3 Best Free eBook Readers for Mac OS X

Although it has already become a trend to read eBooks on smartphones, tablets or e-ink devices, there will still be a time when you need to open or read eBooks on your Mac. For whatever reasons you may want to read the eBooks on Mac OS X, choosing a great eBook reading app for your Mac in advance can always be important and necessary. Apart from iBooks, the default eReader app on Mac, there are a lot of other cool and useful eBook reading apps you may not know. Maybe the eBooks you collect are from a particular service like iBooks or Kindle that can only be opened with selected reading software. Or you just find some eBooks at open libraries that can be read with a variety of free reading apps. No matter what's your situation, here's the roundup of 3 best free apps for reading ebooks on your Mac OS X.

Apple iBooks

Bundled with Mac Mavericks, the iBooks app, Apple's own e-book reading software is everything you need to get started with ebooks on the Mac. It's integrated with the iBooks Store, so you can make purchases and downloads of the eBooks right in the app. Also, iBooks supports ePub and PDF formats, so you can read more than just the books available from the iBook Store if you wish.

iBooks also includes features for annotation, making it an excellent study partner for those taking classes. Besides, there are customization features so you can adjust type size and color of the pages according to your preferences.

iBooks is a solid eBook reader if you like the idea of a book library and mostly want to focus on reading. Your current reading list and bookmarks in iBooks will sync between all of your iOS devices. Therefore, if you're an Apple fan who own multiple iDevices, iBooks app might be ideal eBook reader for you.

Note: The eBook files you got from iBooks store are restricted by Apple's FairPlay DRM so that you are not allowed to read iBooks eBooks on non-Apple devices. If you want to bypass the DRM lock from the iBooks files permanently, you are recommended to read the following iBooks DRM removal guide.

Kindle for Mac

Amazon is an ebook publishing powerhouse, so it's no surprise they've made Kindle software for everything including the Mac. The problem of the Kindle for Mac software is that there's no way to buy Kindle books from within the app. But if you're invested in Amazon content already, you can easily download the eBooks you own and even have them pushed to your Mac when you buy them, once you've set up the Kindle app.

Another downside of Kindle for Mac is that Amazon isn't invested too heavily in developing and updating the Mac app with new features and capabilities. So it gets a bit stale.

Note: Kindle only supports its own eBook formats like AZW3, Mobi, AZW, PRC. Though it allows us transfer personal PDF to read, it doesn't support EPUB. So if want to read the ePub files on Kindle eReaders, you can follow the tutorial as below.

Generally speaking, Kindle is great app for books purchased through Amazon, since it's the only place to read them. But for DRM-free eBooks, it's definitely not a good option.

Calibre

If you collect a lot of ebooks and want to convert them from one format to another so you can read them on various eBook reading devices, Calibre could be the best choice for you. This ebook management software and converter can do anything, from converting ePub to PDF to transferring files to a tablet or eReader. It can even download blogs or newspapers for offline reading, which is great for a long trip.

However, the disadvantage of Calibre is that it's not great for actually reading books while its interface feels like a relic. But while Calibre might not be the best reading experience for Mac, it's a must-have tool for power users looking to organize, convert and transfer their eBook collection.

Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of TunesKit who is obsessed about tech, movie and software.