are much more
advanced. They can display large images, and handle advanced formatting.
These newer devices needed updated formats providing these features.
    Another major reason is exclusivity. Many vendors like to control their
own proprietary formats so they are not dependent on outside companies. They
also have the benefit of being able to license their format for use by
others. This also allows them to lock users into their platform. E-books,
being relatively new, are undergoing the same growing pains that Betamax and
VHS or HD-DVD and Blu-Ray went though. The EPUB format, from the
International Digital Publishing Forum, is an industry standard intended to
reduce these problems.
2.3: Conversion basics
    The first thing you need to do is find out what formats your e-book
reader supports. The Kindle supports AZW, MOBI, PRC, AZW1, TPZ and TXT. The
PRS line from Sony supports EPUB, LRF, LRX, RTF, PDF, TXT. Don’t let this
scare or confuse you; all of the major e-book readers support multiple
formats. Even with this jumble of letters, you only need to worry about the
preferred format for the e-book reader. This preferred format is the one
that gives the best formatting. As I mentioned earlier for the Kindle, you
really only need to worry about Mobipocket (MOBI), and for the Sony Reader
line (PRS) and Nook you only need to worry about EPUB. However, it is a good
idea to be aware of all of the supported formats because it wouldn’t make
sense to convert an AZW to MOBI for reading on your Kindle because the
Kindle can already read AZW books. Conversion is only necessary to fill in
the gaps. For example, if you want to read an EPUB file on your Kindle you
convert the EPUB to MOBI.
    Converting e-book formats with calibre is simple and straightforward:
Open Calibre and select the e-book to convert in the library
    list.
Connect your e-book reader to your computer. Calibre takes a moment
    detect and scan your e-book reader.
Click 'Send to device' (the 6th button in the top tool bar).
Calibre is smart enough to know if the book is in a format supported
    by your reader. If it’s not, it will ask you if you want to auto convert
    it. Say yes, and it will take care of the conversion and put the book on
    your reader.
    That’s all there is to it. Doing it is easier than it sounds because all
you need to do is select the book you want on your device and clicking 'Send
to device.' Calibre worries about the formats and converting for you.
2.4: More robust conversion
    Auto conversion is the easiest way to go and in most cases will be all
you need to do. However, there are a few options that allow control over