Two weeks after the previous 8.8 update, Calibre, the beloved open-source e-book management software, has rolled out version 8.9, which brings some useful tweaks, plus much-needed fixes.
One of the most noticeable changes is in the annotations browser, which now displays a color swatch in the results list. Meanwhile, users who often sync or search their libraries will find improvements in how books are matched: if the initial search based on a title fails, Calibre will now automatically trim trailing text in parentheses or after a colon and try again.
Another quality-of-life update comes to merging books via drag and drop, where the cover of the target book is now shown. In addition, Calibre’s HTMLZ output has gained support for embedded fonts, and the plugin installation window can now filter available plugins by category, making it easier to find what you need.
The Fetch News tool also gets an upgrade with a right-click sub-menu that lists recently downloaded news sources for quicker access.
On the bug-fix side, version 8.9 ensures that pasted text in the book editor is normalized to NFC form, improving consistency. The content server also sees a couple of refinements, including a better text-to-speech voice selection dialog and a fix for an error when changing both a book cover and another metadata field at the same time.
Lastly, for those who rely on Calibre’s built-in news fetching, there’s a new source—Startechery by thekabistro—along with updates to existing ones such as the New York Times, Todoist, and Tagespost.
Check out the changelog for more details and the complete list of novelties in the Calibre 8.9 open-source e-book management tool. The update is already live for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
