Calibre Alternatives for Mac. There are many alternatives to calibre for Mac if you are looking to replace it. The most popular Mac alternative is Okular, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to calibre and many of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a. Calibre Companion (CC), recommended by calibre developers, is three applications in one: - a superb device-based calibre library organiser - a high-performance WiFi-based calibre device emulator - a calibre content server and cloud provider client (Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive) 1) CC is a device.
Post updated on 10 August, 2015
About calibre
Calibre is a free, open source, ebook management and conversion utility created and maintained by Kovid Goyal. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Calibre cannot, on its own, remove DRM from ebooks. However, it is possible to added third-party software (‘plugins’) to enhance calibre.
To be able to use the DeDRM plugin for calibre, it is necessary to install calibre first. The latest version can be downloaded from http://calibre-ebook.com/download.
The DeDRM plugin for calibre
The DRM removal plugin (DeDRM_plugin.zip) can be found in the tools archive linked from the most recent post in this blog. The DeDRM plugin can remove DRM from Kindle eBooks (but not rented Kindle ebooks, books downloaded to a Kindle Fire, Kindle for iOS or the Windows Store Kindle App), Barnes & Noble ePub ebooks (but not books downloaded to the Windows Store Nook App) , any ebooks using Adobe Digital Editions DRM (this includes ePubs from Kobo and Sony that are downloaded for Adobe Digital Editions), and the older Mobipocket and eReader ebooks. For other kinds of ebooks see the other posts in this blog.
Calibre App For Mac
Installing the DeDRM plugin for calibre
- Download the latest tools package, and unzip it.
(On Windows, right-click and “Extract All…”; After extracting all, rename the tools_vX.X.X.zip file to tools_zipped_vX.X.X.zip to prevent later confusion) - Run calibre. From the Preferences menu select “Change calibre behavior”.
(Do not click “Get plugins to enhance calibre”, that option is reserved for ‘official’ calibre plugins.) - Click on Plugins (under “Advanced”) — it looks like a jigsaw puzzle piece.
- Click on the large “Load plugin from file” button
- Navigate to the tools folder unzipped in step 2
- Open the “DeDRM_calibre_plugin” folder
- Select the DeDRM_plugin.zip file in that folder
- Click on the “Add” (sometimes “Open”) button.
- Click on the “Yes” button in the “Are you sure?” warning dialog that appears. A “Success” dialog will appear, saying that the plug-in has been installed. Click on “OK”.
Customising the plugin with encryption keys
On Macintosh and Windows systems no customisation is required for ebooks from Kindle for Mac/PC, Nook Study, or Adobe Digital Editions (ADE), provided that calibre is run on the same computer and user account as the installation of Kindle for Mac/PC, Nook Study, or ADE to which the books were downloaded. The default key is found and stored in the preferences automatically. Anyone using Linux should read the ReadMe file for details of how to obtain the keys manually.
For other sources of ebooks, or on Linux systems, you must configure the plugin. To configure the plugin, you must find it in the list of plugins. Usually calibre will have automatically selected the DeDRM plugin after you add it. If not, the DeDRM plugin can be found under “File Type plugins”. It might easier to find if you check the “Show only user installed plugins” checkbox. You might need to click on the triangle next to the “File Type plugins” label to show the list of File Type plugins.
If it’s not already selected, click on the DeDRM plugin in the list to select it, and then click on the Customize plugin button. This will open that main “Customise DeDRM” dialog which contains a set of buttons describing different type and sources of ebooks. If you have DRMed ebooks that match the description on any of the buttons, you will need to click on the button and enter the required information in the sub-dialog that will pop up.
All the dialogs have a help link in the top right of the dialog, that gives further information about the required information.
When all the configuration for your DRMed ebooks has been entered, click “OK” in the main dialog to save all the information you’ve entered. You’re now ready to remove the DRM from your ebooks.
Using the DeDRM calibre plugin
The DeDRM calibre plugin removes DRM from ebooks as they are imported into calibre. So to use the plugin, just import your DRMed ebooks into calibre, and the DRM will be removed. If you have already imported your ebooks into calibre, you will need to remove the DRMed ebooks and import them again.
You can check that the DRM has been removed from an imported ebook by trying to view it using calibre’s built-in viewer. Note that for .azw3 Kindle ebooks you might need to check a checkbox in calibre’s preferences to say that .azw3 ebooks should be viewed using calibre’s internal viewer.
If things go wrong
The calibre developers are not involved in the development of the DRM removal plugin, and are not able to help with any DRM removal questions. If you have any difficulties following the instructions in this post, the calibre developers will not be able to help.
You must ask any questions about installing or using the DeDRM calibre plugin in a comment to most recent post on this blog.
Credits
Most of the work on converting the DRM removal scripts to a calibre plugin has been done by DiapDealer and Apprentice Alf.
Post updated on 22nd March, 2013
System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 and above.
The simplest way to remove the DRM from your ebooks is to use calibre and the DeDRM calibre plugin, as described in my post DeDRM plugin for calibre: the simplest option for removing DRM from most ebooks. If you don’t want to use calibre, for whatever reason, here is an alternative.
The DeDRM application identifies an ebook’s format, and then removes the DRM from that ebook by running the appropriate DRM removal python script.
Installing the DeDRM Application
Mac OS X 10.4 only: Install Python 2.7.3
- Download Python 2.7.3 from python.org and, if necessary, mount the disk image file by double-clicking it.
- Run the Python.mpkg application from the disk image, accepting all defaults.
Install the DeDRM application
- Download the latest tools zip archive (link in this post).
- Unzip the tools archive (by double-clicking it).
- Open the folder “DeDRM_Application_Macintosh” that’s in the unzipped tools folder.
- Read the “DeDRM ReadMe.rtf” file that’s in the “DeDRM_Application_Macintosh” folder!
- Drag the “DeDRM.app” application to your “Applications” folder or wherever is convenient for you.
- If you wish, drag the “DeDRM.app” application into your Dock to make is easily accessible.
Using the DeDRM Application
To remove DRM from a Kindle for Mac or an Adobe Digital Edition ebook, just drag & drop the ebook file onto the application when it is not running.
For other ebooks, you will need to enter some extra information. Run the DeDRM application by double-clicking it to access the configuration dialogs.
Calibre Ios App
To remove DRM from several ebooks or folders of ebooks at once, just drag & drop the files and folders onto the DeDRM application when it is not running.
Notes
eReader ebooks: The output from an encrypted eReader file is a .pmlz zip file of the unencypted PML and images. If you have DropBook, a free application available from http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/browse.htm installed on your Mac, DropBook will be used to also produce an unencrypted eReader file. Sometimes there are problems compiling the decode PML file using DropBook. In such a case, Calibre can also import the PMLZ file and convert to other formats. N.B. The DropBook application will not run on Mac OS X 10.7 and later.
Amazon Topaz ebooks: Some Amazon Kindle ebooks are in a format known as Topaz. This AppleScript will remove the DRM from the Topaz files, but to allow the file to be converted into other formats, the Topaz format must be converted during the de-drming process. The end result is that you end up with two files from one Topaz format ebook. One is the text (& pictures) of the book in HTML format created from the OCR text that’s stored in the Topaz file. Another is a set of SVG page images which very closely resemble the pages of the book the Topaz file was created from. For most purposes, you’ll only need the HTML file, but if the OCR is poor, you might want to unzip the folder of SVG images to check the pages or convert them to an image based PDF file.
Calibre App Mac Os X
Anti-Piracy Notice
Please only use this application for gaining full access to your own ebooks for archiving/converson/convenience. De-drmed ebooks should not be uploaded to open servers, torrents, or other methods of mass distribution. No help will be given to people doing such things. Authors, retailers and publishers all need to make a living, so that they can continue to produce books for us to read. Don’t be a parasite.
About the Macintosh DeDRM Application
Calibre Appimage
This application is written in AppleScript, and can be opened and edited using the AppleScript Script Editor.
How To Use Calibre On Mac
— Alf.