There's calibre, and then there's everything else. Also take a look koreader. You can also use koreader from calibre
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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I hear these names thrown around a lot. I've only briefly tried Calibre, and not KOReader yet.
I'm kinda curious, what's the difference between them and the roles they fill?
Calibre is an ebook library manager with a reader built-in. Koreader is purely reader software, and it works particularly well on touch and eink screens.
This👆
That's why I referred to it as "plain": it's just the reader. And it is mostly made to replace the original reader software on eBook devices, but you can also use it on desktop if you want.
The question is if you are looking for just a reader, or a library manager. But you can also mix the two, so use calibre fo manage the library and have it use koreader to open books
You already received a reply to this, but I recently had both installed and also recently reviewed my apps to uninstall duplicate-purpose apps.
KOreader looks like what comes on a Kindle, Nook, etc. I have it loaded on an old Kindle 4th Generation I inherited from my Grandpa. If you like eBook readers, this one is for you. Librera is for people who are Android users, especially those who download and store books on their devices. It follows more typical Android design conventions and functions more like a full eBook suite vs a reader tool.
I think I'm going to go with KOreader for my uses, but have immense admiration for the developers of both.
Librera is for people who are Android users
I'd reword this a little, to
Librera is better for people who are Android readers exclusively
Because if you're the type who uses a dedicated e-ink device for reading, also having the same application and book library on your phone has some obvious benefits. But if your phone is your one reading device, you'd probably try the Android version of KOReader and be like "wtf is with this UI?"
Agreed on the exclusivity thing. Matching apps could be a big benefit. I don't read across devices (or if I do, it is for different books), but I want to give cross-device syncing a try once I get my Calibre library all fixed up.
I use KOreader on an Android phone because it's so configurable and allows me to read efficiently on an AMOLED with white on black text and a very minimal, space efficient interface. Also the large amount of style overrides allows one to fix even the most badly formatted epubs without editing or processing them in Calibre.
Good point on the AMOLED. I actually like the different UI. It keeps me zoned into my book and zoned out of Android.
I used to use KOreader and calibre web NextGen together. But koreader isn't nice to use on my current phone as the auto rotate doesn't really work. So I moved to librera. I'm missing the progress sync, but since I mostly read on my phone, it's fine.
If you read epubs frequently, just on your pc: foliate
If you read epubs frequently, and want to also manage your ereader library: calibre
If you read epubs occasionally and want the same software for reading everything: okular
I really like Foliate. Great interface, easy to use, enough customization. It's available through Flatpak.
If you want something more feature rich and don't care too much about UI, then Calibre.
Seconding this. I use Foliate for epub, and Okular for the rest.
pandoc file.epub -t plain > file.txt
less file.txt
interesting approach
Based af
Calibre's ereader is quite good.
Firefox with some extension when in a pinch.
Otherwise, Calibre.
This is a tough one. All readers I tried had something that annoyed me. If forced to read on desktop, I will use Calibre. But nowadays I prefer calibre-web to put the epub automatically on my ereader.
For actual reading on linux I use fbreader. For eBook management I use calibre.
But 95% of my reading is actually on old eInk devices (kindle, nook).
I just use Foliate but on my current system Foliate has a weird bug for me that it cannot open any books for some reason so I'm using Readest now.
I like KDE Arianna.
Unfortunately, while in the past (I think version 24) it would show 2 columns in portrait mode, now it only shows 1 page in the middle, which I personally consider a regression.
Aside from that there've been some improvements. While in the past I had to flip pages by pressing arrow buttons at the bottom, it now supports swiping the pages, which is much nicer on a touchscreen.
I use Zathura. Not really meant to be an epub reader (ie missing ways to change the font)—afaik it just converts it to a pdf then displays the epub using the pdf engine. But it works fine for my purposes and means I can use my preferred pdf reader for epubs too.
same here! I prefer the simplicity of zathura, and whatever the default font is set to when I open the file tends to be what I want anyway, so no complaints. ^^
Calibre isn't terrible and comes with a reader that can open books without adding it to the library.
KOReader is goated. So many options, I use use it mainly on phones but it works on PC as well.
That's weird. On F-Droid, it says that it was made for an older version of Android, so it can't be updated, but the version listed is 4.3+.
It does say that but it works perfectly fine.
Readest and Foliate are the best ones
I use foliate
Sioyek.
The greatest e-book reader
I use Calibre. I've tried others but many of them are not very customizable.
Foliete FTW
I only read on mobile (android) using Readest but they do have desktop versions and I assume they're just as good as the mobile version.
They just added functionality to play audio overlays (like from Storyteller), too, which is something I've wanted for a while.
That seems like a promising app. I was using Librera for Android, which also handles just about every format and has a lot of settings to play with. But Readest seems like that, plus with a nicer, less clunky look and feel.
I use epy from the command line. It's available in the official Void repo, or in the AUR in Arch.
Foliate is lovely on my tablet, and OK on my laptop.
Calibreweb
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