Summary
Calibre is one of those apps that isn’t flashy, but it’s invaluable to the people who use it. Version 8.8 has just been releasedon the tails of 8.7, and this update brings some nifty new features that make it even better.
First, if you use Calibre as your ebook viewer, and you’re someone who frequently uses the “Lookup” feature to get definitions or more information on a word, the results from Google are now displayed better. It’s a small change, but it should make the viewer a cleaner experience for quick lookups.
Next up is good news for Kobo owners. The latest Tolino firmware is now supported, which means you’re able to continue to use Calibre to manage your Tolino eBooks. This is particularly useful if you like owning and managing your own eBook collection.
Rakuten Kobo Clara Colour eReader
Speaking of compatibility, the conversion tool has received an update. If you’ve ever dealt with Japanese language EPUB books, you might have run into issues with the -epub-text-emphasis properties. Calibre now handles these properties correctly.
Lastly, one of the most impressive changes is under the hood of the Piper Neural text-to-speech engine. Calibre has rewritten the backend, so it no longer needs an external binary to run. This means the engine is now faster and more stable, which will make for a better listening experience if you rely on Calibre for text-to-speech.
New features
Besides the new features, there are also some bug fixes. You’ll find that sorting CSS rules in the “Edit Book” feature is now working correctly, and a bug that was preventing multi-valued custom columns from working correctly has also been squashed.
Bug fixes
Finally, the news sources have been improved, too. Calibre is adding better support for publications, including The Economist, The Indian Express, and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few. This means that if you use Calibre to get your daily news, your downloads should be more reliable and better formatted.
