A new version of open-source ebook manager Calibre is out – and it lets you create custom book covers using generative AI.
Calibre 9.14, released August 28, lets you edit metadata for any book in your library and click an “AI Generate button” to make new ebook covers in “styles such as romance, sci-fi, pulp fiction etc”.
You need to set an AI provider (with an API key) that supports image generation for the feature to work, but the first time you trigger the feature a setup screen appears. You can use Google AI (free tier available), Grok, OpenAI or OpenRouter AI model.
A strange feature? Perhaps.
Most ebooks I own already have covers. It might be amusing to see how a non-fiction title, like Anna McKane’s News Writing, looks reimagined as a romantic fiction, but only for a quick “huh” and forgotten. I wouldn’t want to keep it; it’s not the real cover.
So it is, perhaps, aimed more at the less artistically inclined and creatively challenged who want to add rather more “unique” (in so far as anything AI generated can be) covers to library content lacking something to look at.
The software had a similar ‘cover maker’ feature before. That used basic, formulaic templates. Involving AI does, at least, broaden the scope.
Not sure “never judge a book by its cover, though feel free to ask AI to generate a better one” will catch on as a saying, mind.
Other AI changes in Calibre 9.14 see Anthropic and Grok AI backends added to support Claude and Grok models, but the GitHub backend removed following the retirement of GitHub Models at the end of July 2026.
Related, a long-standing Linux bug has been fixed in Calibre’s binary build. In earlier versions, links in some dialog boxes didn’t always open when clicked, including on AI provider configuration pages and update notifications. Now resolved in v9.14.
Other general improvements:
- Accented characters (e.g., é) in search now work in the tag editor filter
- Cover previews in metadata editor now fill available space
- Floating image preview show if hovering over images in file browser
Notable bug fixes:
- Kindle lockscreen cover images with empty EXIF now show correctly
- Undo delete shows a progress bar when undeleting more than 5 books
- Google AI search checkbox is no longer invisible in the config dialog
Security fixes resolve issues with the content server, including arbitrary file write and remove code execution vulnerabilities for authenticated users and cross-site scripting on the legacy book details page.
How to install Calibre’s latest release
Calibre is free, open-source software for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Download the latest version from the official website. On Linux, Calibre is installed and updated by running a command-line script. This downloads a binary build, unpacks it to a system directory and adds the relevant shortcuts for easy access.s
You can get Calibre on Flathub – but as it’s an unverified build, those of you reading from Linux Mint and looking for it in the Software Manager will need to enable unverified sources first.