In addition to the big e-books stores, many online sites offer e-books. Everything from public domain works to novels (often offered at no charge) by well known and lesser known authors. The ‘Get books’ icon in the toolbar allows you to easily comparison shop via a store search dialog. This allows you to search many different stores (uncheck or check the stores you want it to use on the left), big and small, at once. It not only helps you find the best price but also the right format for the book you’re looking for. Please note that this feature connects you to a third party, the store, so any issues related to a purchase should be directed to the store itself because calibre is not part of this exchange.

Often you can download e-books in a variety of formats, but you won’t always find them in a 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. Realize that you can’t convert e-books that use Digital Rights Management (DRM).

In the rest of the conversion section I will focus on three devices. 1) The Amazon Kindle which supports the AZW3 format. 2) The Kobo, which supports the EPUB format. 3) The Barnes & Noble Nook, which also supports the EPUB format. While both the Kobo and Nook use the EPUB format, books purchased from one store may not be readable on another device due to DRM.

2.2: Why are there different e-book formats?

Advances in technology is one reason why so many different e-book formats exist. In fact, it’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 the needs of today. A great example of this is the e-books people read back in the ’90s 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 that could provide these features.

E-book formats are constantly evolving. While new formats aren’t introduced very often, existing formats (like EPUB) are constantly being updated. For example, the transition from EPUB 2 to EPUB 3. One big change that comes with EPUB 3 is the ability for EPUB to support audio and video. While supporting audio and video might seem counter intuitive for an e-book, it make sense when you think about e-books as rich media. Coupled with a tablet or phone, audio and video can work very well and greatly enhance the readers experience.