24 apps for 2024. Part eight

My new year's resolution is be more productive without sacrificing privacy. To achieve this I selected the list of 24 apps by 2024.

In previous articles I had placed emphasis on income generation and there is some of that in this one, but I also have the purpose of acquiring new skills.

24 apps for 2024

The ninth application

The ninth title on this list is actually that of an application suite since Caliber is made up of:

• A book collection manager with the ability to convert between formats
• A creator and publisher of books in Epub format.
• A book reader compatible with the most common formats.

Although Caliber is in the repositories, these usually do not have the most current version, It is best to use the commands indicated in the project page or failing that, the packages Flat hub.

The collection manager

The Caliber collection manager is to text files what VLC is to multimedia files. There is practically no format among the most common to and from that you cannot convert. Although today some of the word processors for Linux such as LibreOffice and Softmaker FreeOffice convert to the Epub format and practically all of them work with the PDF format, Caliber allows you to automate the format change process.

It is also possible schedule the modification of some parameters such as typography, its size, the distribution and spacing of the text, etc.

The books in Caliber are organized into two types of catalogues:

• Libraries: They are collections of books stored on the computer's hard drive or an external drive.
• Devices: These are the books stored in an e-book reader.

You can work with multiple libraries and devices and exchange books between them.  It is possible to establish sorting criteria simply by clicking on the corresponding column and use the internal search engine by establishing different parameters.

Caliber allows us to edit the book's metadata, assign a classification and tag it.

In addition to the basic functions of the collection manager, There are plugins that allow you to expand its functionality

The ebook editor

Although the collection manager and the book reader allow you to work with multiple formats, the editor works with only one, the EPUB format. As its name indicates, this format based on the XHTML language was designed for the creation of electronic publications. Today it is compatible with most reading devices including the quasi-monopoly Kindle that joined the club in 2022.

The main differences between PDF and EPUB is that the former was designed to share documents. Almost all interactions have to do with modifications such as completing forms and signatures. EPUB, on the other hand, isIt is designed to share unmodifiable content with the reader. In that sense, it supports not only texts and graphics but also multimedia.

You will have noticed that at all times I referred to the program we are talking about as a text editor. While it is possible to create a book from scratch, you have to do it by writing code. In fact, it is basically an integrated development environment.

It also incorporates some basic text processing functions such as spelling correction and punctuation, although the developers themselves clarify that they work better with the English language.

The editor also allows us to review code, change style sheets, insert covers and embed fonts.

The book viewer

If the software had fan clubs (Yes, according to the RAE the plural of fan is fans) I would be a member of this Caliber book viewer. I am visually impaired and have trouble with a white background, so I appreciate that the viewer allows me to switch to other styles, both predefined and created by me. I clarify that sometimes it is necessary to delete the style time predefined by the creator from the ebook editor.

The program supports setting placeholders, taking notes, accessing external links, and reading aloud. Experts can alter the book's display by writing code directly in the application's editor.