If Calibre, the popular open-source ebook manager, was a book itself it’d surely be a perennial bestseller, thanks to an exhaustive, multi-faceted feature set.
And in the latest Calibre 7 release, the feature set expands yet further.
The latest version introduces a clutch of new capabilities to the manager’s existing roster of ebook conversion, syncing, reading, and editing options.
New Features in Calibre 7.x
To me, the standout addition in Calibre 7.0 is the ability to store notes linked to various book attributes within your Calibre library. You can stash notes related to authors, publishers, book series, and more so you can keep track of information relevant to you.
Using this in Calibre 7.x and up is super easy: just right-click on an author or tag name in the Tag browser or Book details panel, click Edit notes, and away you go.
To browse and search all notes you’ve added to your library just press Ctrl + Shift + N, or you can edit the toolbar to add a Browse notes option to it.
Another great sounding enhancement is support for “Audio ePubs”, i.e. ePub 3.0 spec. These allow video and audio to be embedded in a file, alongside text. So if you prefer to listen to eBooks rather than read them, this will be welcome.
Alas, patent restrictions can mean playing Audio ePubs in Calibre 7.0 and above may not work as it should on Linux, though your mileage will, as they say, vary — so try it out, and let me know!
Calibre 7 also lets you attach “data” files relevant to a book with that book, and manage and access said data within the app. What kind of data? Well that’s up to you, but it might be PDFs, web links, office documents/essays, images, etc.
Finally, Calibre 7 has its own private ‘Recycle Bin’, which Calibre says makes it easier to undo book deletion with a click and “restoring all its files and metadata automatically”. Similar to other apps, when you delete a book within Calibre a temporary “undo” dialog is shown.
As always, users are encouraged to update to the latest version of Calibre to take advantage of the latest new features, but also benefit from bug fixes, performance tweaks, and interoperability buffs.
In all, Calibre remains a versatile and user-friendly eBook management solution, and this latest update underlines ✍️ the project’s commitment to providing practical features that cater to every aspect of the ebook experience.
Download Calibre 7.x
Head to the Calibre website’s download page where you’ll find a command to download Calibre for Linux as a binary build. The developers advise using this over “distribution provided calibre package, as those are often buggy/outdated”.
You can also install Calibre from Flathub if you want a less obtuse way of getting it, though as far as I can tell that package is not “official”, so keep that in mind if you’re likely to be filing bug reports from using it.