Calibre 8.9 is available for download, and it adds a handful of improvements that make managing eBooks easier. This update focuses on usability, polishing existing features, and fixing long-standing issues.
One of the biggest changes is in the annotations browser, which now shows a color swatch next to results. This makes it simple to identify highlight types without having to dig deeper. The library window also gets smarter when trying to match books. If an exact title match fails, Calibre will now retry by removing extra text, such as anything in parentheses or after a colon. That should help with syncing books across devices that handle metadata differently.
Book merging has become more visual too. When combining titles using drag and drop, Calibre now displays the cover of the target book. HTMLZ output gains support for embedded fonts, while the plugin installation window now includes filtering by category, making it easier to find the right tools. Fetching news has been streamlined as well, with a right-click menu on the Fetch button showing recently downloaded sources.
Several bugs were addressed in this release. The editor now normalizes text pasted from the clipboard, fixing potential formatting quirks. The content server viewer has a better dialog for selecting text-to-speech voices, and metadata editing no longer fails when both the cover and another field are updated at once.
The news fetching feature also expands with a new source, Startechery by thekabistro, and improvements to existing ones like The New York Times, Todoist, and Tagespost.
Calibre remains one of the best free tools for managing a digital library, and version 8.9 makes it even more reliable for Linux, Windows, and macOS users.
