Three weeks after its previous 8.7 update, Calibre, the beloved open-source e-book management software, has rolled out version 8.8, which brings some useful tweaks, much-needed fixes, and expanded news source options.
First up, the e-book viewer now handles Google Lookup results better, so you won’t be squinting at weirdly formatted definitions anymore. Meanwhile, Kobo users will be happy to hear that the latest Tolino firmware is now supported.
For fans of Japanese e-books, Calibre’s conversion tool now properly processes -epub-text-emphasis properties, which some EPUBs use for text styling.
And here’s a big one: the Piper Neural TTS engine got a serious backend overhaul. Instead of relying on an external binary, the new setup improves performance and stability, making text-to-speech smoother and less prone to crashes.
Calibre 8.8 also sweeps up a short list of regressions introduced in earlier point releases:
- CSS report sorting is back on track. The Edit-Book report pane, which previously listed CSS rules out of order, now lines them up alphabetically as expected.
- Tag-based custom columns behave during similarity searches. Previously, template columns that stored tags were treated like single-value fields, skewing search results. That’s been patched.
- Cleaner recursive imports. Calibre will no longer trip over directories that happen to share an e-book file extension—handy for folks syncing from Apple Books folders.
- EPUB 3 nav file quirks ironed out. Complex nav files that hold more than a simple table of contents and sit outside the spine are now parsed correctly during EPUB 3 export.
Lastly, Calibre’s news downloader also got a refresh, with improved sources like The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Indian Express, De Tijd, and India’s Press Information Bureau. So if you use Calibre to keep up with the latest headlines, you’re in for a treat.
Check out the changelog for more details and the complete list of novelties in the Calibre 8.8 open-source e-book management tool. The update is already live for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
