Skip to main content
Lightnovel Crawler can produce e-books in a range of formats. Some formats are generated natively; others require Calibre to be installed.
EPUB is the recommended primary format. It is generated natively (no Calibre needed), preserves the most structure, and is supported by virtually every e-reader. All Calibre-converted formats are derived from the EPUB output.

​
Format comparison

FormatExtensionRequires CalibreNotes
EPUB.epubNoNative. Recommended format.
Plain text.txt.zipNoNative. One .txt file per chapter, bundled as a ZIP.
JSON.json.zipNoNative. Raw chapter data as JSON, bundled as a ZIP.
PDF.pdfYesLetter-sized pages with page numbers and headers.
MOBI.mobiYesLegacy Kindle format.
DOCX.docxYesMicrosoft Word format.
RTF.rtfYesRich Text Format.
FB2.fb2YesFictionBook 2 format.
AZW3.azw3YesModern Kindle format.
LIT.litYesMicrosoft Reader format (legacy).
LRF.lrfYesSony Reader format (legacy).
PDB.pdbYesPalm Database format (legacy).
RB.rbYesRocket Book format (legacy).
TCR.tcrYesPsion/Epoc format (legacy).

​
Calibre

All formats except EPUB, TXT, and JSON require Calibre’s ebook-convert tool. Install Calibre: https://calibre-ebook.com/download Without Calibre, running lncrawl will only make EPUB, TXT, and JSON available. Calibre-only formats will be hidden from the interactive format picker and skipped if requested via -f.

​
macOS PATH setup

On macOS, Calibre’s command-line tools are not automatically added to PATH. Before starting lncrawl, run: 
export PATH="$PATH:/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS"
Add this line to your shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile) to make it permanent. If you installed Calibre in a non-default location, replace /Applications/ with the correct path.

​
Specifying formats

Use the -f / --format flag with the crawl command to choose output formats. 
# Single format
lncrawl crawl --all -f epub https://novelfull.com/my-novel.html

# Multiple formats in one run
lncrawl crawl --all -f epub -f mobi -f pdf https://novelfull.com/my-novel.html
The flag can be repeated as many times as needed. Valid values match the extension names shown in the table above: epub, txt, json, pdf, mobi, docx, rtf, fb2, azw3, lit, lrf, pdb, rb, tcr.
When Calibre-converted formats are requested, lncrawl always generates the EPUB first and converts from it — even if epub was not explicitly listed in -f.

​
Where output files are saved

Files are written to the output directory configured in LNCRAWL_DATA_PATH (defaults to the current user’s data directory). Within that directory: 
<data>/
  novels/
    <novel-title>/
      artifacts/
        MyNovel.epub
        MyNovel.mobi
        MyNovel.pdf
In interactive mode, the artifacts folder is opened automatically after a successful crawl. In --noin mode, the path is printed to stdout.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us