Calibre

calibre User Manual
Release 5.14.0
Kovid Goyal
March 26, 2021

CONTENTS
1 The Graphical User Interface 3
2 Adding your favorite news website 25
3 The E-book viewer 43
4 E-book conversion 49
5 Editing e-books 67
6 The calibre Content server 101
7 Comparing e-books 109
8 Editing e-book metadata 113
9 Frequently Asked Questions 117
10 Tutorials 141
11 The calibre:// URL scheme 229
12 Customizing calibre 233
13 Command Line Interface 273
14 Setting up a calibre development environment 327
15 Digital Rights Management (DRM) 353
16 Glossary 355
Python Module Index 357
Index 359
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calibre User Manual, Release 5.14.0
calibre is an e-book library manager. It can view, convert and catalog e-books in most of the major e-book formats.
It can also talk to many e-book reader devices. It can go out to the Internet and fetch metadata for your books. It can
download newspapers and convert them into e-books for convenient reading. It is cross platform, running on Linux,
Windows and macOS.
Youve just started calibre. What do you do now? Before calibre can do anything with your e-books, it first has to know
about them. Drag and drop a few e-book files into calibre, or click the Add books button and browse for the e-books
you want to work with. Once youve added the books, they will show up in the main view looking something like this:
Once youve admired the list of books you just added to your hearts content, youll probably want to read one. In order
to do that youll have to convert the book to a format your reader understands. When first running calibre, the Welcome
wizard starts and will set up calibre for your reader device. Conversion is a breeze. Just select the book you want to
convert then click the Convert books button. Ignore all the options for now and click OK. The little icon in the bottom
right corner will start spinning. Once its finished spinning, your converted book is ready. Click the View button to
read the book.
If you want to read the book on your reader, connect it to the computer, wait till calibre detects it (10-20 seconds) and
then click the Send to device button. Once the icon stops spinning again, disconnect your reader and read away! If you
didnt convert the book in the previous step, calibre will auto convert it to the format your reader device understands.
To get started with more advanced usage, you should read about The Graphical User Interface (page 3). For even
more power and versatility, learn the Command Line Interface (page 273). You will find the list of Frequently Asked
Questions (page 117) useful as well.
If you have more questions, or want to discuss calibre with other users or ask for help with specific things, there are
forums and other help resources available1 .
Sections
1 https://calibre-ebook.com/help
CONTENTS 1
2 CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
The Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides access to all library management and e-book format conversion features.
The basic workflow for using calibre is to first add books to the library from your hard disk. calibre will automatically
try to read metadata from the books and add them to its internal database. Once they are in the database, you can
perform various Actions (page 4) on them that include conversion from one format to another, transfer to the reading
device, viewing on your computer, and editing metadata. The latter includes modifying the cover, description, and tags
among other details. Note that calibre creates copies of the files you add to it. Your original files are left untouched.
The interface is divided into various sections:
• Actions (page 4)
• Preferences (page 10)
• Catalogs (page 10)
• Search & sort (page 11)
• The search interface (page 12)
• Saving searches (page 15)
• Virtual libraries (page 15)
• Guessing metadata from file names (page 15)
• Book details (page 16)
• Tag browser (page 18)
• Cover grid (page 20)
• Cover browser (page 21)
• Quickview (page 21)
• Jobs (page 22)
• Keyboard shortcuts (page 22)
3
1.1 Actions
The actions toolbar provides convenient shortcuts to commonly used actions. If you right-click the buttons, you can
perform variations on the default action. Please note that the actions toolbar will look slightly different depending on
whether you have an e-book reader attached to your computer.
• Add books (page 4)

• Edit metadata (page 5)
• Convert books (page 5)
• View (page 6)
• Send to device (page 6)
• Fetch news (page 7)
• Library (page 7)
• Device (page 8)
• Save to disk (page 8)
• Connect/share (page 9)
• Remove books (page 9)
1.1.1 Add books
The Add books action has seven variations accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Add books from a single folder: Opens a file chooser dialog and allows you to specify which books in a folder
should be added. This action is context sensitive, i.e. it depends on which catalog (page 10) you have selected.
If you have selected the Library, books will be added to the library. If you have selected the e-book reader
device, the books will be uploaded to the device, and so on.
2. Add books from folders and sub-folders: Allows you to choose a folder. The folder and all its sub-folders are
scanned recursively, and any e-books found are added to the library. You can choose whether to have calibre
add all files present in a single folder to a single book record or multiple book records. calibre assumes that each
folder contains a single book. All e-book files in a folder are assumed to be the same book in different formats.
This action is the inverse of the Save to disk (page 8) action, i.e. you can Save to disk, delete the books and
re-add them in single book per folder mode, with no lost information except for the date (this assumes you have
not changed any of the setting for the Save to disk action).
3. Add multiple books from archive (ZIP/RAR): Allows you to add multiple e-books that are stored inside the
selected ZIP or RAR files. It is a convenient shortcut that avoids having to first unzip the archive and then add
the books via one of the above two options.
4 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

4. Add empty book (Book Entry with no formats): Allows you to create a blank book record. This can be used
to then manually fill out the information about a book that you may not have yet in your collection.
5. Add from ISBN: Allows you to add one or more books by entering their ISBNs.
6. Add files to selected book records: Allows you to add or update the files associated with an existing book in
your library.
7. Add an empty file to selected book records: Allows you to add an empty file of the specified format to the
selected book records.
The Add books action can read metadata from a wide variety of e-book formats. In addition, it tries to guess metadata
from the filename. See the Guessing metadata from file names (page 15) section, to learn how to configure this.
To add an additional format for an existing book you can do any of three things:
1. Drag and drop the file onto the Book details panel on the right side of the main window
2. Right click the Add books button and choose Add files to selected books.
3. Click the Add books button in the top right area of the Edit metadata dialog, accessed by the Edit metadata
(page 5) action.
1.1.2 Edit metadata
The Edit metadata action has four variations which can be accessed by doing a right-click on
the button.
1. Edit metadata individually: Allows you to edit the metadata of books one-by-one with the option of fetching
metadata, including covers, from the Internet. It also allows you to add or remove particular e-book formats
from a book.
2. Edit metadata in bulk: Allows you to edit common metadata fields for large numbers of books simultaneously.
It operates on all the books you have selected in the Library view (page 11).
3. Download metadata and covers: Downloads metadata and covers (if available) for the books that are selected
in the book list.
4. Merge book records: Gives you the capability of merging the metadata and formats of two or more book
records. You can choose to either delete or keep the records that were not clicked first.
For more details see Editing e-book metadata (page 113).
1.1.3 Convert books
E-books can be converted from a number of formats into whatever format your e-book reader
prefers. Many e-books available for purchase will be protected by Digital Rights Management (page 353) (DRM)
1.1. Actions 5
technology. calibre will not convert these e-books. It is easy to remove the DRM from many formats, but as this may
be illegal, you will have to find tools to liberate your books yourself and then use calibre to convert them.
For most people, conversion should be a simple one-click affair. If you want to learn more about the conversion
process, see E-book conversion (page 49).
The Convert books action has three variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Convert individually: Allows you to specify conversion options to customize the conversion of each selected
e-book.
2. Bulk convert: Allows you to specify options only once to convert a number of e-books in bulk.
3. Create a catalog of the books in your calibre library: Allows you to generate a complete listing of the books
in your library, including all metadata, in several formats such as XML, CSV, BiBTeX, EPUB and MOBI. The
catalog will contain all the books currently showing in the library view. This allows you to use the search
features to limit the books to be catalogued. In addition, if you select multiple books using the mouse, only
those books will be added to the catalog. If you generate the catalog in an e-book format such as EPUB, MOBI
or AZW3, the next time you connect your e-book reader the catalog will be automatically sent to the device.
For more information on how catalogs work, read the Creating AZW3 EPUB MOBI catalogs (page 220).
1.1.4 View
The View action displays the book in an e-book viewer program. calibre has a built-in viewer for
many e-book formats. For other formats it uses the default operating system application. You can configure which
formats should open with the internal viewer via Preferences→Interface→Behavior. If a book has more than one
format, you can view a particular format by doing a right-click on the button.
1.1.5 Send to device
The Send to device action has eight variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Send to main memory: The selected books are transferred to the main memory of the e-book reader.
2. Send to card (A): The selected books are transferred to the storage card (A) on the e-book reader.
3. Send to card (B): The selected books are transferred to the storage card (B) on the e-book reader.
4. Send specific format to: The selected books are transferred to the selected storage location on the device, in
the format that you specify.
5. Eject device: Detaches the device from calibre.
6. Set default send to device action: Allows you to specify which of the options, 1 through 5 above or 7 below,
will be the default action when you click the main button.

7. Send and delete from library: The selected books are transferred to the selected storage location on the device
and then deleted from the Library.
8. Fetch Annotations (experimental): Transfers annotations you may have made on an e-book on your device to
the comments metadata of the book in the calibre library.
You can control the file name and folder structure of files sent to the device by setting up a template in
Preferences→Import/export→Sending books to devices. Also see The calibre template language (page 149).
1.1.6 Fetch news
The Fetch news action downloads news from various websites and converts it into an e-book that
can be read on your e-book reader. Normally, the newly created e-book is added to your e-book library, but if an
e-book reader is connected at the time the download finishes, the news is also uploaded to the reader automatically.
The Fetch news action uses simple recipes (10-15 lines of code) for each news site. To learn how to create recipes for
your own news sources, see Adding your favorite news website (page 25).
The Fetch news action has three variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Schedule news download: Allows you to schedule the download of your selected news sources from a list of
hundreds available. Scheduling can be set individually for each news source you select and the scheduling is
flexible allowing you to select specific days of the week or a frequency of days between downloads.
2. Add a custom news source: Allows you to create a simple recipe for downloading news from a custom news
site that you wish to access. Creating the recipe can be as simple as specifying an RSS news feed URL, or you
can be more prescriptive by creating Python-based code for the task. For more information see Adding your
favorite news website (page 25).
3. Download all scheduled news sources: Causes calibre to immediately begin downloading all news sources that
you have scheduled.
1.1.7 Library
The Library action allows you to create, switch between, rename or remove a Library. calibre allows
you to create as many libraries as you wish. You could, for instance, create a fiction library, a non-fiction library, a
foreign language library, a project library, or any structure that suits your needs. Libraries are the highest organizational
structure within calibre. Each library has its own set of books, tags, categories and base storage location.
1. Switch/create library: Allows you to; a) connect to a pre-existing calibre library at another location, b) create
an empty library at a new location or, c) move the current library to a newly specified location.
2. Quick switch: Allows you to switch between libraries that have been registered or created within calibre.
3. Rename library: Allows you to rename a Library.
4. Pick a random book: Chooses a random book in the library for you
1.1. Actions 7
5. Remove library: Allows you to unregister a library from calibre.

6. Export/import all calibre data: Allows you to either export calibre data for migration to a new computer or
import previously exported data.
7. <library name>: Actions 7, 8 etc give you immediate switch access between multiple libraries that you have
created or attached to. This list contains only the 5 most frequently used libraries. For the complete list, use the
Quick Switch menu.
8. Library maintenance: Allows you to check the current library for data consistency issues and restore the
current librarys database from backups.
Note: Metadata about your e-books, e.g. title, author, and tags, is stored in a single file in your calibre library folder
called metadata.db. If this file gets corrupted (a very rare event), you can lose the metadata. Fortunately, calibre
automatically backs up the metadata for every individual book in the books folder as an OPF file. By using the Restore
database action under Library Maintenance described above, you can have calibre rebuild the metadata.db file from
the individual OPF files for you.
You can copy or move books between different libraries (once you have more than one library setup) by right clicking
on the book and selecting the action Copy to library.
1.1.8 Device
The Device action allows you to view the books in the main memory or storage cards of your device, or
to eject the device (detach it from calibre). This icon shows up automatically on the main calibre toolbar when you
connect a supported device. You can click on it to see the books on your device. You can also drag and drop books
from your calibre library onto the icon to transfer them to your device. Conversely, you can drag and drop books from
your device onto the library icon on the toolbar to transfer books from your device to the calibre library.
1.1.9 Save to disk
The Save to disk action has five variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Save to disk: Saves the selected books to disk organized in folders. The folder structure looks like:
Author_(sort)
Title
Book Files
You can control the file name and folder structure of files saved to disk by setting up a template in
Preferences→Import/export→Saving books to disk. Also see The calibre template language (page 149).

2. Save to disk in a single folder: Saves the selected books to disk in a single folder.
For 1. and 2., all available formats, as well as metadata, are stored to disk for each selected book. Metadata
is stored in an OPF file. Saved books can be re-imported to the library without any loss of information by
using the Add books (page 4) action.
3. Save only *<your preferred>* format to disk: Saves the selected books to disk in the folder
structure as shown in (1.) but only in your preferred e-book format. You can set your preferred
format in Preferences→Interface→Behaviour→Preferred output format
4. Save only *<your preferred>* format to disk in a single folder: Saves the selected books to disk
in a single folder but only in your preferred e-book format. You can set your preferred format in
Preferences→Interface→Behaviour→Preferred output format
5. Save single format to disk: Saves the selected books to disk in the folder structure as shown in (1.)
but only in the format you select from the popup list.
1.1.10 Connect/share
The Connect/share action allows you to manually connect to a device or folder on your computer.
It also allows you to set up your calibre library for access via a web browser or email.
The Connect/share action has four variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Connect to folder: Allows you to connect to any folder on your computer as though it were a
device and use all the facilities calibre has for devices with that folder. Useful if your device cannot
be supported by calibre but is available as a USB disk.
2. Start Content server: Starts calibres built-in web server. When started, your calibre library will
be accessible via a web browser from the Internet (if you choose). You can configure how the web
server is accessed by setting preferences at Preferences→Sharing→Sharing over the net
3. Setup email based sharing of books: Allows sharing of books and news feeds by email. Af-
ter setting up email addresses for this option, calibre will send news updates and book updates to
the entered email addresses. You can configure how calibre sends email by setting preferences at
Preferences→Sharing→Sharing books by email. Once you have set up one or more email addresses,
this menu entry will be replaced by menu entries to send books to the configured email addresses.
1.1.11 Remove books
The Remove books action deletes books permanently, so use it with care. It is context
sensitive, i.e. it depends on which catalog (page 10) you have selected. If you have selected the Library, books will be
removed from the library. If you have selected the e-book reader device, books will be removed from the device. To
remove only a particular format for a given book use the Edit metadata (page 5) action. Remove books also has five
variations which can be accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1.1. Actions 9
1. Remove selected books: Allows you to permanently remove all books that are selected in the book list.
2. Remove files of a specific format from selected books: Allows you to permanently remove e-book files of a
specified format from books that are selected in the book list.
3. Remove all formats from selected books, except: Allows you to permanently remove e-book files of any
format except a specified format from books that are selected in the book list.
4. Remove all formats from selected books: Allows you to permanently remove all e-book files from books that
are selected in the book list. Only the metadata will remain.
5. Remove covers from selected books: Allows you to permanently remove cover image files from books that
are selected in the book list.
6. Remove matching books from device: Allows you to remove e-book files from a connected device that match
the books that are selected in the book list.
Note: Note that when you use Remove books to delete books from your calibre library, the book record is permanently
deleted, but on Windows and macOS the files are placed into the recycle bin. This allows you to recover them if you
change your mind.
1.2 Preferences
The Preferences action allows you to change the way various aspects of calibre work. It has four
variations, accessed by doing a right-click on the button.
1. Preferences: Allows you to change the way various aspects of calibre work. Clicking the button also performs
this action.
2. Run Welcome wizard: Allows you to start the Welcome wizard which appeared the first time you started calibre.
3. Get plugins to enhance calibre: Opens a new window that shows plugins for calibre. These plugins are
developed by third parties to extend calibres functionality.
4. Restart in debug mode: Allows you to enable a debugging mode that can assist the calibre developers in
solving problems you encounter with the program. For most users this should remain disabled unless instructed
by a developer to enable it.
1.3 Catalogs
A catalog is a collection of books. calibre can manage two types of different catalogs:

1. Library: This is a collection of books stored in your calibre library on your computer.
2. Device: This is a collection of books stored in your e-book reader. It will be available when you connect the
reader to your computer.
Many operations, such as adding books, deleting, viewing, etc., are context sensitive. So, for example, if you click the
View button when you have the Device catalog selected, calibre will open the files on the device to view. If you have
the Library catalog selected, files in your calibre library will be opened instead.
1.4 Search & sort
The Search & Sort section allows you to perform several powerful actions on your book collections.
• You can sort them by title, author, date, rating, etc. by clicking on the column titles. You can also sub-sort, i.e.
sort on multiple columns. For example, if you click on the title column and then the author column, the book
will be sorted by author and then all the entries for the same author will be sorted by title.
• You can search for a particular book or set of books using the Search bar. More on that below.
• You can quickly and conveniently edit metadata by selecting the entry you want changed in the list and pressing
the E key.
• You can perform Actions (page 4) on sets of books. To select multiple books you can either:
– Keep the Ctrl key pressed and click on the books you want selected.
– Keep the Shift key pressed and click on the starting and ending book of a range of books you want
selected.
• You can configure which fields you want displayed by using the Preferences (page 10) dialog.
1.4. Search & sort 11

1.5 The search interface
You can search all the metadata by entering search terms in the Search bar. Searches are case insensitive. For example:
Asimov Foundation format:lrf
This will match all books in your library that have Asimov and Foundation in their metadata and are available in
the LRF format. Some more examples:
author:Asimov and not series:Foundation

title:"The Ring" or "This book is about a ring"
format:epub publisher:feedbooks.com
Searches are by default contains. An item matches if the search string appears anywhere in the indicated metadata.
Two other kinds of searches are available: equality search and search using regular expressions2 .
Equality searches are indicated by prefixing the search string with an equals sign (=). For example, the query
tag:"=science" will match science, but not science fiction or hard science. Regular expression searches are
indicated by prefixing the search string with a tilde (~). Any Python-compatible regular expression3 can be used. Note
that backslashes used to escape special characters in regular expressions must be doubled because single backslashes
will be removed during query parsing. For example, to match a literal parenthesis you must enter \\(. Regular
expression searches are contains searches unless the expression contains anchors.
Should you need to search for a string with a leading equals or tilde, prefix the string with a backslash.
Enclose search strings with quotes () if the string contains parenthesis or spaces. For example, to search for
the tag Science Fiction you would need to search for tag:"=science fiction". If you search for
tag:=science fiction you will find all books with the tag science and containing the word fiction in any
metadata.
You can build advanced search queries easily using the Advanced search dialog accessed by clicking the button
.
Available fields for searching are: tag, title, author, publisher, series, series_index,
rating, cover, comments, format, identifiers, date, pubdate, search, size, vl
and custom columns. If a device is plugged in, the ondevice field becomes available, when searching the calibre
library view. To find the search name (actually called the lookup name) for a custom column, hover your mouse over
the column header in the library view.
The syntax for searching for dates is:
pubdate:>2000-1 Will find all books published after Jan, 2000

date:<=2000-1-3 Will find all books added to calibre before 3 Jan, 2000
pubdate:=2009 Will find all books published in 2009
If the date is ambiguous, the current locale is used for date comparison. For example, in an mm/dd/yyyy locale
2/1/2009 is interpreted as 1 Feb 2009. In a dd/mm/yyyy locale it is interpreted as 2 Jan 2009. Some special date strings
are available. The string today translates to todays date, whatever it is. The strings yesterday and thismonth
(or the translated equivalent in the current language) also work. In addition, the string daysago (also translated) can
be used to compare to a date some number of days ago. For example:
date:>10daysago
date:<=45daysago
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
3 https://docs.python.org/library/re.html

To avoid potential problems with translated strings when using a non-English version of calibre, the strings _today,
_yesterday, _thismonth, and _daysago are always available. They are not translated.
You can search for books that have a format of a certain size like this:
size:>1.1M Will find books with a format larger than 1.1MB

size:<=1K Will find books with a format smaller than 1KB
Dates and numeric fields support the relational operators = (equals), > (greater than), >= (greater than or equal to), <
(less than), <= (less than or equal to), and != (not equal to). Rating fields are considered to be numeric. For example,
the search rating:>=3 will find all books rated 3 or higher.
You can search for the number of items in multiple-valued fields such as tags. These searches begin with the character
#, then use the same syntax as numeric fields. For example, to find all books with more than 4 tags use tags:#>4.
To find all books with exactly 10 tags use tags:#=10.
Series indices are searchable. For the standard series, the search name is series_index. For custom series columns, use
the column search name followed by _index. For example, to search the indices for a custom series column named
#my_series, you would use the search name #my_series_index. Series indices are numbers, so you can use
the relational operators described above.
The special field search is used for saved searches. So if you save a search with the name My spouses books you can
enter search:"My spouse's books" in the Search bar to reuse the saved search. More about saving searches
below.
The special field vl is used to search for books in a Virtual library. For example, vl:Read will find all the books in
the Read Virtual library. The search vl:Read and vl:"Science Fiction" will find all the books that are in
both the Read and Science Fiction Virtual libraries. The value following vl: must be the name of a Virtual library. If
the Virtual library name contains spaces then surround it with quotes.
You can search for the absence or presence of a field using the special true and false values. For example:
cover:false will give you all books without a cover

series:true will give you all books that belong to a series
comments:false will give you all books with an empty comment
format:false will give you all books with no actual files (empty records)
Yes/no custom columns are searchable. Searching for false, empty, or blank will find all books with undefined
values in the column. Searching for true will find all books that do not have undefined values in the column.
Searching for yes or checked will find all books with Yes in the column. Searching for no or unchecked will
find all books with No in the column. Note that the words yes, no, blank, empty, checked and unchecked
are translated; you can use either the current languages equivalent word or the English word. The words true and
false and the special values _yes, _no, and _empty are not translated.
Hierarchical items (e.g. A.B.C) use an extended syntax to match initial parts of the hierarchy. This is done by adding
a period between the exact match indicator (=) and the text. For example, the query tags:=.A will find the tags A
and A.B, but will not find the tags AA or AA.B. The query tags:=.A.B will find the tags A.B and A.B.C, but not the
tag A.
Identifiers (e.g., ISBN, doi, lccn etc) also use an extended syntax. First, note that an identifier has the form
type:value, as in isbn:123456789. The extended syntax permits you to specify independently which type
and value to search for. Both the type and the value parts of the query can use equality, contains, or regular expression
matches. Examples:
• identifiers:true will find books with any identifier.
• identifiers:false will find books with no identifier.
• identifiers:123 will search for books with any type having a value containing 123.
• identifiers:=123456789 will search for books with any type having a value equal to 123456789.
1.5. The search interface 13

• identifiers:=isbn: and identifiers:isbn:true will find books with a type equal to ISBN hav-
ing any value
• identifiers:=isbn:false will find books with no type equal to ISBN.
• identifiers:=isbn:123 will find books with a type equal to ISBN having a value containing 123.
• identifiers:=isbn:=123456789 will find books with a type equal to ISBN having a value equal to
123456789.
• identifiers:i:1 will find books with a type containing an i having a value containing a 1.
Fig. 1: Advanced search dialog
You can search using a template in the The calibre template language (page 149) instead of a metadata field. To do so
you enter a template, a search type, and the value to search for. The syntax is:
template: (the template) #@#: (search type) : (the value)
The template is any valid calibre template language template. The search type must be one of t (text search),
d (date search), n (numeric search), or b (set/not set (boolean)). The value is whatever you want. It can use the
special operators described above for the various search types. You must quote the entire search string if there are
spaces anywhere in it.
Examples:
• template:"program: connected_device_name('main')#@#:t:kindle" – is true when the kindle device
– template:"program: select(formats_sizes(), 'EPUB')#@#:n:>1000000" –

finds books with EPUB files larger than 1 MB

• template:"program: select(formats_modtimes('iso'), 'EPUB')#@#:d:>10daysago"

– finds books with EPUB files newer than 10 days ago
You can build template search queries easily using the Advanced search dialog accessed by clicking the button .
You can test templates on specific books using the calibre Template tester. This can be added to the toolbars or menus
via Preferences→Toolbars & menus. It can also be assigned a keyboard shortcut via Preferences→Shortcuts.
1.6 Saving searches
calibre allows you to save a frequently used search under a special name and then reuse that search with a single click.
To do this, create your search either by typing it in the Search bar or using the Tag browser. Then type the name you
would like to give to the search in the Saved Searches box next to the Search bar. Click the plus icon next to the saved
searches box to save the search.
Now you can access your saved search in the Tag browser under Saved searches. A single click will allow you to reuse
any arbitrarily complex search easily, without needing to re-create it.
1.7 Virtual libraries
A Virtual library is a way to pretend that your calibre library has only a few books instead of its full collection. This
is an excellent way to partition your large collection of books into smaller, manageable chunks. To learn how to create
and use Virtual libraries, see the tutorial: Virtual libraries (page 225).
1.8 Guessing metadata from file names
Normally, calibre reads metadata from inside the book file. However, it can be configured to read metadata from the
file name instead, via Preferences→Import/export→Adding books→Read metadata from file contents.
You can also control how metadata is read from the filename using regular expressions (see All about using regular
expressions in calibre (page 191)). In the Adding books section of the configuration dialog, you can specify a regular
expression that calibre will use to try and guess metadata from the names of e-book files that you add to the library.
The default regular expression is:
title - author
that is, it assumes that all characters up to the first - are the title of the book and subsequent characters are the author
of the book. For example, the filename:
Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov.txt
will be interpreted to have the title: Foundation and Earth and author: Isaac Asimov
Tip: If the filename does not contain the hyphen, the above regular expression will fail.
1.6. Saving searches 15

1.9 Book details
The Book details display shows the cover and all the metadata for the currently selected book. It can be hidden via

the Layout button in the lower right corner of the main calibre window. The author names shown in the Book details
panel are click-able, they will by default take you to the Wikipedia page for the author. This can be customized by
right clicking on the author name and selecting Manage this author.
Similarly, if you download metadata for the book, the Book details panel will automatically show you links pointing
to the web pages for the book on amazon, worldcat, etc. from where the metadata was downloaded.
You can right click on individual e-book formats in the Book details panel to delete them, compare them to their
original versions, save them to disk, open them with an external program, etc.
You can change the cover of the book by simply drag and dropping an image onto the Book details panel. If you wish
to edit the cover image in an external program, simply right click on it and choose Open with.
You can also add e-book files to the current book by drag and dropping the files onto the Book details panel.
Double clicking the Book details panel will open it up in a separate popup window.
Finally, you can customize exactly what information is displayed in the Book details panel via
Preferences→Interface→Look & feel→Book details.
1.9. Book details 17

1.10 Tag browser
The Tag browser allows you to easily browse your collection by Author/Tags/Series/etc. If you click on any item in
the Tag browser, for example the author name Isaac Asimov, then the list of books to the right is restricted to showing
books by that author. You can click on category names as well. For example, clicking on Series will show you all
books in any series.
The first click on an item will restrict the list of books to those that contain or match the item. Continuing the above
example, clicking on Isaac Asimov will show books by that author. Clicking again on the item will change what is
shown, depending on whether the item has children (see sub-categories and hierarchical items below). Continuing the
Isaac Asimov example, clicking again on Isaac Asimov will restrict the list of books to those not by Isaac Asimov. A
third click will remove the restriction, showing all books. If you hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys and click on
multiple items, then restrictions based on multiple items are created. For example you could hold Ctrl and click on
the tags History and Europe for finding books on European history. The Tag browser works by constructing search
expressions that are automatically entered into the Search bar. Looking at what the Tag browser generates is a good
way to learn how to construct basic search expressions.
Items in the Tag browser have their icons partially colored. The amount of color depends on the average rating of the

books in that category. So for example if the books by Isaac Asimov have an average of four stars, the icon for Isaac
Asimov in the Tag browser will be 4/5th colored. You can hover your mouse over the icon to see the average rating.
The outer-level items in the Tag browser, such as Authors and Series, are called categories. You can create your
own categories, called User categories, which are useful for organizing items. For example, you can use the User
categories editor (click the Configure button at the lower-left of the Tag browser and choose Manage authors, series,
etc→User categories) to create a User category called Favorite Authors, then put the items for your favorites
into the category. User categories can have sub-categories. For example, the User category Favorites.Authors
is a sub-category of Favorites. You might also have Favorites.Series, in which case there will be two
sub-categories under Favorites. Sub-categories can be created by right-clicking on a User category, choosing Add
sub-category to, and entering the sub-category name; or by using the User categories editor by entering names like
the Favorites example above.
You can search User categories in the same way as built-in categories, by clicking on them. There are four different searches cyc
1. everything matching an item in the category indicated by a single green plus sign.
2. everything matching an item in the category or its sub-categories indicated by two green plus signs.
3. everything not matching an item in the category shown by a single red minus sign.
4. everything not matching an item in the category or its sub-categories shown by two red minus signs.
It is also possible to create hierarchies inside some of the text categories such as tags, series, and custom columns.
These hierarchies show with the small triangle, permitting the sub-items to be hidden. To use hierarchies of items in a
category, you must first go to Preferences→Interface→Look & feel and enter the category name(s) into the Categories
with hierarchical items field. Once this is done, items in that category that contain periods will be shown using the
small triangle. For example, assume you create a custom column called Genre and indicate that it contains hierarchical
items. Once done, items such as Mystery.Thriller and Mystery.English will display as Mystery with the small triangle
next to it. Clicking on the triangle will show Thriller and English as sub-items. See Managing subgroups of books, for
example genre (page 141) for more information.
Hierarchical items (items with children) use the same four click-on searches as User categories. Items that do not have
children use two of the searches: everything matching and everything not matching.
You can drag and drop items in the Tag browser onto User categories to add them to that category. If the source is
a User category, holding the Shift key while dragging will move the item to the new category. You can also drag
and drop books from the book list onto items in the Tag browser; dropping a book on an item causes that item to be
automatically applied to the dropped books. For example, dragging a book onto Isaac Asimov will set the author of
that book to Isaac Asimov. Dropping it onto the tag History will add the tag History to the books tags.
You can easily find any item in the Tag browser by clicking the search button at the lower-right corner. In addition,
you can right click on any item and choose one of several operations. Some examples are to hide it, rename it, or open
a Manage x dialog that allows you to manage items of that kind. For example, the Manage Authors dialog allows you
to rename authors and control how their names are sorted.
You can control how items are sorted in the Tag browser via the Configure button at the lower-left of the Tag browser.
You can choose to sort by name, average rating or popularity (popularity is the number of books with an item in your
library; for example, the popularity of Isaac Asimov is the number of books in your library by Isaac Asimov).
1.10. Tag browser 19

1.11 Cover grid
You can have calibre display a grid of book covers instead of a list of books, if you prefer to browse your collection by
covers instead. The Cover grid is activated by clicking the Layout button in the bottom right corner of the main calibre
window. You can customize the cover sizes and the background of the Cover grid via Preferences→Interface→Look
& feel→Cover grid. You can even have calibre display any specified field under the covers, such as title or authors or
rating or a custom column of your own devising.

1.12 Cover browser
In addition to the Cover grid described above, you can also have calibre display covers in the single row. This is
activated via the Layout button in the lower right corner of the main window. In Preferences→Interface→Look &
feel→Cover browser you can change the number of covers displayed, and even have the Cover browser display itself
in a separate popup window.
1.13 Quickview
Sometimes you want to select a book and quickly get a list of books with the same value in some category (authors,
tags, publisher, series, etc.) as the currently selected book, but without changing the current view of the library. You
can do this with Quickview. Quickview opens either a second window or a panel in the book list showing the list of
books matching the value of interest. For example, assume you want to see a list of all the books with the one or more
of the authors of the currently-selected book. Click in the author cell you are interested in and press the Q key or click
the Quickview icon in the Layout section of the calibre window. A window or panel will open with all the authors for
that book on the left, and all the books by the selected author on the right.
Some example Quickview usages: quickly seeing what other books:
• have some tag(s) applied to the currently selected book,
• are in the same series as the current book
• have the same values in a custom column as the current book
• are written by one of the same authors of the current book
• share values in a custom column
There are two choices for where the Quickview information appears:
1. It can open undocked: on top of the calibre window and will stay open until you explicitly close it.
2. It can open docked: as a panel in the book list section of the calibre main window.
You can move the window from docked to undocked as desired using the Dock/Undock button.
1.12. Cover browser 21

The Quickview panel can be left open permanently, in which case it follows movements on the book list. For example,
if you click in the calibre library view on a category column (tags, series, publisher, authors, etc.) for a book, the
Quickview window contents will change to show you in the left-hand side panel the values in that category for the
selected book (e.g., the tags for that book). The first item in that list will be selected, and Quickview will show you on
the right-hand side panel all the books in your library that use that value. Click on an different value in the left-hand
panel to see the books with that different value.
Double-click on a book in the Quickview window to select that book in the library view. This will also change the
items display in the QuickView window (the left-hand panel) to show the items in the newly-selected book.
Shift- or Ctrl- double-click on a book in the Quickview window to open the edit metadata dialog on that book in
the calibre window. The edited book will be Quickviewed when you close the edit metadata dialog.
You can see if a column can be Quickviewed by hovering your mouse over the column heading and looking at the
tooltip for that heading. You can also know by right-clicking on the column heading to see of the Quickview option is
shown in the menu, in which case choosing that Quickview option is equivalent to pressing Q in the current cell.
Options (in Preferences→Look & feel→Quickview):
• Respect (or not) the current Virtual library. If checked then Quickview shows only books in the current Virtual
library. Default: respect Virtual libraries
• Change the Quickview window contents when the column is changed on the book list using the cursor keys.
Default: dont follow changes made with cursor keys
• Change the column being quickviewed when a cell in the Quickview window is double-clicked. Otherwise the
book is changed but the column being examined is not. Default: change the column
• Change the column being quickviewed to the current column when the return key is pressed in the Quickview
panel. Otherwise the book is changed but the column being examined is not. Default: change the column
• Choose which columns are shown in the Quickview window/panel.
1.14 Jobs
The Jobs panel shows the number of currently running jobs. Jobs are tasks that run in a separate process. They include
converting e-books and talking to your reader device. You can click on the jobs panel to access the list of jobs. Once
a job has completed you can see a detailed log from that job by double-clicking it in the list. This is useful to debug
jobs that may not have completed successfully.
1.15 Keyboard shortcuts
calibre has several keyboard shortcuts to save you time and mouse movement. These shortcuts are active in the book
list view (when youre not editing the details of a particular book), and most of them affect the title you have selected.
The calibre E-book viewer has its own shortcuts which can be customised by clicking the Preferences button in the
viewer.
Note: Note: The calibre keyboard shortcuts do not require a modifier key (Command, Option, Control, etc.), unless
specifically noted. You only need to press the letter key, e.g. E to edit.

Table 1: Keyboard shortcuts for the main calibre program

Key- Action
board
short-
cut
F2 Edit the metadata of the currently selected field in the book list.
(Enter
in
macOS)
A Add books
Shift+AAdd formats to the selected books
C Convert selected books
D Send to device
Del Remove selected books
E Edit metadata of selected books
G Get books
I Show Book details
K Edit Table of Contents
M Merge selected records
Alt+M Merge selected records, keeping originals
O Open containing folder
P Polish books
S Save to disk
T Edit book
V View
Shift+VView last read book
Alt+V/ View specific format
Cmd+V
in
macOS
Toggle jobs list
Alt+Shift+J
Toggle Cover browser
Alt+Shift+B
Toggle Book details panel
Alt+Shift+D
Toggle Tag browser
Alt+Shift+T
Toggle Cover grid
Alt+Shift+G
Alt+A Show books by the same author as the current book
Alt+T Show books with the same tags as current book
Alt+P Show books by the same publisher as current book
Show books in the same series as current book
Alt+Shift+S
/, Focus the Search bar
Ctrl+F
Open the Advanced search dialog
Shift+Ctrl+F
Toggle the Search bar
Shift+Alt+F
Esc Clear the current search
Focus the book list
Shift+Esc
Clear the Virtual library
Ctrl+Esc
Alt+EscClear the additional restriction
Ctrl+* Create a temporary Virtual library based on the current search
Select the next Virtual library tab
Ctrl+Right
Select the previous Virtual library tab
Ctrl+Left
continues on next page
1.15. Keyboard shortcuts 23

Table 1 – continued from previous page

Key- Action
board
short-
cut
N or Find the next book that matches the current search (only works if search highlighting is turned on in
F3 search preferences)
Shift+N Find the previous book that matches the current search (only works if search highlighting is turned on in
or search preferences)
Shift+F3
Ctrl+D Download metadata and covers
Ctrl+R Restart calibre
Restart calibre in debug mode
Ctrl+Shift+R
Add empty books to calibre
Shift+Ctrl+E
Ctrl+M Toggle mark/unmarked status on selected books
Q Open the Quick View popup for viewing books in related series/tags/etc.
Shift+QFocus the opened Quick View panel
Shift+SPerform a search in the Quick View panel
F5 Re-apply the current sort
Ctrl+Q Quit calibre

CHAPTER
TWO
ADDING YOUR FAVORITE NEWS WEBSITE
calibre has a powerful, flexible and easy-to-use framework for downloading news from the Internet and converting it
into an e-book. The following will show you, by means of examples, how to get news from various websites.
To gain an understanding of how to use the framework, follow the examples in the order listed below:
• Completely automatic fetching (page 25)

– The calibre blog (page 26)
– bbc.co.uk (page 27)
• Customizing the fetch process (page 27)
– Using the print version of bbc.co.uk (page 27)
– Replacing article styles (page 29)
– Slicing and dicing (page 29)
– Real life example (page 30)
• Tips for developing new recipes (page 32)
• Further reading (page 33)
• API documentation (page 33)
2.1 Completely automatic fetching
If your news source is simple enough, calibre may well be able to fetch it completely automatically, all you need to
do is provide the URL. calibre gathers all the information needed to download a news source into a recipe. In order to
tell calibre about a news source, you have to create a recipe for it. Lets see some examples:
25
2.1.1 The calibre blog
The calibre blog is a blog of posts that describe many useful calibre features in a simple and accessible way for new
calibre users. In order to download this blog into an e-book, we rely on the RSS feed of the blog:
http://blog.calibre-ebook.com/feeds/posts/default
I got the RSS URL by looking under Subscribe to at the bottom of the blog page and choosing Posts→Atom. To make
calibre download the feeds and convert them into an e-book, you should right click the Fetch news button and then the
Add a custom news source menu item and then the New Recipe button. A dialog similar to that shown below should
open up.
First enter Calibre Blog into the Recipe title field. This will be the title of the e-book that will be created from the
articles in the above feeds.
The next two fields (Oldest article and Max. number of articles) allow you some control over how many articles
should be downloaded from each feed, and they are pretty self explanatory.
To add the feeds to the recipe, enter the feed title and the feed URL and click the Add feed button. Once you have
added the feed, simply click the Save button and youre done! Close the dialog.
26 Chapter 2. Adding your favorite news website

To test your new recipe, click the Fetch news button and in the Custom news sources sub-menu click calibre Blog.
After a couple of minutes, the newly downloaded e-book of blog posts will appear in the main library view (if you
have your reader connected, it will be put onto the reader instead of into the library). Select it and hit the View button
to read!
The reason this worked so well, with so little effort is that the blog provides full-content RSS feeds, i.e., the article
content is embedded in the feed itself. For most news sources that provide news in this fashion, with full-content feeds,
you dont need any more effort to convert them to e-books. Now we will look at a news source that does not provide
full content feeds. In such feeds, the full article is a webpage and the feed only contains a link to the webpage with a
short summary of the article.
2.1.2 bbc.co.uk
Lets try the following two feeds from The BBC:

1. News Front Page: https://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml
2. Science/Nature: https://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/science/nature/rss.xml
Follow the procedure outlined in The calibre blog (page 26) above to create a recipe for The BBC (using the feeds
above). Looking at the downloaded e-book, we see that calibre has done a creditable job of extracting only the content
you care about from each articles webpage. However, the extraction process is not perfect. Sometimes it leaves in
undesirable content like menus and navigation aids or it removes content that should have been left alone, like article
headings. In order, to have perfect content extraction, we will need to customize the fetch process, as described in the
next section.
2.2 Customizing the fetch process
When you want to perfect the download process, or download content from a particularly complex website, you can
avail yourself of all the power and flexibility of the recipe framework. In order to do that, in the Add custom news
sources dialog, simply click the Switch to Advanced mode button.
The easiest and often most productive customization is to use the print version of the online articles. The print version
typically has much less cruft and translates much more smoothly to an e-book. Lets try to use the print version of the
articles from The BBC.
2.2.1 Using the print version of bbc.co.uk
The first step is to look at the e-book we downloaded previously from bbc.co.uk (page 27). At the end of each article,
in the e-book is a little blurb telling you where the article was downloaded from. Copy and paste that URL into a
browser. Now on the article webpage look for a link that points to the Printable version. Click it to see the print
version of the article. It looks much neater! Now compare the two URLs. For me they were:
Article URL https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7312016.stm
Print version URL https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/
nature/7312016.stm
So it looks like to get the print version, we need to prefix every article URL with:
newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/
Now in the Advanced mode of the Custom news sources dialog, you should see something like (remember to select
The BBC recipe before switching to advanced mode):
2.2. Customizing the fetch process 27

You can see that the fields from the Basic mode have been translated to Python code in a straightforward manner. We
need to add instructions to this recipe to use the print version of the articles. All thats needed is to add the following
two lines:
def print_version(self, url):

return url.replace('https://', 'https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/
,→')
This is Python, so indentation is important. After youve added the lines, it should look like:
In the above, def print_version(self, url) defines a method that is called by calibre for every article.
url is the URL of the original article. What print_version does is take that url and replace it with the new URL
that points to the print version of the article. To learn about Python4 see the tutorial5 .
Now, click the Add/update recipe button and your changes will be saved. Re-download the e-book. You should have
a much improved e-book. One of the problems with the new version is that the fonts on the print version webpage are
too small. This is automatically fixed when converting to an e-book, but even after the fixing process, the font size
of the menus and navigation bar to become too large relative to the article text. To fix this, we will do some more
customization, in the next section.
4 https://www.python.org
5 https://docs.python.org/tutorial/

2.2.2 Replacing article styles
In the previous section, we saw that the font size for articles from the print version of The BBC was too small. In most
websites, The BBC included, this font size is set by means of CSS stylesheets. We can disable the fetching of such
stylesheets by adding the line:
no_stylesheets = True
The recipe now looks like:
The new version looks pretty good. If youre a perfectionist, youll want to read the next section, which deals with
actually modifying the downloaded content.
2.2.3 Slicing and dicing
calibre contains very powerful and flexible abilities when it comes to manipulating downloaded content. To show off
a couple of these, lets look at our old friend the The BBC (page 29) recipe again. Looking at the source code (HTML)
of a couple of articles (print version), we see that they have a footer that contains no useful information, contained in
<div class="footer">
...
</div>
This can be removed by adding:
remove_tags = [dict(name='div', attrs={'class':'footer'})]
to the recipe. Finally, lets replace some of the CSS that we disabled earlier, with our own CSS that is suitable for
conversion to an e-book:
extra_css = '.headline {font-size: x-large;} \n .fact { padding-top: 10pt }'
With these additions, our recipe has become production quality.

This recipe explores only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of calibre. To explore more of the abilities
of calibre well examine a more complex real life example in the next section.

2.2.4 Real life example
A reasonably complex real life example that exposes more of the API of BasicNewsRecipe is the recipe for The
New York Times
import string, re
from calibre import strftime
from calibre.web.feeds.recipes import BasicNewsRecipe
from calibre.ebooks.BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup
class NYTimes(BasicNewsRecipe):
title = 'The New York Times'

__author__ = 'Kovid Goyal'
description = 'Daily news from the New York Times'
timefmt = ' [%a, %d %b, %Y]'
needs_subscription = True
remove_tags_before = dict(id='article')
remove_tags_after = dict(id='article')
remove_tags = [dict(attrs={'class':['articleTools', 'post-tools', 'side_tool',
,→'nextArticleLink clearfix']}),
dict(id=['footer', 'toolsRight', 'articleInline', 'navigation',

,→'archive', 'side_search', 'blog_sidebar', 'side_tool', 'side_index']),
dict(name=['script', 'noscript', 'style'])]

encoding = 'cp1252'
no_stylesheets = True
extra_css = 'h1 {font: sans-serif large;}\n.byline {font:monospace;}'
def get_browser(self):
br = BasicNewsRecipe.get_browser()
if self.username is not None and self.password is not None:
br.open('https://www.nytimes.com/auth/login')
br.select_form(name='login')
br['USERID'] = self.username
br['PASSWORD'] = self.password
br.submit()
return br
def parse_index(self):
soup = self.index_to_soup('https://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.
,→html')
def feed_title(div):
return ''.join(div.findAll(text=True, recursive=False)).strip()
articles = {}
key = None
ans = []
for div in soup.findAll(True,
attrs={'class':['section-headline', 'story', 'story headline']}):
if ''.join(div['class']) == 'section-headline':
key = string.capwords(feed_title(div))
articles[key] = []
ans.append(key)
elif ''.join(div['class']) in ['story', 'story headline']:

a = div.find('a', href=True)
(continues on next page)

(continued from previous page)

if not a:
continue
url = re.sub(r'\?.*', '', a['href'])
url += '?pagewanted=all'
title = self.tag_to_string(a, use_alt=True).strip()
description = ''
pubdate = strftime('%a, %d %b')
summary = div.find(True, attrs={'class':'summary'})
if summary:
description = self.tag_to_string(summary, use_alt=False)
feed = key if key is not None else 'Uncategorized'

if feed not in articles:
articles[feed] = []
if not 'podcasts' in url:
articles[feed].append(
dict(title=title, url=url, date=pubdate,
description=description,
content=''))
ans = self.sort_index_by(ans, {'The Front Page':-1, 'Dining In, Dining Out':1,
,→ 'Obituaries':2})
ans = [(key, articles[key]) for key in ans if key in articles]
return ans
def preprocess_html(self, soup):

refresh = soup.find('meta', {'http-equiv':'refresh'})
if refresh is None:
return soup
content = refresh.get('content').partition('=')[2]
raw = self.browser.open('https://www.nytimes.com'+content).read()
return BeautifulSoup(raw.decode('cp1252', 'replace'))
We see several new features in this recipe. First, we have:

timefmt = ' [%a, %d %b, %Y]'
This sets the displayed time on the front page of the created e-book to be in the format, Day, Day_Number
Month, Year. See timefmt (page 41).
Then we see a group of directives to cleanup the downloaded HTML:
remove_tags_before = dict(name='h1')
remove_tags_after = dict(id='footer')
remove_tags = ...
These remove everything before the first <h1> tag and everything after the first tag whose id is footer. See
remove_tags (page 40), remove_tags_before (page 41), remove_tags_after (page 41).
The next interesting feature is:
needs_subscription = True
...
...
needs_subscription = True tells calibre that this recipe needs a username and password in order to access
the content. This causes, calibre to ask for a username and password whenever you try to use this recipe. The code in
calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe.get_browser() (page 34) actually does the login into

the NYT website. Once logged in, calibre will use the same, logged in, browser instance to fetch all content. See
mechanize6 to understand the code in get_browser.
The next new feature is the calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe.parse_index() (page 35)
method. Its job is to go to https://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html and fetch the list of articles that
appear in todays paper. While more complex than simply using RSS, the recipe creates an e-book that corresponds
very closely to the days paper. parse_index makes heavy use of BeautifulSoup7 to parse the daily paper webpage.
You can also use other, more modern parsers if you dislike BeautifulSoup. calibre comes with lxml8 and html5lib9 ,
which are the recommended parsers. To use them, replace the call to index_to_soup() with the following:
raw = self.index_to_soup(url, raw=True)

# For html5lib
import html5lib
root = html5lib.parse(raw, namespaceHTMLElements=False, treebuilder='lxml')
# For the lxml html 4 parser
from lxml import html
root = html.fromstring(raw)
The final new feature is the calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe.preprocess_html()

(page 36) method. It can be used to perform arbitrary transformations on every downloaded HTML page. Here it
is used to bypass the ads that the nytimes shows you before each article.
2.3 Tips for developing new recipes
The best way to develop new recipes is to use the command line interface. Create the recipe using your favorite Python
editor and save it to a file say myrecipe.recipe. The .recipe extension is required. You can download content
using this recipe with the command:
ebook-convert myrecipe.recipe .epub --test -vv --debug-pipeline debug
The command ebook-convert will download all the webpages and save them to the EPUB file myrecipe.
epub. The -vv option makes ebook-convert spit out a lot of information about what it is doing. The
ebook-convert-recipe-input --test (page 306) option makes it download only a couple of articles from
at most two feeds. In addition, ebook-convert will put the downloaded HTML into the debug/input folder, where
debug is the folder you specified in the ebook-convert --debug-pipeline (page 302) option.
Once the download is complete, you can look at the downloaded HTML by opening the file debug/input/index.
html in a browser. Once youre satisfied that the download and preprocessing is happening correctly, you can generate
e-books in different formats as shown below:
ebook-convert myrecipe.recipe myrecipe.epub

ebook-convert myrecipe.recipe myrecipe.mobi
...
If youre satisfied with your recipe, and you feel there is enough demand to justify its inclusion into the set of built-in
recipes, post your recipe in the calibre recipes forum10 to share it with other calibre users.
Note: On macOS, the command line tools are inside the calibre bundle, for example, if you installed calibre in
/Applications the command line tools are in /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/.
6 https://mechanize.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
7 https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc/
8 https://lxml.de/
9 https://github.com/html5lib/html5lib-python
10 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=228

See also:
ebook-convert (page 293) The command line interface for all e-book conversion.
2.4 Further reading
To learn more about writing advanced recipes using some of the facilities, available in BasicNewsRecipe you
should consult the following sources:
API documentation (page 33) Documentation of the BasicNewsRecipe class and all its important
methods and fields.
BasicNewsRecipe11 The source code of BasicNewsRecipe
Built-in recipes12 The source code for the built-in recipes that come with calibre
The calibre recipes forum13 Lots of knowledgeable calibre recipe writers hang out here.
2.5 API documentation
2.5.1 API documentation for recipes
The API for writing recipes is defined by the BasicNewsRecipe (page 33)
class calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe(options, log, progress_reporter)
Base class that contains logic needed in all recipes. By overriding progressively more of the functionality in
this class, you can make progressively more customized/powerful recipes. For a tutorial introduction to creating
recipes, see Adding your favorite news website (page 25).
abort_article(msg=None)
Call this method inside any of the preprocess methods to abort the download for the current article. Useful
to skip articles that contain inappropriate content, such as pure video articles.
abort_recipe_processing(msg)
Causes the recipe download system to abort the download of this recipe, displaying a simple feedback
message to the user.
add_toc_thumbnail(article, src)
Call this from populate_article_metadata with the src attribute of an <img> tag from the article that is ap-
propriate for use as the thumbnail representing the article in the Table of Contents. Whether the thumbnail
is actually used is device dependent (currently only used by the Kindles). Note that the referenced image
must be one that was successfully downloaded, otherwise it will be ignored.
classmethod adeify_images(soup)
If your recipe when converted to EPUB has problems with images when viewed in Adobe Digital Editions,
call this method from within postprocess_html() (page 36).
canonicalize_internal_url(url, is_link=True)
Return a set of canonical representations of url. The default implementation uses just the server hostname
and path of the URL, ignoring any query parameters, fragments, etc. The canonical representations must
be unique across all URLs for this news source. If they are not, then internal links may be resolved
incorrectly.
11 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/blob/master/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
12 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/tree/master/recipes
2.4. Further reading 33

Parameters is_link – Is True if the URL is coming from an internal link in an HTML file.
False if the URL is the URL used to download an article.
cleanup()
Called after all articles have been download. Use it to do any cleanup like logging out of subscription sites,
etc.
clone_browser(br)
Clone the browser br. Cloned browsers are used for multi-threaded downloads, since mechanize is not
thread safe. The default cloning routines should capture most browser customization, but if you do some-
thing exotic in your recipe, you should override this method in your recipe and clone manually.
Cloned browser instances use the same, thread-safe CookieJar by default, unless you have customized
cookie handling.
default_cover(cover_file)
Create a generic cover for recipes that dont have a cover
download()
Download and pre-process all articles from the feeds in this recipe. This method should be called only
once on a particular Recipe instance. Calling it more than once will lead to undefined behavior. :return:
Path to index.html
extract_readable_article(html, url)
Extracts main article content from html, cleans up and returns as a (article_html, extracted_title) tuple.
Based on the original readability algorithm by Arc90.
get_article_url(article)
Override in a subclass to customize extraction of the URL that points to the content for each article.
Return the article URL. It is called with article, an object representing a parsed article from a feed. See
feedparser14 . By default it looks for the original link (for feeds syndicated via a service like feedburner or
pheedo) and if found, returns that or else returns article.link15 .
get_browser(*args, **kwargs)
Return a browser instance used to fetch documents from the web. By default it returns a mechanize16
browser instance that supports cookies, ignores robots.txt, handles refreshes and has a mozilla firefox user
agent.
If your recipe requires that you login first, override this method in your subclass. For example, the follow-
ing code is used in the New York Times recipe to login for full access:
br = BasicNewsRecipe.get_browser(self)
if self.username is not None and self.password is not None:
br.open('https://www.nytimes.com/auth/login')
br.select_form(name='login')
br['USERID'] = self.username
br['PASSWORD'] = self.password
br.submit()
return br
get_cover_url()
Return a URL to the cover image for this issue or None. By default it returns the value of the member
self.cover_url which is normally None. If you want your recipe to download a cover for the e-book override
this method in your subclass, or set the member variable self.cover_url before this method is called.
get_extra_css()
By default returns self.extra_css. Override if you want to programmatically generate the extra_css.

get_feeds()
Return a list of RSS feeds to fetch for this profile. Each element of the list must be a 2-element tuple of the
form (title, url). If title is None or an empty string, the title from the feed is used. This method is useful if
your recipe needs to do some processing to figure out the list of feeds to download. If so, override in your
subclass.
get_masthead_title()
Override in subclass to use something other than the recipe title
get_masthead_url()
Return a URL to the masthead image for this issue or None. By default it returns the value of the member
self.masthead_url which is normally None. If you want your recipe to download a masthead for the e-book
override this method in your subclass, or set the member variable self.masthead_url before this method is
called. Masthead images are used in Kindle MOBI files.
get_obfuscated_article(url)
If you set articles_are_obfuscated this method is called with every article URL. It should return the path
to a file on the filesystem that contains the article HTML. That file is processed by the recursive HTML
fetching engine, so it can contain links to pages/images on the web.
This method is typically useful for sites that try to make it difficult to access article content automatically.
classmethod image_url_processor(baseurl, url)
Perform some processing on image urls (perhaps removing size restrictions for dynamically generated
images, etc.) and return the precessed URL.
index_to_soup(url_or_raw, raw=False, as_tree=False, save_raw=None)
Convenience method that takes an URL to the index page and returns a BeautifulSoup17 of it.
url_or_raw: Either a URL or the downloaded index page as a string
is_link_wanted(url, tag)
Return True if the link should be followed or False otherwise. By default, raises NotImplementedError
which causes the downloader to ignore it.
Parameters
• url – The URL to be followed
• tag – The tag from which the URL was derived
parse_feeds()
Create a list of articles from the list of feeds returned by BasicNewsRecipe.get_feeds()
(page 34). Return a list of Feed objects.
parse_index()
This method should be implemented in recipes that parse a website instead of feeds to generate a list of arti-
cles. Typical uses are for news sources that have a Print Edition webpage that lists all the articles in the cur-
rent print edition. If this function is implemented, it will be used in preference to BasicNewsRecipe.
parse_feeds() (page 35).
It must return a list. Each element of the list must be a 2-element tuple of the form ('feed title',
list of articles).
Each list of articles must contain dictionaries of the form:
{
'title' : article title,
'url' : URL of print version,
'date' : The publication date of the article as a string,
'description' : A summary of the article
2.5. API documentation 35


'content' : The full article (can be an empty string). Obsolete
do not use, instead save the content to a temporary
file and pass a file:///path/to/temp/file.html as
the URL.
}
For an example, see the recipe for downloading The Atlantic. In addition, you can add author for the author
of the article.
If you want to abort processing for some reason and have calibre show the user a simple message instead
of an error, call abort_recipe_processing() (page 33).
populate_article_metadata(article, soup, first)
Called when each HTML page belonging to article is downloaded. Intended to be used to get article
metadata like author/summary/etc. from the parsed HTML (soup).
Parameters
• article – A object of class calibre.web.feeds.Article. If you change the
summary, remember to also change the text_summary
• soup – Parsed HTML belonging to this article
• first – True iff the parsed HTML is the first page of the article.
postprocess_book(oeb, opts, log)
Run any needed post processing on the parsed downloaded e-book.
Parameters
• oeb – An OEBBook object
• opts – Conversion options
postprocess_html(soup, first_fetch)
This method is called with the source of each downloaded HTML file, after it is parsed for links and
images. It can be used to do arbitrarily powerful post-processing on the HTML. It should return soup after
processing it.
Parameters
• soup – A BeautifulSoup18 instance containing the downloaded HTML.
• first_fetch – True if this is the first page of an article.
preprocess_html(soup)
This method is called with the source of each downloaded HTML file, before it is parsed for links and
images. It is called after the cleanup as specified by remove_tags etc. It can be used to do arbitrarily
powerful pre-processing on the HTML. It should return soup after processing it.
soup: A BeautifulSoup19 instance containing the downloaded HTML.
preprocess_image(img_data, image_url)
Perform some processing on downloaded image data. This is called on the raw data before any resizing is
done. Must return the processed raw data. Return None to skip the image.
preprocess_raw_html(raw_html, url)
This method is called with the source of each downloaded HTML file, before it is parsed into an object
tree. raw_html is a unicode string representing the raw HTML downloaded from the web. url is the URL
from which the HTML was downloaded.
Note that this method acts before preprocess_regexps.

This method must return the processed raw_html as a unicode object.

classmethod print_version(url)
Take a url pointing to the webpage with article content and return the URL pointing to the print version of
the article. By default does nothing. For example:
def print_version(self, url):

return url + '?&pagewanted=print'
skip_ad_pages(soup)
This method is called with the source of each downloaded HTML file, before any of the cleanup attributes
like remove_tags, keep_only_tags are applied. Note that preprocess_regexps will have already been ap-
plied. It is meant to allow the recipe to skip ad pages. If the soup represents an ad page, return the HTML
of the real page. Otherwise return None.
soup: A BeautifulSoup20 instance containing the downloaded HTML.
sort_index_by(index, weights)
Convenience method to sort the titles in index according to weights. index is sorted in place. Returns index.
index: A list of titles.
weights: A dictionary that maps weights to titles. If any titles in index are not in weights, they are assumed
to have a weight of 0.
classmethod tag_to_string(tag, use_alt=True, normalize_whitespace=True)
Convenience method to take a BeautifulSoup21 Tag and extract the text from it recursively, including any
CDATA sections and alt tag attributes. Return a possibly empty Unicode string.
use_alt: If True try to use the alt attribute for tags that dont have any textual content
tag: BeautifulSoup22 Tag
articles_are_obfuscated = False
Set to True and implement get_obfuscated_article() (page 35) to handle websites that try to
make it difficult to scrape content.
auto_cleanup = False
Automatically extract all the text from downloaded article pages. Uses the algorithms from the readability
project. Setting this to True, means that you do not have to worry about cleaning up the downloaded
HTML manually (though manual cleanup will always be superior).
auto_cleanup_keep = None
Specify elements that the auto cleanup algorithm should never remove. The syntax is a XPath expression.
For example:
auto_cleanup_keep = '//div[@id="article-image"]' will keep all divs with

id="article-image"
auto_cleanup_keep = '//*[@class="important"]' will keep all elements
with class="important"
auto_cleanup_keep = '//div[@id="article-image"]|//span[@class="important"]'
will keep all divs with id="article-image" and spans
with class="important"
center_navbar = True
If True the navigation bar is center aligned, otherwise it is left aligned
compress_news_images = False
Set this to False to ignore all scaling and compression parameters and pass images through unmodified. If
True and the other compression parameters are left at their default values, JPEG images will be scaled to

fit in the screen dimensions set by the output profile and compressed to size at most (w * h)/16 where w x
h are the scaled image dimensions.
compress_news_images_auto_size = 16
The factor used when auto compressing JPEG images. If set to None, auto compression is disabled. Oth-
erwise, the images will be reduced in size to (w * h)/compress_news_images_auto_size bytes if possible
by reducing the quality level, where w x h are the image dimensions in pixels. The minimum JPEG quality
will be 5/100 so it is possible this constraint will not be met. This parameter can be overridden by the
parameter compress_news_images_max_size which provides a fixed maximum size for images. Note that
if you enable scale_news_images_to_device then the image will first be scaled and then its quality lowered
until its size is less than (w * h)/factor where w and h are now the scaled image dimensions. In other
words, this compression happens after scaling.
compress_news_images_max_size = None
Set JPEG quality so images do not exceed the size given (in KBytes). If set, this parameter overrides auto
compression via compress_news_images_auto_size. The minimum JPEG quality will be 5/100 so it is
possible this constraint will not be met.
conversion_options = {}
Recipe specific options to control the conversion of the downloaded content into an e-book. These will
override any user or plugin specified values, so only use if absolutely necessary. For example:
conversion_options = {
'base_font_size' : 16,
'linearize_tables' : True,
}
cover_margins = (0, 0, '#ffffff')

By default, the cover image returned by get_cover_url() will be used as the cover for the periodical. Over-
riding this in your recipe instructs calibre to render the downloaded cover into a frame whose width and
height are expressed as a percentage of the downloaded cover. cover_margins = (10, 15, #ffffff) pads the
cover with a white margin 10px on the left and right, 15px on the top and bottom. Color names defined at
https://www.imagemagick.org/script/color.php Note that for some reason, white does not always work in
Windows. Use #ffffff instead
delay = 0
Delay between consecutive downloads in seconds. The argument may be a floating point number to indi-
cate a more precise time.
description = ''
A couple of lines that describe the content this recipe downloads. This will be used primarily in a GUI that
presents a list of recipes.
encoding = None
Specify an override encoding for sites that have an incorrect charset specification. The most common
being specifying latin1 and using cp1252. If None, try to detect the encoding. If it is a callable, the
callable is called with two arguments: The recipe object and the source to be decoded. It must return the
decoded source.
extra_css = None
Specify any extra CSS that should be added to downloaded HTML files. It will be inserted into <style>
tags, just before the closing </head> tag thereby overriding all CSS except that which is declared using the
style attribute on individual HTML tags. Note that if you want to programmatically generate the extra_css
override the get_extra_css() (page 34) method instead. For example:
extra_css = '.heading { font: serif x-large }'
feeds = None

List of feeds to download. Can be either [url1, url2, ...] or [('title1', url1),
('title2', url2),...]
filter_regexps = []
List of regular expressions that determines which links to ignore. If empty it is ignored. Used only if
is_link_wanted is not implemented. For example:
filter_regexps = [r'ads\.doubleclick\.net']
will remove all URLs that have ads.doubleclick.net in them.

Only one of BasicNewsRecipe.match_regexps (page 39) or BasicNewsRecipe.
filter_regexps (page 39) should be defined.
handle_gzip = False
Set to True if you want to use gziped transfers. Note that some old servers flake out with this so it is off by
default.
ignore_duplicate_articles = None
Ignore duplicates of articles that are present in more than one section. A duplicate article is an article that
has the same title and/or URL. To ignore articles with the same title, set this to:
ignore_duplicate_articles = {'title'}
To use URLs instead, set it to:
ignore_duplicate_articles = {'url'}
To match on title or URL, set it to:
ignore_duplicate_articles = {'title', 'url'}
keep_only_tags = []
Keep only the specified tags and their children. For the format for specifying a tag see
BasicNewsRecipe.remove_tags (page 40). If this list is not empty, then the <body> tag will
be emptied and re-filled with the tags that match the entries in this list. For example:
keep_only_tags = [dict(id=['content', 'heading'])]
will keep only tags that have an id attribute of content or heading.

language = 'und'
The language that the news is in. Must be an ISO-639 code either two or three characters long
masthead_url = None
By default, calibre will use a default image for the masthead (Kindle only). Override this in your recipe to
provide a url to use as a masthead.
match_regexps = []
List of regular expressions that determines which links to follow. If empty, it is ignored. Used only if
is_link_wanted is not implemented. For example:
match_regexps = [r'page=[0-9]+']
will match all URLs that have page=some number in them.

Only one of BasicNewsRecipe.match_regexps (page 39) or BasicNewsRecipe.
filter_regexps (page 39) should be defined.

max_articles_per_feed = 100
Maximum number of articles to download from each feed. This is primarily useful for feeds that dont have
article dates. For most feeds, you should use BasicNewsRecipe.oldest_article (page 40)
needs_subscription = False
If True the GUI will ask the user for a username and password to use while downloading. If set to optional
the use of a username and password becomes optional
no_stylesheets = False
Convenient flag to disable loading of stylesheets for websites that have overly complex stylesheets unsuit-
able for conversion to e-book formats. If True stylesheets are not downloaded and processed
oldest_article = 7.0
Oldest article to download from this news source. In days.
preprocess_regexps = []
List of regexp substitution rules to run on the downloaded HTML. Each element of the list should be a two
element tuple. The first element of the tuple should be a compiled regular expression and the second a
callable that takes a single match object and returns a string to replace the match. For example:
preprocess_regexps = [
(re.compile(r'.*</body>', re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE),
lambda match: '</body>'),
]
will remove everything from <!–Article ends here–> to </body>.

publication_type = 'unknown'
Publication type Set to newspaper, magazine or blog. If set to None, no publication type metadata will be
written to the opf file.
recipe_disabled = None
Set to a non empty string to disable this recipe. The string will be used as the disabled message
recursions = 0
Number of levels of links to follow on article webpages
remove_attributes = []
List of attributes to remove from all tags. For example:
remove_attributes = ['style', 'font']
remove_empty_feeds = False
If True empty feeds are removed from the output. This option has no effect if parse_index is overridden
in the sub class. It is meant only for recipes that return a list of feeds using feeds or get_feeds()
(page 34). It is also used if you use the ignore_duplicate_articles option.
remove_javascript = True
Convenient flag to strip all JavaScript tags from the downloaded HTML
remove_tags = []
List of tags to be removed. Specified tags are removed from downloaded HTML. A tag is specified as a
dictionary of the form:
{
name : 'tag name', #e.g. 'div'
attrs : a dictionary, #e.g. {'class': 'advertisment'}
}

All keys are optional. For a full explanation of the search criteria, see Beautiful Soup23 A common exam-
ple:
remove_tags = [dict(name='div', class_='advert')]
This will remove all <div class=advert> tags and all their children from the downloaded HTML.
remove_tags_after = None
Remove all tags that occur after the specified tag. For the format for specifying a tag see
BasicNewsRecipe.remove_tags (page 40). For example:
remove_tags_after = [dict(id='content')]
will remove all tags after the first element with id=content.
remove_tags_before = None
Remove all tags that occur before the specified tag. For the format for specifying a tag see
BasicNewsRecipe.remove_tags (page 40). For example:
remove_tags_before = dict(id='content')
will remove all tags before the first element with id=content.
requires_version = (0, 6, 0)
Minimum calibre version needed to use this recipe
resolve_internal_links = False
If set to True then links in downloaded articles that point to other downloaded articles are changed to point
to the downloaded copy of the article rather than its original web URL. If you set this to True, you might
also need to implement canonicalize_internal_url() (page 33) to work with the URL scheme
of your particular website.
reverse_article_order = False
Reverse the order of articles in each feed
scale_news_images = None
Maximum dimensions (w,h) to scale images to. If scale_news_images_to_device is True this is set to the
device screen dimensions set by the output profile unless there is no profile set, in which case it is left at
whatever value it has been assigned (default None).
scale_news_images_to_device = True
Rescale images to fit in the device screen dimensions set by the output profile. Ignored if no output profile
is set.
simultaneous_downloads = 5
Number of simultaneous downloads. Set to 1 if the server is picky. Automatically reduced to 1 if
BasicNewsRecipe.delay (page 38) > 0
summary_length = 500
Max number of characters in the short description
template_css = '\n .article_date {\n color: gray; font-family: monospace;\n }\n\n .ar
The CSS that is used to style the templates, i.e., the navigation bars and the Tables of Contents. Rather
than overriding this variable, you should use extra_css in your recipe to customize look and feel.
timefmt = ' [%a, %d %b %Y]'
The format string for the date shown on the first page. By default: Day_Name, Day_Number Month_Name
Year
timeout = 120.0
Timeout for fetching files from server in seconds

title = 'Unknown News Source'

The title to use for the e-book
use_embedded_content = None
Normally we try to guess if a feed has full articles embedded in it based on the length of the embedded
content. If None, then the default guessing is used. If True then the we always assume the feeds has
embedded content and if False we always assume the feed does not have embedded content.
14 https://pythonhosted.org/feedparser/
15 https://pythonhosted.org/feedparser/reference-entry-link.html
16 https://mechanize.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
17 https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc
23 https://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/doc/#searching-the-tree

CHAPTER
THREE
THE E-BOOK VIEWER
calibre includes a built-in E-book viewer that can view all the major e-book formats. The E-book viewer is highly
customizable and has many advanced features.
• Starting the E-book viewer (page 43)

• Navigating around an e-book (page 43)
• Highlighting text (page 45)
• Read aloud (page 45)
• Following links using only the keyboard (page 46)
• Customizing the look and feel of your reading experience (page 46)
• Dictionary lookup (page 46)
• Copying text and images (page 46)
• Zooming in on images (page 46)
• Non re-flowable content (page 47)
3.1 Starting the E-book viewer
You can view any of the books in your calibre library by selecting the book and pressing the View button. This will
open up the book in the E-book viewer. You can also launch the E-book viewer by itself from the Start menu in
Windows. On macOS, you can pin it to the dock and launch it from there. On Linux you can use its launcher in the
desktop menus or run the command ebook-viewer.
3.2 Navigating around an e-book
You can turn pages in a book by either:

• Clicking in the left or right margin or the page with the mouse
• Pressing the spacebar, page up, page down or arrow keys
• On a touchscreen tapping on the text or swiping left and right
You can access the viewer controls by either:
• Right clicking on the text
43
• Pressing the Esc or Menu keys

• On a touchscreen by tapping the top 1/3rd of the screen
The viewer has two modes, paged and flow. In paged mode the book content is presented as pages, similar to a paper
book. In flow mode the text is presented continuously, like in a web browser. You can switch between them using the
viewer Preferences under Page layout or by pressing the Ctrl+M key.
3.2.1 Bookmarks
When you are in the middle of a book and close the E-book viewer, it will remember where you stopped reading and
return there the next time you open the book. You can also set bookmarks in the book by using the Bookmarks button
in the E-book viewer controls or pressing Ctrl+B. When viewing EPUB format books, these bookmarks are actually
saved in the EPUB file itself. You can add bookmarks, then send the file to a friend. When they open the file, they will
be able to see your bookmarks. You can turn off this behavior in the Miscellaneous section of the viewer preferences.
3.2.2 Table of Contents
If the book you are reading defines a Table of Contents, you can access it by pressing the Table of Contents button.
This will bring up a list of sections in the book. You can click on any of them to jump to that portion of the book.
3.2.3 Navigating by location
E-books, unlike paper books, have no concept of pages. You can refer to precise locations in e-books using the Go
to→Location functionality in the viewer controls.
You can use this location information to unambiguously refer to parts of the books when discussing it with friends or
referring to it in other works. You can enter these locations under Go to→Location in the viewer controls.
There is a URL you can copy to the clipboard and paste into other programs or documents. Clicking on this URL will
open the book in the calibre E-book viewer at the current location.
If you click on links inside the e-book to take you to different parts of the book, such as an endnote, you can use the
Back and Forward buttons in the top left corner of the viewer controls. These buttons behave just like those in a web
browser.
3.2.4 Reference mode
calibre also has a very handy Reference mode. You can turn it on by clicking the Reference mode button in the viewer
controls. Once you do this, every paragraph will have a unique number displayed at the start, made up of the section
and paragraph numbers.
You can use this number to unambiguously refer to parts of the books when discussing it with friends or referring to it
in other works. You can enter these numbers in the Go to function to navigate to a particular reference location.
44 Chapter 3. The E-book viewer

3.3 Highlighting text
When you select text in the viewer, a little popup bar appears next to the selection. You can click the highlight button
in that bar to create a highlight. You can add notes and change the color of the highlight. On a touch screen, long tap
a word to select it and show the popup bar. Once in highlight mode you can change what text is selected, using touch
screen friendly selection handles. Drag the handles to the top or bottom margins to scroll while selecting. You can
also hold the Shift key and click to extend the selection, particularly useful for multi-page selections.
You can use the Highlights button in the viewer controls to show a separate panel with a list of all highlights in the
book, sorted by chapter.
You can browse all highlights in your entire calibre library by right clicking the View button and choosing Browse
annotations.
Finally, if you use the calibre Content servers in browser viewer, you can have the viewer sync its annotations with the
browser viewer by going to Preferences→Miscellaneous in the viewer preferences and entering the username of the
Content server viewer to sync with. Use the special value * to sync with anonymous users.
3.4 Read aloud
The viewer can read book text aloud. To use it you can simply click the Read aloud button in the viewer controls to
start reading book text aloud. The word being currently read is highlighted. Speech is synthesized from the text using
your operating system services for text-to-speech. You can change the voice being used by clicking the gear icon in
the bar that is displayed while Read aloud is active.
You can also read aloud highlighted passages by adding the Read aloud button to the selection bar in the viewer
preferences under Selection behavior.
Note: Support for text-to-speech in browsers is very incomplete and bug-ridden so how well Read aloud will work
in the in-browser viewer is dependent on how well the underlying browser supports text-to-speech. In particular,
highlighting of current word does not work, and changing speed or voice will cause reading to start again from the
beginning.
Note: On Linux, Read aloud requires Speech Dispatcher24 to be installed and working.
Note: On Windows, not all installed voices may be visible to the SAPI sub-system that is used for text-to-speech.
There are instructions to make all voices visible25 .
24 https://freebsoft.org/speechd
25 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4084051&postcount=108
3.3. Highlighting text 45

3.5 Following links using only the keyboard
The E-book viewer has a Hints mode that allows you to click links in the text without using the mouse. Press the
Alt+F key and all links in the current screen will be highlighted with a number or letter over them. Press the letter
on your keyboard to click the link. Pressing the Esc key will abort the Hints mode without selecting any link.
If more than thirty five links are on-screen then some of them will have multiple letters, in which case type the first and
second, or the first and press Enter to activate. You can also use the Backspace key to undo a mistake in typing.
3.6 Customizing the look and feel of your reading experience
You can change font sizes on the fly by using Font size in the viewer controls or Ctrl++ or Ctrl+- or holding the
Ctrl key and using the mouse wheel.
Colors can be changed in the Colors section of the viewer preferences.
You can change the number of pages displayed on the screen as well as page margins in Page layout in the viewer
preferences.
You can display custom headers and footers such as time left to read, current chapter title, book position, etc. via the
Headers and footers section of the viewer preferences.
More advanced customization can be achieved by the Styles settings. Here you can specify a background image to
display under the text and also a stylesheet you can set that will be applied to every book. Using it you can do things
like change paragraph styles, text justification, etc. For examples of custom stylesheets used by calibres users, see the
forums26 .
3.7 Dictionary lookup
You can look up the meaning of words in the current book by opening the Lookup/search word panel via the viewer
controls. Then simply double click on any word and its definition will be displayed in the Lookup panel.
3.8 Copying text and images
You can select text and images by dragging the content with your mouse and then right clicking and selecting Copy to
copy to the clipboard. The copied material can be pasted into another application as plain text and images.
3.9 Zooming in on images
You can zoom in to show an image at full size in a separate window by either double clicking or long tapping on it.
You can also right click on it and choose View image.
26 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51500

3.10 Non re-flowable content
Some books have very wide content that cannot be broken up at page boundaries. For example tables or <pre> tags.
In such cases, you should switch the viewer to flow mode by pressing Ctrl+m to read this content. Alternately, you
can also add the following CSS to the Styles section of the viewer preferences to force the viewer to break up lines of
text in <pre> tags:
code, pre { white-space: pre-wrap }
3.10. Non re-flowable content 47


CHAPTER
FOUR
E-BOOK CONVERSION
calibre has a conversion system that is designed to be very easy to use. Normally, you just add a book to calibre, click
convert and calibre will try hard to generate output that is as close as possible to the input. However, calibre accepts a
very large number of input formats, not all of which are as suitable as others for conversion to e-books. In the case of
such input formats, or if you just want greater control over the conversion system, calibre has a lot of options to fine
tune the conversion process. Note however that calibres conversion system is not a substitute for a full blown e-book
editor. To edit e-books, I recommend first converting them to EPUB or AZW3 using calibre and then using the Edit
book feature to get them into perfect shape. You can then use the edited e-book as input for conversion into other
formats in calibre.
This document will refer mainly to the conversion settings as found in the conversion dialog, pictured below. All these
settings are also available via command line interface to conversion, documented at ebook-convert (page 293). In
calibre, you can obtain help on any individual setting by holding your mouse over it, a tooltip will appear describing
the setting.
49
Contents
• Introduction (page 51)

• Look & feel (page 52)
• Page setup (page 55)
• Heuristic processing (page 55)
• Search & replace (page 57)
• Structure detection (page 57)
• Table of Contents (page 58)
• Using images as chapter titles when converting HTML input documents (page 60)
• Using tag attributes to supply the text for entries in the Table of Contents (page 60)
• How options are set/saved for Conversion (page 60)
• Format specific tips (page 61)
50 Chapter 4. E-book conversion

4.1 Introduction
The first thing to understand about the conversion system is that it is designed as a pipeline. Schematically, it looks
like this:
The input format is first converted to XHTML by the appropriate Input plugin. This HTML is then transformed. In
the last step, the processed XHTML is converted to the specified output format by the appropriate Output plugin. The
results of the conversion can vary greatly, based on the input format. Some formats convert much better than others.
A list of the best source formats for conversion is available here (page 118).
The transforms that act on the XHTML output are where all the work happens. There are various transforms, for
example, to insert book metadata as a page at the start of the book, to detect chapter headings and automatically create
a Table of Contents, to proportionally adjust font sizes, et cetera. It is important to remember that all the transforms
act on the XHTML output by the Input plugin, not on the input file itself. So, for example, if you ask calibre to
convert an RTF file to EPUB, it will first be converted to XHTML internally, the various transforms will be applied
to the XHTML and then the Output plugin will create the EPUB file, automatically generating all metadata, Table of
Contents, et cetera.
4.1. Introduction 51
You can see this process in action by using the debug option . Just specify the path to a folder for the
debug output. During conversion, calibre will place the XHTML generated by the various stages of the conversion
pipeline in different sub-folders. The four sub-folders are:
Table 1: Stages of the conversion pipeline

Folder Description
input This contains the HTML output by the Input plugin. Use this to debug the Input plugin.
parsed The result of pre-processing and converting to XHTML the output from the Input plugin. Use to debug
structure detection.
struc- Post structure detection, but before CSS flattening and font size conversion. Use to debug font size
ture conversion and CSS transforms.
pro- Just before the e-book is passed to the Output plugin. Use to debug the Output plugin.
cessed
If you want to edit the input document a little before having calibre convert it, the best thing to do is edit the files in
the input sub-folder, then zip it up, and use the ZIP file as the input format for subsequent conversions. To do this
use the Edit meta information dialog to add the ZIP file as a format for the book and then, in the top left corner of the
conversion dialog, select ZIP as the input format.
This document will deal mainly with the various transforms that operate on the intermediate XHTML and how to
control them. At the end are some tips specific to each input/output format.
4.2 Look & feel
Contents
• Fonts (page 53)

• Text (page 54)
• Layout (page 54)
• Styling (page 54)
• Transform styles (page 55)
This group of options controls various aspects of the look and feel of the converted e-book.

4.2.1 Fonts
One of the nicest features of the e-reading experience is the ability to easily adjust font sizes to suit individual needs
and lighting conditions. calibre has sophisticated algorithms to ensure that all the books it outputs have a consistent
font sizes, no matter what font sizes are specified in the input document.
The base font size of a document is the most common font size in that document, i.e., the size of the bulk of text
in that document. When you specify a Base font size, calibre automatically rescales all font sizes in the document
proportionately, so that the most common font size becomes the specified base font size and other font sizes are
rescaled appropriately. By choosing a larger base font size, you can make the fonts in the document larger and vice
versa. When you set the base font size, for best results, you should also set the font size key.
Normally, calibre will automatically choose a base font size appropriate to the output profile you have chosen (see
Page setup (page 55)). However, you can override this here in case the default is not suitable for you.
The Font size key option lets you control how non-base font sizes are rescaled. The font rescaling algorithm works
using a font size key, which is simply a comma-separated list of font sizes. The font size key tells calibre how many
steps bigger or smaller a given font size should be compared to the base font size. The idea is that there should be a
limited number of font sizes in a document. For example, one size for the body text, a couple of sizes for different
levels of headings and a couple of sizes for super/sub scripts and footnotes. The font size key allows calibre to
compartmentalize the font sizes in the input documents into separate bins corresponding to the different logical font
sizes.
Lets illustrate with an example. Suppose the source document we are converting was produced by someone with
excellent eyesight and has a base font size of 8pt. That means the bulk of the text in the document is sized at 8pts,
while headings are somewhat larger (say 10 and 12pt) and footnotes somewhat smaller at 6pt. Now if we use the
following settings:
Base font size : 12pt

Font size key : 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20
The output document will have a base font size of 12pt, headings of 14 and 16pt and footnotes of 8pt. Now suppose
we want to make the largest heading size stand out more and make the footnotes a little larger as well. To achieve this,
the font key should be changed to:
New font size key : 7, 9, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22
The largest headings will now become 18pt, while the footnotes will become 9pt. You can play with these settings
to try and figure out what would be optimum for you by using the font rescaling wizard, which can be accessed by
clicking the little button next to the Font size key setting.
All the font size rescaling in the conversion can also be disabled here, if you would like to preserve the font sizes in
the input document.
A related setting is Line height. Line height controls the vertical height of lines. By default, (a line height of 0), no
manipulation of line heights is performed. If you specify a non-default value, line heights will be set in all locations
that dont specify their own line heights. However, this is something of a blunt weapon and should be used sparingly.
If you want to adjust the line heights for some section of the input, its better to use the Extra CSS (page 54).
In this section you can also tell calibre to embed any referenced fonts into the book. This will allow the fonts to work
on reader devices even if they are not available on the device.
4.2. Look & feel 53

4.2.2 Text
Text can be either justified or not. Justified text has extra spaces between words to give a smooth right margin. Some
people prefer justified text, others do not. Normally, calibre will preserve the justification in the original document. If
you want to override it you can use the Text justification option in this section.
You can also tell calibre to Smarten punctuation which will replace plain quotes, dashes and ellipses with their typo-
graphically correct alternatives. Note that this algorithm is not perfect so it is worth reviewing the results. The reverse,
namely, Unsmarted punctuation is also available.
Finally, there is Input character encoding. Older documents sometimes dont specify their character encoding. When
converted, this can result in non-English characters or special characters like smart quotes being corrupted. calibre
tries to auto-detect the character encoding of the source document, but it does not always succeed. You can force it to
assume a particular character encoding by using this setting. cp1252 is a common encoding for documents produced
using Windows software. You should also read How do I convert my file containing non-English characters, or smart
quotes? (page 118) for more on encoding issues.
4.2.3 Layout
Normally, paragraphs in XHTML are rendered with a blank line between them and no leading text indent. calibre has
a couple of options to control this. Remove spacing between paragraphs forcefully ensure that all paragraphs have no
inter paragraph spacing. It also sets the text indent to 1.5em (can be changed) to mark the start of every paragraph.
Insert blank line does the opposite, guaranteeing that there is exactly one blank line between each pair of paragraphs.
Both these options are very comprehensive, removing spacing, or inserting it for all paragraphs (technically <p> and
<div> tags). This is so that you can just set the option and be sure that it performs as advertised, irrespective of how
messy the input file is. The one exception is when the input file uses hard line breaks to implement inter-paragraph
spacing.
If you want to remove the spacing between all paragraphs, except a select few, dont use these options. Instead add the
following CSS code to Extra CSS (page 54):
p, div { margin: 0pt; border: 0pt; text-indent: 1.5em }

.spacious { margin-bottom: 1em; text-indent: 0pt; }
Then, in your source document, mark the paragraphs that need spacing with class=spacious. If your input document
is not in HTML, use the Debug option, described in the Introduction to get HTML (use the input sub-folder).
Another useful options is Linearize tables. Some badly designed documents use tables to control the layout of text
on the page. When converted these documents often have text that runs off the page and other artifacts. This option
will extract the content from the tables and present it in a linear fashion. Note that this option linearizes all tables,
so only use it if you are sure the input document does not use tables for legitimate purposes, like presenting tabular
information.
4.2.4 Styling
The Extra CSS option allows you to specify arbitrary CSS that will be applied to all HTML files in the input. This
CSS is applied with very high priority and so should override most CSS present in the input document itself. You
can use this setting to fine tune the presentation/layout of your document. For example, if you want all paragraphs of
class endnote to be right aligned, just add:
.endnote { text-align: right }
or if you want to change the indentation of all paragraphs:

p { text-indent: 5mm; }
Extra CSS is a very powerful option, but you do need an understanding of how CSS works to use it to its full potential.
You can use the debug pipeline option described above to see what CSS is present in your input document.
A simpler option is to use Filter style information. This allows you to remove all CSS properties of the specified types
from the document. For example, you can use it to remove all colors or fonts.
4.2.5 Transform styles
This is the most powerful styling related facility. You can use it to define rules that change styles based on various
conditions. For example you can use it to change all green colors to blue, or remove all bold styling from the text or
color all headings a certain color, etc.
4.3 Page setup
The Page setup options are for controlling screen layout, like margins and screen sizes. There are options to setup page
margins, which will be used by the output plugin, if the selected output format supports page margins. In addition,
you should choose an Input profile and an output profile. Both sets of profiles basically deal with how to interpret
measurements in the input/output documents, screen sizes and default font rescaling keys.
If you know that the file you are converting was intended to be used on a particular device/software platform, choose
the corresponding input profile, otherwise just choose the default input profile. If you know the files you are producing
are meant for a particular device type, choose the corresponding output profile. Otherwise, choose one of the Generic
output profiles. If you are converting to MOBI or AZW3 then you will almost always want to choose one of the Kindle
output profiles. Otherwise, your best bet for modern E-book reading devices is to choose the Generic e-ink HD output
profile.
The output profile also controls the screen size. This will cause, for example, images to be auto-resized to be fit to the
screen in some output formats. So choose a profile of a device that has a screen size similar to your device.
4.4 Heuristic processing
Heuristic processing provides a variety of functions which can be used to try and detect and correct common problems
in poorly formatted input documents. Use these functions if your input document suffers from poor formatting.
Because these functions rely on common patterns, be aware that in some cases an option may lead to worse results,
so use with care. As an example, several of these options will remove all non-breaking-space entities, or may include
false positive matches relating to the function.
Enable heuristic processing This option activates calibres Heuristic processing stage of the conversion pipeline. This
must be enabled in order for various sub-functions to be applied
Unwrap lines Enabling this option will cause calibre to attempt to detect and correct hard line breaks that exist within
a document using punctuation clues and line length. calibre will first attempt to detect whether hard line breaks
exist, if they do not appear to exist calibre will not attempt to unwrap lines. The line-unwrap factor can be
reduced if you want to force calibre to unwrap lines.
Line-unwrap factor This option controls the algorithm calibre uses to remove hard line breaks. For example, if the
value of this option is 0.4, that means calibre will remove hard line breaks from the end of lines whose lengths
are less than the length of 40% of all lines in the document. If your document only has a few line breaks which
need correction, then this value should be reduced to somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2.
4.3. Page setup 55

Detect and markup unformatted chapter headings and sub headings If your document does not have chapter head-
ings and titles formatted differently from the rest of the text, calibre can use this option to attempt to detect them
and surround them with heading tags. <h2> tags are used for chapter headings; <h3> tags are used for any titles
that are detected.
This function will not create a TOC, but in many cases it will cause calibres default chapter detection settings to
correctly detect chapters and build a TOC. Adjust the XPath under Structure detection if a TOC is not automat-
ically created. If there are no other headings used in the document then setting //h:h2 under Structure detection
would be the easiest way to create a TOC for the document.
The inserted headings are not formatted, to apply formatting use the Extra CSS option under the Look and Feel
conversion settings. For example, to center heading tags, use the following:
h2, h3 { text-align: center }
Renumber sequences of <h1> or <h2> tags Some publishers format chapter headings using multiple <h1> or <h2>
tags sequentially. calibres default conversion settings will cause such titles to be split into two pieces. This
option will re-number the heading tags to prevent splitting.
Delete blank lines between paragraphs This option will cause calibre to analyze blank lines included within the doc-
ument. If every paragraph is interleaved with a blank line, then calibre will remove all those blank paragraphs.
Sequences of multiple blank lines will be considered scene breaks and retained as a single paragraph. This
option differs from the Remove paragraph spacing option under Look and Feel in that it actually modifies the
HTML content, while the other option modifies the document styles. This option can also remove paragraphs
which were inserted using calibres Insert blank line option.
Ensure scene breaks are consistently formatted With this option calibre will attempt to detect common scene-break
markers and ensure that they are center aligned. Soft scene break markers, i.e. scene breaks only defined by
extra white space, are styled to ensure that they will not be displayed in conjunction with page breaks.
Replace scene breaks If this option is configured then calibre will replace scene break markers it finds with the re-
placement text specified by the user. Please note that some ornamental characters may not be supported across
all reading devices.
In general you should avoid using HTML tags, calibre will discard any tags and use pre-defined markup. <hr
/> tags, i.e. horizontal rules, and <img> tags are exceptions. Horizontal rules can optionally be specified with
styles, if you choose to add your own style be sure to include the width setting, otherwise the style informa-
tion will be discarded. Image tags can used, but calibre does not provide the ability to add the image during
conversion, this must be done after the fact using the Edit book feature.
Example image tag (place the image within an Images folder inside the EPUB after conversion):
<img style=width:10% src=../Images/scenebreak.png />
Example horizontal rule with styles: <hr style=width:20%;padding-top: 1px;border-top: 2px
ridge black;border-bottom: 2px groove black;/>
Remove unnecessary hyphens calibre will analyze all hyphenated content in the document when this option is en-
abled. The document itself is used as a dictionary for analysis. This allows calibre to accurately remove hyphens
for any words in the document in any language, along with made-up and obscure scientific words. The primary
drawback is words appearing only a single time in the document will not be changed. Analysis happens in
two passes, the first pass analyzes line endings. Lines are only unwrapped if the word exists with or without a
hyphen in the document. The second pass analyzes all hyphenated words throughout the document, hyphens are
removed if the word exists elsewhere in the document without a match.
Italicize common words and patterns When enabled, calibre will look for common words and patterns that denote
italics and italicize them. Examples are common text conventions such as ~word~ or phrases that should gener-
ally be italicized, e.g. latin phrases like etc. or et cetera.
Replace entity indents with CSS indents Some documents use a convention of defining text indents using non-
breaking space entities. When this option is enabled calibre will attempt to detect this sort of formatting and

convert them to a 3% text indent using CSS.
4.5 Search & replace
These options are useful primarily for conversion of PDF documents or OCR conversions, though they can also be
used to fix many document specific problems. As an example, some conversions can leaves behind page headers and
footers in the text. These options use regular expressions to try and detect headers, footers, or other arbitrary text
and remove or replace them. Remember that they operate on the intermediate XHTML produced by the conversion
pipeline. There is a wizard to help you customize the regular expressions for your document. Click the magic wand
beside the expression box, and click the Test button after composing your search expression. Successful matches will
be highlighted in Yellow.
The search works by using a Python regular expression. All matched text is simply removed from the document or
replaced using the replacement pattern. The replacement pattern is optional, if left blank then text matching the search
pattern will be deleted from the document. You can learn more about regular expressions and their syntax at All about
using regular expressions in calibre (page 191).
4.6 Structure detection
Structure detection involves calibre trying its best to detect structural elements in the input document, when they are
not properly specified. For example, chapters, page breaks, headers, footers, etc. As you can imagine, this process
varies widely from book to book. Fortunately, calibre has very powerful options to control this. With power comes
complexity, but if once you take the time to learn the complexity, you will find it well worth the effort.
4.6.1 Chapters and page breaks
calibre has two sets of options for chapter detection and inserting page breaks. This can sometimes be slightly
confusing, as by default, calibre will insert page breaks before detected chapters as well as the locations detected by
the page breaks option. The reason for this is that there are often location where page breaks should be inserted that are
not chapter boundaries. Also, detected chapters can be optionally inserted into the auto generated Table of Contents.
calibre uses XPath, a powerful language to allow the user to specify chapter boundaries/page breaks. XPath can seem
a little daunting to use at first, fortunately, there is a XPath tutorial (page 147) in the User Manual. Remember that
Structure detection operates on the intermediate XHTML produced by the conversion pipeline. Use the debug option
described in the Introduction (page 51) to figure out the appropriate settings for your book. There is also a button for
a XPath wizard to help with the generation of simple XPath expressions.
By default, calibre uses the following expression for detecting chapters:
//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., 'chapter|book|section|part\s+', 'i

,→')) or @class = 'chapter']
This expression is rather complex, because it tries to handle a number of common cases simultaneously. What it means
is that calibre will assume chapters start at either <h1> or <h2> tags that have any of the words (chapter, book, section
or part) in them or that have the class=chapter attribute.
A related option is Chapter mark, which allows you to control what calibre does when it detects a chapter. By default,
it will insert a page break before the chapter. You can have it insert a ruled line instead of, or in addition to the page
break. You can also have it do nothing.
The default setting for detecting page breaks is:
4.5. Search & replace 57

//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']
which means that calibre will insert page breaks before every <h1> and <h2> tag by default.
Note: The default expressions may change depending on the input format you are converting.
4.6.2 Miscellaneous
There are a few more options in this section.

Insert metadata as page at start of book One of the great things about calibre is that it allows you to maintain very
complete metadata about all of your books, for example, a rating, tags, comments, etc. This option will create a
single page with all this metadata and insert it into the converted e-book, typically just after the cover. Think of
it as a way to create your own customised book jacket.
Remove first image Sometimes, the source document you are converting includes the cover as part of the book, instead
of as a separate cover. If you also specify a cover in calibre, then the converted book will have two covers. This
option will simply remove the first image from the source document, thereby ensuring that the converted book
has only one cover, the one specified in calibre.
4.7 Table of Contents
When the input document has a Table of Contents in its metadata, calibre will just use that. However, a number of
older formats either do not support a metadata based Table of Contents, or individual documents do not have one.
In these cases, the options in this section can help you automatically generate a Table of Contents in the converted
e-book, based on the actual content in the input document.
Note: Using these options can be a little challenging to get exactly right. If you prefer creating/editing the Table
of Contents by hand, convert to the EPUB or AZW3 formats and select the checkbox at the bottom of the Table of
Contents section of the conversion dialog that says Manually fine-tune the Table of Contents after conversion. This
will launch the ToC Editor tool after the conversion. It allows you to create entries in the Table of Contents by simply
clicking the place in the book where you want the entry to point. You can also use the ToC Editor by itself, without
doing a conversion. Go to Preferences→Interface→Toolbars and add the ToC Editor to the main toolbar. Then just
select the book you want to edit and click the ToC Editor button.
The first option is Force use of auto-generated Table of Contents. By checking this option you can have calibre override
any Table of Contents found in the metadata of the input document with the auto generated one.
The default way that the creation of the auto generated Table of Contents works is that, calibre will first try to add any
detected chapters to the generated table of contents. You can learn how to customize the detection of chapters in the
Structure detection (page 57) section above. If you do not want to include detected chapters in the generated table of
contents, check the Do not add detected chapters option.
If less than the Chapter threshold number of chapters were detected, calibre will then add any hyperlinks it finds in the
input document to the Table of Contents. This often works well: many input documents include a hyperlinked Table
of Contents right at the start. The Number of links option can be used to control this behavior. If set to zero, no links
are added. If set to a number greater than zero, at most that number of links is added.
calibre will automatically filter duplicates from the generated Table of Contents. However, if there are some additional
undesirable entries, you can filter them using the TOC Filter option. This is a regular expression that will match the

title of entries in the generated table of contents. Whenever a match is found, it will be removed. For example, to
remove all entries titles Next or Previous use:
Next|Previous
The Level 1,2,3 TOC options allow you to create a sophisticated multi-level Table of Contents. They are XPath
expressions that match tags in the intermediate XHTML produced by the conversion pipeline. See the Introduction
(page 51) for how to get access to this XHTML. Also read the XPath tutorial (page 147), to learn how to construct
XPath expressions. Next to each option is a button that launches a wizard to help with the creation of basic XPath
expressions. The following simple example illustrates how to use these options.
Suppose you have an input document that results in XHTML that look like this:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Sample document</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Chapter 1</h1>
...
<h2>Section 1.1</h2>
...
...
<h1>Chapter 2</h1>
...
...
</body>
</html>
Then, we set the options as:
Level 1 TOC : //h:h1

Level 2 TOC : //h:h2
This will result in an automatically generated two level Table of Contents that looks like:
Chapter 1
Section 1.1
Section 1.2
Chapter 2
Section 2.1
Warning: Not all output formats support a multi level Table of Contents. You should first try with EPUB output.
If that works, then try your format of choice.
4.7. Table of Contents 59

4.8 Using images as chapter titles when converting HTML input doc-
uments
Suppose you want to use an image as your chapter title, but still want calibre to be able to automatically generate a
Table of Contents for you from the chapter titles. Use the following HTML markup to achieve this
<html>
<body>
<h2>Chapter 1</h2>
<p>chapter 1 text...</p>
<h2 title="Chapter 2"><img src="chapter2.jpg" /></h2>
</body>
</html>
Set the Level 1 TOC setting to //h:h2. Then, for chapter two, calibre will take the title from the value of the title
attribute on the <h2> tag, since the tag has no text.
4.9 Using tag attributes to supply the text for entries in the Table of
Contents
If you have particularly long chapter titles and want shortened versions in the Table of Contents, you can use the title
attribute to achieve this, for example:
<html>
<body>
<h2 title="Chapter 1">Chapter 1: Some very long title</h2>
<h2 title="Chapter 2">Chapter 2: Some other very long title</h2>
</body>
</html>
Set the Level 1 TOC setting to //h:h2/@title. Then calibre will take the title from the value of the title attribute
on the <h2> tags, instead of using the text inside the tag. Note the trailing /@title on the XPath expression, you
can use this form to tell calibre to get the text from any attribute you like.
4.10 How options are set/saved for Conversion
There are two places where conversion options can be set in calibre. The first is in Preferences->Conversion. These
settings are the defaults for the conversion options. Whenever you try to convert a new book, the settings set here will
be used by default.
You can also change settings in the conversion dialog for each book conversion. When you convert a book, calibre
remembers the settings you used for that book, so that if you convert it again, the saved settings for the individual book
will take precedence over the defaults set in Preferences. You can restore the individual settings to defaults by using
the Restore defaults button in the individual book conversion dialog. You can remove the saved settings for a group of
books by selecting all the books and then clicking the Edit metadata button to bring up the bulk metadata edit dialog,
near the bottom of the dialog is an option to remove stored conversion settings.
When you bulk convert a set of books, settings are taken in the following order (last one wins):

• From the defaults set in Preferences->Conversion

• From the saved conversion settings for each book being converted (if any). This can be turned off by the option
in the top left corner of the Bulk conversion dialog.
• From the settings set in the Bulk conversion dialog
Note that the final settings for each book in a Bulk conversion will be saved and re-used if the book is converted again.
Since the highest priority in Bulk Conversion is given to the settings in the Bulk conversion dialog, these will override
any book specific settings. So you should only bulk convert books together that need similar settings. The exceptions
are metadata and input format specific settings. Since the Bulk conversion dialog does not have settings for these two
categories, they will be taken from book specific settings (if any) or the defaults.
Note: You can see the actual settings used during any conversion by clicking the rotating icon in the lower right
corner and then double clicking the individual conversion job. This will bring up a conversion log that will contain the
actual settings used, near the top.
4.11 Format specific tips
Here you will find tips specific to the conversion of particular formats. Options specific to particular format, whether
input or output are available in the conversion dialog under their own section, for example TXT input or EPUB output.
4.11.1 Convert Microsoft Word documents
calibre can automatically convert .docx files created by Microsoft Word 2007 and newer. Just add the file to calibre
and click convert.
Note: There is a demo .docx file27 that demonstrates the capabilities of the calibre conversion engine. Just download
it and convert it to EPUB or AZW3 to see what calibre can do.
calibre will automatically generate a Table of Contents based on headings if you mark your headings with the
Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. styles in Microsoft Word. Open the output e-book in the calibre E-book viewer
and click the Table of Contents button to view the generated Table of Contents.
Older .doc files
For older .doc files, you can save the document as HTML with Microsoft Word and then convert the resulting HTML
file with calibre. When saving as HTML, be sure to use the Save as Web Page, Filtered option as this will produce
clean HTML that will convert well. Note that Word produces really messy HTML, converting it can take a long time,
so be patient. If you have a newer version of Word available, you can directly save it as .docx as well.
Another alternative is to use the free OpenOffice. Open your .doc file in OpenOffice and save it in OpenOffices format
.odt. calibre can directly convert .odt files.
27 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/demos/demo.docx
4.11. Format specific tips 61

4.11.2 Convert TXT documents
TXT documents have no well defined way to specify formatting like bold, italics, etc, or document structure like
paragraphs, headings, sections and so on, but there are a variety of conventions commonly used. By default calibre
attempts automatic detection of the correct formatting and markup based on those conventions.
TXT input supports a number of options to differentiate how paragraphs are detected.
Paragraph style: Auto Analyzes the text file and attempts to automatically determine how paragraphs
are defined. This option will generally work fine, if you achieve undesirable results try one of the
manual options.
Paragraph style: Block Assumes one or more blank lines are a paragraph boundary:
This is the first.
This is the
second paragraph.
Paragraph style: Single Assumes that every line is a paragraph:
This is the first.

This is the second.
This is the third.
Paragraph style: Print Assumes that every paragraph starts with an indent (either a tab or 2+ spaces).
Paragraphs end when the next line that starts with an indent is reached:
This is the
first.
This is the second.
This is the
third.
Paragraph style: Unformatted Assumes that the document has no formatting, but does use hard line
breaks. Punctuation and median line length are used to attempt to re-create paragraphs.
Formatting style: Auto Attempts to detect the type of formatting markup being used. If no markup is
used then heuristic formatting will be applied.
Formatting style: Heuristic Analyzes the document for common chapter headings, scene breaks, and
italicized words and applies the appropriate HTML markup during conversion.
Formatting style: Markdown calibre also supports running TXT input though a transformation prepro-
cessor known as Markdown. Markdown allows for basic formatting to be added to TXT documents,
such as bold, italics, section headings, tables, lists, a Table of Contents, etc. Marking chapter head-
ings with a leading # and setting the chapter XPath detection expression to //h:h1 is the easiest way
to have a proper table of contents generated from a TXT document. You can learn more about the
Markdown syntax at daringfireball28 .
Formatting style: None Applies no special formatting to the text, the document is converted to HTML
with no other changes.
28 https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

4.11.3 Convert PDF documents
PDF documents are one of the worst formats to convert from. They are a fixed page size and text placement format.
Meaning, it is very difficult to determine where one paragraph ends and another begins. calibre will try to unwrap
paragraphs using a configurable, Line un-wrapping factor. This is a scale used to determine the length at which a line
should be unwrapped. Valid values are a decimal between 0 and 1. The default is 0.45, just under the median line
length. Lower this value to include more text in the unwrapping. Increase to include less. You can adjust this value in
the conversion settings under PDF Input.
Also, they often have headers and footers as part of the document that will become included with the text. Use the
Search and replace panel to remove headers and footers to mitigate this issue. If the headers and footers are not
removed from the text it can throw off the paragraph unwrapping. To learn how to use the header and footer removal
options, read All about using regular expressions in calibre (page 191).
Some limitations of PDF input are:
• Complex, multi-column, and image based documents are not supported.
• Extraction of vector images and tables from within the document is also not supported.
• Some PDFs use special glyphs to represent ll or ff or fi, etc. Conversion of these may or may not work depending
on just how they are represented internally in the PDF.
• Links and Tables of Contents are not supported
• PDFs that use embedded non-Unicode fonts to represent non-English characters will result in garbled output for
those characters
• Some PDFs are made up of photographs of the page with OCRed text behind them. In such cases calibre uses
the OCRed text, which can be very different from what you see when you view the PDF file
• PDFs that are used to display complex text, like right to left languages and math typesetting will not convert
correctly
To re-iterate PDF is a really, really bad format to use as input. If you absolutely must use PDF, then be prepared for
an output ranging anywhere from decent to unusable, depending on the input PDF.
4.11.4 Comic book collections
A comic book collection is a .cbc file. A .cbc file is a ZIP file that contains other CBZ/CBR files. In addition the .cbc
file must contain a simple text file called comics.txt, encoded in UTF-8. The comics.txt file must contain a list of the
comics files inside the .cbc file, in the form filename:title, as shown below:
one.cbz:Chapter One
two.cbz:Chapter Two
three.cbz:Chapter Three
The .cbc file will then contain:
comics.txt
one.cbz
two.cbz
three.cbz
calibre will automatically convert this .cbc file into a e-book with a Table of Contents pointing to each entry in
comics.txt.

4.11.5 EPUB advanced formatting demo
Various advanced formatting for EPUB files is demonstrated in this demo file29 . The file was created from hand coded
HTML using calibre and is meant to be used as a template for your own EPUB creation efforts.
The source HTML it was created from is available demo.zip30 . The settings used to create the EPUB from the ZIP file
are:
ebook-convert demo.zip .epub -vv --authors "Kovid Goyal" --language en --level1-toc '/
,→/*[@class="title"]' --disable-font-rescaling --page-breaks-before / --no-default-
,→epub-cover
Note that because this file explores the potential of EPUB, most of the advanced formatting is not going to work on
readers less capable than calibres built-in EPUB viewer.
4.11.6 Convert ODT documents
calibre can directly convert ODT (OpenDocument Text) files. You should use styles to format your document and
minimize the use of direct formatting. When inserting images into your document you need to anchor them to the
paragraph, images anchored to a page will all end up in the front of the conversion.
To enable automatic detection of chapters, you need to mark them with the build-in styles called Heading 1, Heading
2, , Heading 6 (Heading 1 equates to the HTML tag <h1>, Heading 2 to <h2> etc). When you convert in calibre you
can enter which style you used into the Detect chapters at box. Example:
• If you mark Chapters with style Heading 2, you have to set the Detect chapters at box to //h:h2
• For a nested TOC with Sections marked with Heading 2 and the Chapters marked with Heading 3 you need to
enter //h:h2|//h:h3. On the Convert - TOC page set the Level 1 TOC box to //h:h2 and the Level 2
TOC box to //h:h3.
Well-known document properties (Title, Keywords, Description, Creator) are recognized and calibre will use the first
image (not to small, and with good aspect-ratio) as the cover image.
There is also an advanced property conversion mode, which is activated by setting the custom property opf.
metadata (Yes or No type) to Yes in your ODT document (File->Properties->Custom Properties). If this property
is detected by calibre, the following custom properties are recognized (opf.authors overrides document creator):
opf.titlesort
opf.authors
opf.authorsort
opf.publisher
opf.pubdate
opf.isbn
opf.language
opf.series
opf.seriesindex
In addition to this, you can specify the picture to use as the cover by naming it opf.cover (right click, Picture-
>Options->Name) in the ODT. If no picture with this name is found, the smart method is used. As the cover detection
might result in double covers in certain output formats, the process will remove the paragraph (only if the only content
is the cover!) from the document. But this works only with the named picture!
To disable cover detection you can set the custom property opf.nocover (Yes or No type) to Yes in advanced mode.
29 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/demos/demo.epub
30 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/demos/demo.zip

4.11.7 Converting to PDF
The first, most important, setting to decide on when converting to PDF is the page size. By default, calibre uses a
page size of U.S. Letter. You can change this to another standard page size or a completely custom size in the PDF
Output section of the conversion dialog. If you are generating a PDF to be used on a specific device, you can turn on
the option to use the page size from the output profile instead. So if your output profile is set to Kindle, calibre will
create a PDF with page size suitable for viewing on the small kindle screen.
Headers and Footers
You can insert arbitrary headers and footers on each page of the PDF by specifying header and footer templates.
Templates are just snippets of HTML code that get rendered in the header and footer locations. For example, to
display page numbers centered at the bottom of every page, in green, use the following footer template:
<footer><div style="margin: auto; color: green">_PAGENUM_</div></footer>
calibre will automatically replace _PAGENUM_ with the current page number. You can even put different content on
even and odd pages, for example the following header template will show the title on odd pages and the author on even
pages:
<header style="justify-content: flex-end">

<div class="even-page">_AUTHOR_</div>
<div class="odd-page"><i>_TITLE_</i></div>
</header>
calibre will automatically replace _TITLE_ and _AUTHOR_ with the title and author of the document being con-
verted. Setting justify-content to flex-end will cause the text to be right aligned.
You can also display text at the left and right edges and change the font size, as demonstrated with this header template:
<header style="justify-content: space-between; font-size: smaller">

<div>_TITLE_</div>
<div>_AUTHOR_</div>
</header>
This will display the title at the left and the author at the right, in a font size smaller than the main text.
You can also use the current section in templates, as shown below:
<header><div>_SECTION_</div></header>
_SECTION_ is replaced by whatever the name of the current section is. These names are taken from the metadata
Table of Contents in the document (the PDF Outline). If the document has no table of contents then it will be replaced
by empty text. If a single PDF page has multiple sections, the first section on the page will be used. Similarly, there is
a variable named _TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_ that can be used to get the name of the current top-level section.
You can even use JavaScript inside the header and footer templates, for example, the following template will cause
page numbers to start at 4 instead of 1:
<footer>
<div></div>
<script>document.currentScript.parentNode.querySelector("div").innerHTML = "" + (_
,→PAGENUM_ + 3)</script>
</footer>
In addition there are some more variables you can use in the headers and footers, documented below:

• _TOTAL_PAGES_ - total number of pages in the PDF file, useful for implementing a progress counter, for
example.
• _TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_PAGES_ - total number of pages in the current top level section
• _TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_PAGENUM_ - the page number of the current page within the current top level sec-
tion
Note: When adding headers and footers make sure you set the page top and bottom margins to large enough values,
under the PDF Output section of the conversion dialog.
Printable Table of Contents
You can also insert a printable Table of Contents at the end of the PDF that lists the page numbers for every section.
This is very useful if you intend to print out the PDF to paper. If you wish to use the PDF on an electronic device, then
the PDF Outline provides this functionality and is generated by default.
You can customize the look of the generated Table of contents by using the Extra CSS conversion setting under the
Look & feel part of the conversion dialog. The default CSS used is listed below, simply copy it and make whatever
changes you like.
.calibre-pdf-toc table { width: 100%% }
.calibre-pdf-toc table tr td:last-of-type { text-align: right }
.calibre-pdf-toc .level-0 {
font-size: larger;
}
.calibre-pdf-toc .level-1 td:first-of-type { padding-left: 1.4em }

.calibre-pdf-toc .level-2 td:first-of-type { padding-left: 2.8em }
Custom page margins for individual HTML files
If you are converting an EPUB or AZW3 file with multiple individual HTML files inside it and you want to change
the page margins for a particular HTML file you can add the following style block to the HTML file using the calibre
E-book editor:
<style>
@page {
margin-left: 10pt;
margin-right: 10pt;
margin-top: 10pt;
margin-bottom: 10pt;
}
</style>
Then, in the PDF output section of the conversion dialog, turn on the option to Use page margins from the document
being converted. Now all pages generated from this HTML file will have 10pt margins.

CHAPTER
FIVE
EDITING E-BOOKS
calibre has an integrated e-book editor that can be used to edit books in the EPUB and AZW3 (Kindle) formats. The
editor shows you the HTML and CSS that is used internally inside the book files, with a live preview that updates as
you make changes. It also contains various automated tools to perform common cleanup and fixing tasks.
You can use this editor by right clicking on any book in calibre and selecting Edit book.
Contents
• Basic workflow (page 69)

• The File browser (page 71)
– Renaming files (page 72)
– Merging files (page 72)
– Changing text file order (page 73)
– Marking the cover (page 73)
67
– Deleting files (page 73)

– Exporting files (page 73)
– Adding new images/fonts/etc. or creating new blank files (page 73)
– Replacing files (page 74)
– Linking stylesheets to HTML files efficiently (page 74)
• Search & replace (page 74)
– Saved searches (page 74)
– Function mode (page 75)
– Search ignoring HTML tags (page 75)
• Automated tools (page 75)
– Editing the Table of Contents (page 75)
– Checking the book (page 76)
– Adding a cover (page 77)
– Embedding referenced fonts (page 77)
– Subsetting embedded fonts (page 77)
– Smartening punctuation (page 78)
– Transforming CSS properties (page 78)
– Removing unused CSS rules (page 78)
– Fixing HTML (page 78)
– Beautifying files (page 78)
– Inserting an inline Table of Contents (page 79)
– Setting Semantics (page 79)
– Filtering style information (page 79)
– Upgrading the books internals (page 79)
• Checkpoints (page 79)
• The Live preview panel (page 81)
– Splitting HTML files (page 82)
• The Live CSS panel (page 83)
• Miscellaneous tools (page 84)
– The Table of Contents view (page 84)
– Checking the spelling of words in the book (page 84)
– Inserting special characters (page 86)
– The code inspector view (page 86)
– Checking external links (page 87)
– Downloading external resources (page 87)
68 Chapter 5. Editing e-books

– Arranging files into folders by type (page 87)

– Importing files in other e-book formats as EPUB (page 87)
– The Reports tool (page 98)
• Special features in the code editor (page 98)
– Syntax highlighting (page 98)
– Context sensitive help (page 99)
– Auto-complete (page 99)
– Snippets (page 99)
5.1 Basic workflow
Note: A video tour of the calibre E-book editor is available here31 .
When you first open a book with the Edit book tool, you will be presented with a list of files on the left. These are the
individual HTML files, stylesheets, images, etc. that make up the content of the book. Simply double click on a file
to start editing it. Note that if you want to do anything more sophisticated than making a few small tweaks, you will
need to know HTML Tutorial32 and CSS Tutorial33 .
As you make changes to the HTML or CSS in the editor, the changes will be previewed, live, in the preview panel to
the right. When you are happy with how the changes you have made look, click the Save button or use File→Save to
save your changes into the e-book.
One useful feature is Checkpoints. Before you embark on some ambitious set of edits, you can create a checkpoint. The
checkpoint will preserve the current state of your book, then if in the future you decide you dont like the changes you
have made to you can go back to the state when you created the checkpoint. To create a checkpoint, use Edit→Create
checkpoint. Checkpoints will also be automatically created for you whenever you run any automated tool like global
search and replace. The checkpointing functionality is in addition to the normal undo/redo mechanism when editing
individual files. Checkpoints are useful for when changes are spread over multiple files in the book.
That is the basic work flow for editing books – Open a file, make changes, preview and save. The rest of this manual
will discuss the various tools and features present to allow you to perform specific tasks efficiently.
31 https://calibre-ebook.com/demo#tutorials
32 http://html.net/tutorials/html/
33 http://html.net/tutorials/css/
5.1. Basic workflow 69


5.2 The File browser
5.2. The File browser 71

The File browser gives you an overview of the various files inside the book you are editing. The files are arranged by
category, with text (HTML) files at the top, followed by stylesheet (CSS) files, images and so on. Simply double click
on a file to start editing it. Editing is supported for HTML, CSS and image files. The order of text files is the same
order that they would be displayed in, if you were reading the book. All other files are arranged alphabetically.
By hovering your mouse over an entry, you can see its size, and also, at the bottom of the screen, the full path to the
file inside the book. Note that files inside e-books are compressed, so the size of the final book is not the sum of the
individual file sizes.
Many files have special meaning, in the book. These will typically have an icon next to their names, indicating the
special meaning. For example, in the picture to the left, you can see that the files cover_image.jpg and titlepage.xhtml
have the icon of a cover next to them, this indicates they are the book cover image and titlepage. Similarly, the
content.opf file has a metadata icon next to it, indicating the book metadata is present in it and the toc.ncx file has a T
icon next to it, indicating it is the Table of Contents.
You can perform many actions on individual files, by right clicking them.
5.2.1 Renaming files
You can rename an individual file by right clicking it and selecting Rename. Renaming a file automatically updates all
links and references to it throughout the book. So all you have to do is provide the new name, calibre will take care of
the rest.
You can also bulk rename many files at once. This is useful if you want the files to have some simple name pattern.
For example you might want to rename all the HTML files to have names Chapter-1.html, Chapter-2.html and so on.
Select the files you want bulk renamed by holding down the Shift or Ctrl key and clicking the files. Then right
click and select Bulk rename. Enter a prefix and what number you would like the automatic numbering to start at, click
OK and you are done. The bulk rename dialog also lets you rename files by the order they appear in the book instead
of the order you selected them in, useful, for instance to rename all images by the order they appear.
Finally, you can bulk change the file extension for all selected files. Select multiple files, as above, and right click and
choose Change the file extension for the selected files.
5.2.2 Merging files
Sometimes, you may want to merge two HTML files or two CSS files together. It can sometimes be useful to have
everything in a single file. Be wary, though, putting a lot of content into a single file will cause performance problems
when viewing the book in a typical e-book reader.
To merge multiple files together, select them by holding the Ctrl key and clicking on them (make sure you only
select files of one type, either all HTML files or all CSS files and so on). Then right click and select merge. Thats
all, calibre will merge the files, automatically taking care of migrating all links and references to the merged files.
Note that merging files can sometimes cause text styling to change, since the individual files could have used different
stylesheets.

5.2.3 Changing text file order
You can re-arrange the order in which text (HTML) files are opened when reading the book by simply dragging and
dropping them in the Files browser. For the technically inclined, this is called re-ordering the book spine. Note that
you have to drop the items between other items, not on top of them, this can be a little fiddly until you get used to it.
5.2.4 Marking the cover
E-books typically have a cover image. This image is indicated in the File browser by the icon of a brown book next
to the image name. If you want to designate some other image as the cover, you can do so by right clicking on the file
and choosing Mark as cover.
In addition, EPUB files has the concept of a titlepage. A title page is a HTML file that acts as the title page/cover for
the book. You can mark an HTML file as the titlepage when editing EPUBs by right-clicking. Be careful that the file
you mark contains only the cover information. If it contains other content, such as the first chapter, then that content
will be lost if the user ever converts the EPUB file in calibre to another format. This is because when converting,
calibre assumes that the marked title page contains only the cover and no other content.
5.2.5 Deleting files
You can delete files by either right clicking on them or by selecting them and pressing the Delete key. Deleting a file
removes all references to the file from the OPF file, saving you that chore. However, references in other places are not
removed, you can use the Check Book tool to easily find and remove/replace them.
5.2.6 Exporting files
You can export a file from inside the book to somewhere else on your computer. This is useful if you want to work on
the file in isolation, with specialised tools. To do this, simply right click on the file and choose Export.
Once you are done working on the exported file, you can re-import it into the book, by right clicking on the file again
and choosing Replace with file which will allow you to replace the file in the book with the previously exported file.
You can also copy files between multiple editor instances. Select the files you want to copy in the File browser, then
right click and choose, Copy selected files to another editor instance. Then, in the other editor instance, right click in
the File browser and choose Paste file from other editor instance.
5.2.7 Adding new images/fonts/etc. or creating new blank files
You can add a new image, font, stylesheet, etc. from your computer into the book by clicking File→New file. This
lets you either import a file by clicking the Import resource file button or create a new blank HTML file or stylesheet
by simply entering the file name into the box for the new file.
You can also import multiple files into the book at once using File->Import files into book.
5.2. The File browser 73

5.2.8 Replacing files
You can easily replace existing files in the book, by right clicking on the file and choosing replace. This will automat-
ically update all links and references, in case the replacement file has a different name than the file being replaced.
5.2.9 Linking stylesheets to HTML files efficiently
As a convenience, you can select multiple HTML files in the File browser, right click and choose Link stylesheets to
have calibre automatically insert the <link> tags for those stylesheets into all the selected HTML files.
5.3 Search & replace
Edit book has a very powerful search and replace interface that allows you to search and replace text in the current file,
across all files and even in a marked region of the current file. You can search using a normal search or using regular
expressions. To learn how to use regular expressions for advanced searching, see All about using regular expressions
in calibre (page 191).
Start the search and replace via the Search→Find/replace menu entry (you must be editing an HTML or CSS file).
Type the text you want to find into the Find box and its replacement into the Replace box. You can the click the
appropriate buttons to Find the next match, replace the current match and replace all matches.
Using the drop downs at the bottom of the box, you can have the search operate over the current file, all text files,
all style files or all files. You can also choose the search mode to be a normal (string) search or a regular expression
search.
You can count all the matches for a search expression via Search→Count all. The count will run over whatever
files/regions you have selected in the dropdown box.
You can also go to a specific line in the currently open editor via Search→Go to line.
Note: Remember, to harness the full power of search and replace, you will need to use regular expressions. See All
about using regular expressions in calibre (page 191).
5.3.1 Saved searches
You can save frequently used search/replace expressions (including function mode expressions) and reuse them mul-
tiple times. To save a search simply right click in the Find box and select Save current search.
You can bring up the saved searches via Search→Saved searches. This will present you with a list of search and
replace expressions that you can apply. You can even select multiple entries in the list by holding down the Ctrl key
while clicking so as to run multiple search and replace expressions in a single operation.

5.3.2 Function mode
Function mode allows you to write arbitrarily powerful Python functions that are run on every Find/replace. You can
do pretty much any text manipulation you like in function mode. For more information, see Function mode for Search
& replace in the Editor (page 87).
5.3.3 Search ignoring HTML tags
There is also a dedicated tool for searching for text, ignoring any HTML tags in between. For example, if the book has
the HTML Empahisis on a <i>word</i>. you can search for on a word and it will be found even though
there is an <i> tag in the middle. Use this tool via the Search→Search ignoring HTML markup menu item.
5.4 Automated tools
Edit book has various tools to help with common tasks. These are accessed via the Tools menu.
5.4.1 Editing the Table of Contents
There is a dedicated tool to ease editing of the Table of Contents. Launch it with Tools→Table of Contents→Edit
Table of Contents.
5.4. Automated tools 75

The Edit Table of Contents tool shows you the current Table of Contents (if any) on the left. Simply double click on
any entry to change its text. You can also re-arrange entries by drag and drop or by using the buttons to the right.
For books that do not have a pre-existing Table of Contents, the tool gives you various options to auto-generate a Table
of Contents from the text. You can generate from the headings in the document, from links, from individual files and
so on.
You can edit individual entries by clicking on them and then clicking the Change the location this entry points to
button. This will open up a mini-preview of the book, simply move the mouse cursor over the book view panel, and
click where you want the entry to point to. A thick green line will show you the location. Click OK once you are
happy with the location.
5.4.2 Checking the book
The Check book tool searches your book for problems that could prevent it working as intended on actual reader
devices. Activate it via Tools→Check book.

Any problems found are reported in a nice, easy to use list. Clicking any entry in the list shows you some help about
that error as well as giving you the option to auto-fix that error, if the error can be fixed automatically. You can also
double click the error to open the location of the error in an editor, so you can fix it yourself.
Some of the checks performed are:
• Malformed HTML markup. Any HTML markup that does not parse as well-formed XML is reported. Correct-
ing it will ensure that your markup works as intended in all contexts. calibre can also auto-fix these errors, but
auto-fixing can sometimes have unexpected effects, so use with care. As always, a checkpoint is created before
auto-fixing so you can easily revert all changes. Auto-fixing works by parsing the markup using the HTML5
algorithm, which is highly fault tolerant and then converting to well formed XML.
• Malformed or unknown CSS styles. Any CSS that is not valid or that has properties not defined in the CSS
2.1 standard (plus a few from CSS 3) are reported. CSS is checked in all stylesheets, inline style attributes and
<style> tags in HTML files.
• Broken links. Links that point to files inside the book that are missing are reported.
• Unreferenced files. Files in the book that are not referenced by any other file or are not in the spine are reported.
• Various common problems in OPF files such as duplicate spine or manifest items, broken idrefs or meta cover
tags, missing required sections and so on.
• Various compatibility checks for known problems that can cause the book to malfunction on reader devices.
5.4.3 Adding a cover
You can easily add a cover to the book via Tools→Add cover. This allows you to either choose an existing image in
the book as the cover or import a new image into the book and make it the cover. When editing EPUB files, the HTML
wrapper for the cover is automatically generated. If an existing cover in the book is found, it is replaced. The tool also
automatically takes care of correctly marking the cover files as covers in the OPF.
5.4.4 Embedding referenced fonts
Accessed via Tools→Embed reference fonts, this tool finds all fonts referenced in the book and if they are not already
embedded, searches your computer for them and embeds them into the book, if found. Please make sure that you have
the necessary copyrights for embedding commercially licensed fonts, before doing this.
5.4.5 Subsetting embedded fonts
Accessed via Tools→Subset embedded fonts, this tool reduces all the fonts in the book to only contain glyphs for the
text actually present in the book. This commonly reduces the size of the font files by ~ 50%. However, be aware that
once the fonts are subset, if you add new text whose characters are not previously present in the subset font, the font
will not work for the new text. So do this only as the last step in your workflow.
5.4. Automated tools 77

5.4.6 Smartening punctuation
Convert plain text dashes, ellipsis, quotes, multiple hyphens, etc. into their typographically correct equivalents. Note
that the algorithm can sometimes generate incorrect results, especially when single quotes at the start of contractions
are involved. Accessed via Tools→Smarten punctuation.
5.4.7 Transforming CSS properties
Create rules to transform the styling of the book. For example, create a rule to convert all red text to green or to double
the font size of all text in the book or make text of a certain font family italic, etc.
Creating the rules is simple, the rules follow a natural language format, that looks like:
• If the property color is red change it to green
• If the property font-size is any value multiply the value by 2
Accessed via Tools→Transform styles.
5.4.8 Removing unused CSS rules
Remove all unused CSS rules from stylesheets and <style> tags. Some books created from production templates can
have a large number of extra CSS rules that dont match any actual content. These extra rules can slow down readers
that need to process them all. Accessed via Tools→Remove unused CSS.
5.4.9 Fixing HTML
This tool simply converts HTML that cannot be parsed as XML into well-formed XML. It is very common in e-books
to have non-well-formed XML, so this tool simply automates the process of fixing such HTML. The tool works by
parsing the HTML using the HTML5 algorithm (the algorithm used in all modern browsers) and then converting the
result into XML. Be aware that auto-fixing can sometimes have counter-intuitive results. If you prefer, you can use
the Check Book tool discussed above to find and manually correct problems in the HTML. Accessed via Tools→Fix
HTML.
5.4.10 Beautifying files
This tool is used to auto-format all HTML and CSS files so that they look pretty. The code is auto-indented so that
it lines up nicely, blank lines are inserted where appropriate and so on. Note that beautifying also auto-fixes broken
HTML/CSS. Therefore, if you dont want any auto-fixing to be performed, first use the Check Book tool to correct all
problems and only then run beautify. Accessed via Tools→Beautify all files.
Note: In HTML any text can have significant whitespace, via the CSS white-space directive. Therefore, beautification
could potentially change the rendering of the HTML. To avoid this as far as possible, the beautify algorithm only
beautifies block level tags that contain other block level tags. So, for example, text inside a <p> tag will not have
its whitespace changed. But a <body> tag that contains only other <p> and <div> tags will be beautified. This can
sometimes mean that a particular file will not be affected by beautify as it has no suitable block level tags. In such
cases you can try different beautification tools, that are less careful, for example: HTML Tidy34 .
34 https://infohound.net/tidy/

5.4.11 Inserting an inline Table of Contents
Normally in e-books, the Table of Contents is separate from the main text and is typically accessed via a special Table
of Contents button/menu in the e-book reading device. You can also have calibre automatically generate an inline
Table of Contents that becomes part of the text of the book. It is generated based on the currently defined Table of
Contents.
If you use this tool multiple times, each invocation will cause the previously created inline Table of Contents to be
replaced. The tool can be accessed via Tools→Table of Contents→Insert inline Table of Contents.
5.4.12 Setting Semantics
This tool is used to set semantics in EPUB files. Semantics are simply, links in the OPF file that identify certain
locations in the book as having special meaning. You can use them to identify the foreword, dedication, cover, table
of contents, etc. Simply choose the type of semantic information you want to specify and then select the location in
the book the link should point to. This tool can be accessed via Tools→Set semantics.
5.4.13 Filtering style information
This tool can be used to easily remove specified CSS style properties from the entire book. You can tell it what
properties you want removed, for example, color, background-color, line-height and it will remove
them from everywhere they occur stylesheets, <style> tags and inline style attributes. After removing the style
information, a summary of all the changes made is displayed so you can see exactly what was changed. The tool can
be accessed via Tools→Filter style information.
5.4.14 Upgrading the books internals
This tool can be used to upgrade the books internals, if possible. For instance it will upgrade EPUB 2 books to EPUB
3 books. The tool can be accessed via Upgrade book internals.
5.5 Checkpoints
Checkpoints are a way to mark the current state of the book as special. You can then go on to do whatever changes
you want to the book and if you dont like the results, return to the checkpointed state. Checkpoints are automatically
created every time you run any of the automated tools described in the previous section.
You can create a checkpoint via Edit→Create checkpoint. And go back to a previous checkpoint with Edit→Revert to
The check pointing functionality is in addition to the normal Undo/redo mechanism when editing individual files.
Checkpoints are particularly useful for when changes are spread over multiple files in the book or when you wish to
be able to revert a large group of related changes as a whole.
You can see a list of available checkpoints via View→Checkpoints. You can compare the current state of the book
to a specified checkpoint using the Comparing e-books (page 109) tool – by selecting the checkpoint of interest and
clicking the Compare button. The Revert to button restores the book to the selected checkpoint, undoing all changes
since that checkpoint was created.
5.5. Checkpoints 79

5.6 The Live preview panel
5.6. The Live preview panel 81

The File preview gives you an overview of the various files inside The live preview panel shows you the changes
you are making live (with a second or two of delay). As you edit HTML or CSS files, the preview panel is updated
automatically to reflect your changes. As you move the cursor around in the editor, the preview panel will track its
location, showing you the corresponding location in the book. Clicking in the preview panel, will cause the cursor in
the editor to be positioned over the element you clicked. If you click a link pointing to another file in the book, that
file will be opened in the edit and the preview panel, automatically.
You can turn off the automatic syncing of position and live preview of changes – by buttons under the preview panel.
The live update of the preview panel only happens when you are not actively typing in the editor, so as not to be
distracting or slow you down, waiting for the preview to render.
The preview panel shows you how the text will look when viewed. However, the preview panel is not a substitute
for actually testing your book an actual reader device. It is both more, and less capable than an actual reader. It will
tolerate errors and sloppy markup much better than most reader devices. It will also not show you page margins, page
breaks and embedded fonts that use font name aliasing. Use the preview panel while you are working on the book, but
once you are done, review it in an actual reader device or software emulator.
Note: The preview panel does not support embedded fonts if the name of the font inside the font file does not match
the name in the CSS @font-face rule. You can use the Check Book tool to quickly find and fix any such problem fonts.
5.6.1 Splitting HTML files
One, perhaps non-obvious, use of the preview panel is to split long HTML files. While viewing the file you want to
split, click the Split mode button under the preview panel . Then simply move your mouse to the place where
you want to split the file and click. A thick green line will show you exactly where the split will happen as you move
your mouse. Once you have found the location you want, simply click and the split will be performed.
Splitting the file will automatically update all links and references that pointed into the bottom half of the file and will
open the newly split file in an editor.
You can also split a single HTML file at multiple locations automatically, by right clicking inside the file in the editor
and choosing Split at multiple locations. This will allow you to easily split a large file at all heading tags or all tags
having a certain class and so on.

5.7 The Live CSS panel
The Live CSS panel shows you all the style rules that apply to the tag you are currently editing. The name of tag, along
with its line number in the editor are displayed, followed by a list of matching style rules.
It is a great way to quickly see which style rules apply to any tag. The view also has clickable links (in blue), which
take you directly to the location where the style was defined, in case you wish to make any changes to the style rules.
Style rules that apply directly to the tag, as well as rules that are inherited from parent tags are shown.
The panel also shows you what the finally calculated styles for the tag are. Properties in the list that are superseded by
higher priority rules are shown with a line through them.
You can enable the Live CSS panel via View→Live CSS.
5.7. The Live CSS panel 83

5.8 Miscellaneous tools
There are a few more tools that can be useful while you edit the book.
5.8.1 The Table of Contents view
The Table of Contents view shows you the current table of contents in the book. Double clicking on any entry opens
the place that entry points to in an editor. You can right click to edit the Table of Contents, refresh the view or
expand/collapse all items. Access this view via View→Table of Contents.
5.8.2 Checking the spelling of words in the book
You can run a spelling checker via Tools→Check spelling.

Words are shown with the number of times they occur in the book and the language the word belongs to. Language
information is taken from the books metadata and from lang attributes in the HTML files. This allows the spell
checker to work well even with books that contain text in multiple languages. For example, in the following HTML
extract, the word color will be checked using American English and the word colour using British English:
<div lang="en_US">color <span lang="en_GB">colour</span></div>
Note: You can double click a word to highlight the next occurrence of that word in the editor. This is useful if you
wish to manually edit the word, or see what context it is in.
To change a word, simply double click one of the suggested alternative spellings on the right, or type in your own
corrected spelling and click the Change selected word to button. This will replace all occurrences of the word in the
book. You can also right click on a word in the main word list to change the word conveniently from the right click
5.8. Miscellaneous tools 85

menu.
You can have the spelling checker ignore a word for the current session by clicking the Ignore button. You can also
add a word to the user dictionary by clicking the Add to dictionary button. The spelling checker supports multiple user
dictionaries, so you can select the dictionary you want the word added to.
You can also have the spelling checker display all the words in your book, not just the incorrectly spelled ones. This is
useful to see what words are most common in your book and to run a simple search and replace on individual words.
Note: If you make any changes to the book by editing files while the spell check tool is open, you should click the
Refresh button in the Spell check tool. If you do not do this and continue to use the Spell check tool, you could lose
the changes you have made in the editor.
Adding new dictionaries
The spelling checker comes with builtin dictionaries for the English and Spanish languages. You can install your
own dictionaries via Preferences→Editor→Manage spelling dictionaries. The spell checker can use dictionaries from
the LibreOffice program (in the .oxt format). You can download these dictionaries from The LibreOffice Extensions
repository35 .
5.8.3 Inserting special characters
You can insert characters that are difficult to type by using the Edit→Insert special character tool. This shows you all
Unicode characters, simply click on the character you want to type. If you hold Ctrl while clicking, the window will
close itself after inserting the selected character. This tool can be used to insert special characters into the main text or
into any other area of the user interface, such as the Search and replace tool.
Because there are a lot of characters, you can define your own Favorite characters, that will be shown first. Simply
right click on a character to mark it as favorite. You can also right click on a character in favorites to remove it from
favorites. Finally, you can re-arrange the order of characters in favorites by clicking the Re-arrange favorites button
and then drag and dropping the characters in favorites around.
You can also directly type in special characters using the keyboard. To do this, you type the Unicode code for the
character (in hexadecimal) and then press the Alt+X key which will convert the previously typed code into the
corresponding character. For example, to type ß you would type ff and then Alt+X. To type a non-breaking space you
would use a0 and then Alt+X, to type the horizontal ellipsis you would use 2026 and Alt+X and so on.
Finally, you can type in special characters by using HTML named entities. For example, typing will be
replaced by a non breaking space when you type the semi-colon. The replacement happens only when typing the
semi-colon.
5.8.4 The code inspector view
This view shows you the HTML coding and CSS that applies to the current element of interest. You open it by right
clicking a location in the preview panel and choosing Inspect. It allows you to see the HTML coding for that element
and more importantly, the CSS styles that apply to it. You can even dynamically edit the styles and see what effect
your changes have instantly. Note that editing the styles does not actually make changes to the book contents, it only
allows for quick experimentation. The ability to live edit inside the Inspector is under development.
35 https://extensions.libreoffice.org/?Tags%5B%5D=50

5.8.5 Checking external links
You can use this tool to check all links in your book that point to external websites. The tool will try to visit every
externally linked website, and if the visit fails, it will report all broken links in a convenient format for you to fix.
5.8.6 Downloading external resources
You can use this tool to automatically download any images/stylesheets/etc. in the book that are not bundled with the
book (i.e. they have URLs pointing to a location on the internet). The tool will find all such resources and automatically
download them, add them to the book and replace all references to them to use the downloaded files.
5.8.7 Arranging files into folders by type
Often when editing EPUB files that you get from somewhere, you will find that the files inside the EPUB are arranged
haphazardly, in different sub-folders. This tool allows you to automatically move all files into sub-folders based on
their types. Access it via Tools→Arrange into folders. Note that this tool only changes how the files are arranged
inside the EPUB, it does not change how they are displayed in the File browser.
5.8.8 Importing files in other e-book formats as EPUB
The editor includes the ability to import files in some other e-book formats directly as a new EPUB, without going
through a full conversion. This is particularly useful to directly create EPUB files from your own hand-edited HTML
files. You can do this via File→Import an HTML or DOCX file as a new book.
Function mode for Search & replace in the Editor
The Search & replace tool in the editor support a function mode. In this mode, you can combine regular expressions
(see All about using regular expressions in calibre (page 191)) with arbitrarily powerful Python functions to do all
sorts of advanced text processing.
In the standard regexp mode for search and replace, you specify both a regular expression to search for as well as a
template that is used to replace all found matches. In function mode, instead of using a fixed template, you specify an
arbitrary function, in the Python programming language36 . This allows you to do lots of things that are not possible
with simple templates.
Techniques for using function mode and the syntax will be described by means of examples, showing you how to
create functions to perform progressively more complex tasks.
36 https://docs.python.org

Automatically fixing the case of headings in the document
Here, we will leverage one of the builtin functions in the editor to automatically change the case of all text inside
heading tags to title case:
Find expression: <([Hh][1-6])[^>]*>.+?</\1>
For the function, simply choose the Title-case text (ignore tags) builtin function. The will change titles that look like:
<h1>some TITLE</h1> to <h1>Some Title</h1>. It will work even if there are other HTML tags inside
the heading tags.
Your first custom function - smartening hyphens
The real power of function mode comes from being able to create your own functions to process text in arbitrary ways.
The Smarten Punctuation tool in the editor leaves individual hyphens alone, so you can use the this function to replace
them with em-dashes.
To create a new function, simply click the Create/edit button to create a new function and copy the Python code from
below.
def replace(match, number, file_name, metadata, dictionaries, data, functions, *args,

,→**kwargs):
return match.group().replace('--', '').replace('-', '')
Every Search & replace custom function must have a unique name and consist of a Python function named replace,
that accepts all the arguments shown above. For the moment, we wont worry about all the different arguments to
replace() function. Just focus on the match argument. It represents a match when running a search and replace.
Its full documentation in available here37 . match.group() simply returns all the matched text and all we do is
replace hyphens in that text with em-dashes, first replacing double hyphens and then single hyphens.
Use this function with the find regular expression:
>[^<>]+<
And it will replace all hyphens with em-dashes, but only in actual text and not inside HTML tag definitions.
The power of function mode - using a spelling dictionary to fix mis-hyphenated words
Often, e-books created from scans of printed books contain mis-hyphenated words – words that were split at the end
of the line on the printed page. We will write a simple function to automatically find and fix such words.
import regex
from calibre import replace_entities
from calibre import prepare_string_for_xml

,→**kwargs):
def replace_word(wmatch):
# Try to remove the hyphen and replace the words if the resulting
# hyphen free word is recognized by the dictionary
without_hyphen = wmatch.group(1) + wmatch.group(2)
37 https://docs.python.org/library/re.html#match-objects


if dictionaries.recognized(without_hyphen):
return without_hyphen
return wmatch.group()
# Search for words split by a hyphen

text = replace_entities(match.group()[1:-1]) # Handle HTML entities like &
corrected = regex.sub(r'(\w+)\s*-\s*(\w+)', replace_word, text, flags=regex.
,→VERSION1 | regex.UNICODE)
return '>%s<' % prepare_string_for_xml(corrected) # Put back required entities
Use this function with the same find expression as before, namely:
>[^<>]+<
And it will magically fix all mis-hyphenated words in the text of the book. The main trick is to use one of the useful
extra arguments to the replace function, dictionaries. This refers to the dictionaries the editor itself uses to spell
check text in the book. What this function does is look for words separated by a hyphen, remove the hyphen and
check if the dictionary recognizes the composite word, if it does, the original words are replaced by the hyphen free
composite word.
Note that one limitation of this technique is it will only work for mono-lingual books, because, by default,
dictionaries.recognized() uses the main language of the book.
Auto numbering sections
Now we will see something a little different. Suppose your HTML file has many sections, each with a heading in an
<h2> tag that looks like <h2>Some text</h2>. You can create a custom function that will automatically number
these headings with consecutive section numbers, so that they look like <h2>1. Some text</h2>.

,→**kwargs):
section_number = '%d. ' % number

return match.group(1) + section_number + match.group(2)
# Ensure that when running over multiple files, the files are processed
# in the order in which they appear in the book
replace.file_order = 'spine'
Use it with the find expression:
(?s)(<h2[^<>]*>)(.+?</h2>)
Place the cursor at the top of the file and click Replace all.
This function uses another of the useful extra arguments to replace(): the number argument. When doing a
Replace All number is automatically incremented for every successive match.
Another new feature is the use of replace.file_order – setting that to 'spine' means that if this search is
run on multiple HTML files, the files are processed in the order in which they appear in the book. See Choose file
order when running on multiple HTML files (page 93) for details.

Auto create a Table of Contents
Finally, lets try something a little more ambitious. Suppose your book has headings in h1 and h2 tags that look
like <h1 id="someid">Some Text</h1>. We will auto-generate an HTML Table of Contents based on these
headings. Create the custom function below:
from calibre import replace_entities

from calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc import TOC, toc_to_html
from calibre.gui2.tweak_book import current_container
from calibre.ebooks.oeb.base import xml2str

,→**kwargs):
if match is None:
# All matches found, output the resulting Table of Contents.
# The argument metadata is the metadata of the book being edited
if 'toc' in data:
toc = data['toc']
root = TOC()
for (file_name, tag_name, anchor, text) in toc:
parent = root.children[-1] if tag_name == 'h2' and root.children else
,→root
parent.add(text, file_name, anchor)

toc = toc_to_html(root, current_container(), 'toc.html', 'Table of
,→Contents for ' + metadata.title, metadata.language)
print (xml2str(toc))
else:
print ('No headings to build ToC from found')
else:
# Add an entry corresponding to this match to the Table of Contents
if 'toc' not in data:
# The entries are stored in the data object, which will persist
# for all invocations of this function during a 'Replace All' operation
data['toc'] = []
tag_name, anchor, text = match.group(1), replace_entities(match.group(2)),
,→replace_entities(match.group(3))
data['toc'].append((file_name, tag_name, anchor, text))

return match.group() # We don't want to make any actual changes, so return
,→the original matched text
# Ensure that we are called once after the last match is found so we can
# output the ToC
replace.call_after_last_match = True
# Ensure that when running over multiple files, this function is called,
# the files are processed in the order in which they appear in the book
And use it with the find expression:
<(h[12]) [^<>]* id=['"]([^'"]+)['"][^<>]*>([^<>]+)
Run the search on All text files and at the end of the search, a window will popup with Debug output from your function
which will have the HTML Table of Contents, ready to be pasted into toc.html.
The function above is heavily commented, so it should be easy to follow. The key new feature is the use of another
useful extra argument to the replace() function, the data object. The data object is a Python dict that persists
between all successive invocations of replace() during a single Replace All operation.

Another new feature is the use of call_after_last_match – setting that to True on the replace() function
means that the editor will call replace() one extra time after all matches have been found. For this extra call, the
match object will be None.
This was just a demonstration to show you the power of function mode, if you really needed to generate a Table of Con-
tents from headings in your book, you would be better off using the dedicated Table of Contents tool in Tools→Table
of Contents.
The API for the function mode
All function mode functions must be Python functions named replace, with the following signature:

,→**kwargs):
return a_string
When a find/replace is run, for every match that is found, the replace() function will be called, it must return the
replacement string for that match. If no replacements are to be done, it should return match.group() which is the
original string. The various arguments to the replace() function are documented below.
The match argument
The match argument represents the currently found match. It is a Python Match object38 . Its most useful method is
group() which can be used to get the matched text corresponding to individual capture groups in the search regular
expression.
The number argument
The number argument is the number of the current match. When you run Replace All, every successive match will
cause replace() to be called with an increasing number. The first match has number 1.
The file_name argument
This is the filename of the file in which the current match was found. When searching inside marked text, the
file_name is empty. The file_name is in canonical form, a path relative to the root of the book, using / as
the path separator.
The metadata argument
This represents the metadata of the current book, such as title, authors, language, etc. It is an object of class calibre.
ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata (page 187). Useful attributes include, title, authors (a list of
authors) and language (the language code).
38 https://docs.python.org/library/re.html#match-objects

The dictionaries argument
This represents the collection of dictionaries used for spell checking the current book. Its most useful method is
dictionaries.recognized(word) which will return True if the passed in word is recognized by the dictio-
nary for the current books language.
The data argument
This a simple Python dict. When you run Replace all, every successive match will cause replace() to be called
with the same dict as data. You can thus use it to store arbitrary data between invocations of replace() during a
Replace all operation.
The functions argument
The functions argument gives you access to all other user defined functions. This is useful for code re-use. You
can define utility functions in one place and re-use them in all your other functions. For example, suppose you create
a function name My Function like this:
def utility():
# do something

,→**kwargs):
...
Then, in another function, you can access the utility() function like this:

,→**kwargs):
utility = functions['My Function']['utility']

...
You can also use the functions object to store persistent data, that can be re-used by other functions. For example, you
could have one function that when run with Replace All collects some data and another function that uses it when it is
run afterwards. Consider the following two functions:
# Function One
persistent_data = {}

,→**kwargs):
...
persistent_data['something'] = 'some data'
# Function Two
,→**kwargs):
persistent_data = functions['Function One']['persistent_data']

...

Debugging your functions
You can debug the functions you create by using the standard print() function from Python. The output of print
will be displayed in a popup window after the Find/replace has completed. You saw an example of using print()
to output an entire table of contents above.
Choose file order when running on multiple HTML files
When you run a Replace all on multiple HTML files, the order in which the files are processes depends on what files
you have open for editing. You can force the search to process files in the order in which the appear by setting the
file_order attribute on your function, like this:

,→**kwargs):
...
file_order accepts two values, spine and spine-reverse which cause the search to process multiple files in
the order they appear in the book, either forwards or backwards, respectively.
Having your function called an extra time after the last match is found
Sometimes, as in the auto generate table of contents example above, it is useful to have your function called an extra
time after the last match is found. You can do this by setting the call_after_last_match attribute on your
function, like this:

,→**kwargs):
...
Appending the output from the function to marked text
When running search and replace on marked text, it is sometimes useful to append so text to the end of the marked
text. You can do that by setting the append_final_output_to_marked attribute on your function (note that
you also need to set call_after_last_match), like this:

,→**kwargs):
...
return 'some text to append'
replace.append_final_output_to_marked = True

Suppressing the result dialog when performing searches on marked text
You can also suppress the result dialog (which can slow down the repeated application of a search/replace on many
blocks of text) by setting the suppress_result_dialog attribute on your function, like this:

,→**kwargs):
...
replace.suppress_result_dialog = True
More examples
More useful examples, contributed by calibre users, can be found in the calibre E-book editor forum39 .
Snippets
The calibre E-book editor supports snippets. A snippet is a piece of text that is either re-used often or contains a lot
of redundant text. The editor allows you to insert a snippet with only a few key strokes. For example, suppose you
often find yourself inserting link tags when editing HTML files, then you can simply type <a in the editor and press
Control+J. The editor will expand it to:
<a href="filename"></a>
Not only that, the word filename will be selected, with the cursor placed over it, so that you can easily type in the
real filename, using the editors nifty Auto-complete (page 99) feature. And once you are done typing the filename,
press Control+J again and the cursor will jump to the position in between the <a> tags so you can easily type in
the text for the link.
The snippets system in the editor is very sophisticated, there are a few built-in snippets and you can create your own
to suit your editing style.
The following discussion of the built-in snippets should help illustrate the power of the snippets system.
Note: You can also use snippets in the text entry fields in the Search & replace panel, however, placeholders (using
Control+J to jump around) will not work.
The built-in snippets
The built-in snippets are described below. Note that you can override them by creating your own snippets with the
same trigger text.

Inserting filler text [Lorem]
The first built-in snippet, and the simplest is used to insert filler text into a document. The filler text is taken from De
finibus bonorum et malorum40 a philosophical work by Cicero (translated to English). To use it simply type Lorem
in an HTML file and press Control+J. It will be replaced by a couple of paragraphs of filler.
The definition of this snippet is very simple, the trigger text is defined as Lorem and the template is defined simply as
the literal text to be inserted. You can easily customize it to use your favorite form of filler text.
Inserting a self-closing HTML tag [<>]
Now lets look at a simple example of the powerful concept of placeholders. Say you want to insert the self-closing tag
<hr/>. Just type <>, and press Control+J, the editor will expand the snippet to:
<|/>
Here, the | symbol represents the current cursor position. You can then type hr and press Control+J to move the
cursor to after the end of the tag. This snippet is defined as:
Trigger: <>
Template: <$1/>$2
Placeholders are simply the dollar ($) sign followed by a number. When the snippet is expanded by pressing
Control+J the cursor is positioned at the first placeholder (the placeholder with the lowest number). When you
press Control+J again the cursor jumps to the next placeholder (the placeholder with the next higher number).
Inserting an HTML link tag [<a]
HTML link tags all share a common structure. They have an href attribute and some text between the opening and
closing tags. A snippet to make typing them more efficient will introduce us to some more features of placeholders.
To use this snippet, simply type <a and press Control+J. The editor will expand this to:
<a href="filename|"></a>
Not only that, the word filename will be selected, with the cursor placed over it, so that you can easily type in the
real filename, using the editors nifty Auto-complete (page 99) feature. And once you are done typing the filename,
press Control+J again and the cursor will jump to the position in between the <a> tags so you can easily type in
the text for the link. After you are done typing the text, press Control+J again to jump to the point after the closing
tag. This snippet is defined as:
Trigger: <a
Template: <a href="${1:filename}">${2*}</a>$3
There are a couple of new features here. First the $1 placeholder has become more complex. It now includes some
default text (the word filename). If a placeholder contains default text, the default text is substituted for the place-
holder when the snippet is expanded. Also when you jump to a placeholder with default text using Control+J, the
default text is selected. In this way, you can use default text to act as a reminder to you to fill in important parts of the
template. You can specify default text for a placeholder by using the syntax: ${<number>:default text}.
The other new feature is that the second placeholder has an asterisk after it (${2*}). This means that any text that
was selected before expanding the template is substituted for the placeholder. To see this in action, select some text in
the editor, press Control+J, type <a and press Control+J again, the template will be expanded to:
40 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_finibus_bonorum_et_malorum

<a href="filename">whatever text you selected</a>
Inserting a HTML image tag [<i]
This is very similar to inserting an HTML link, as we saw above. It allows you to quickly input an <img
src="filename" alt="description" /> tag and jump between the src and alt attributes:
Trigger: <i
Template: <img src="${1:filename}" alt="${2*:description}" />$3
Insert an arbitrary HTML tag [<<]
This allows you to insert an arbitrary full HTML tag (or wrap previously selected text in the tag). To use it, simply
type << and press Control+J. The editor will expand it to:
<|></>
Type the tag name, for example: span and press Control+J, that will result in:
<span>|</span>
You will note that the closing tag has been automatically filled with span. This is achieved with yet another feature
of placeholders, mirroring. Mirroring simply means that if you specify the sample placeholder more than once in a
template, the second and all later positions will be automatically filled in with whatever you type in the first position,
when you press Control+J. The definition for this snippet is:
Trigger: <<
Template: <$1>${2*}</$1>$3
As you can see, the first placeholder ($1) has been specified twice, the second time in the closing tag, which will
simply copy whatever you type in the opening tag.
Inserting an arbitrary HTML tag with a class attribute [<c]
This is very similar to the insert arbitrary tag example above, except that it assumes that you want to specify a class
for the tag:
Trigger: <c
Template: <$1 class="${2:classname}">${3*}</$1>$4
This will allow you to first type the tag name, press Control+J, type the class name, press Control+J type the
contents of the tag and press Control+J one last time to jump out of the tag. The closing tag will be auto-filled.

Creating your own snippets
Snippets really shine because you can create your own to suit your editing style. To create your own snippets go to
Edit→Preferences→Editor settings→Manage snippets in the editor. This will pop-up an easy to use dialog to help
you create your own snippets. Simply click the Add snippet button and you will see a dialog that looks like:
First give your snippet a name, something descriptive, to help identify the snippet in the future. Then specify the
trigger. A trigger is simply the text that you have to type in the editor before pressing Control+J in order to expand
the snippet.
Then specify the snippet template. You should start with one of the example above and modify it to suit your needs.
Finally, specify which file types you want the snippet to be active for. This way you can have multiple snippets with
the same trigger text that work differently in different file types.
The next step is to test your newly created snippet. Use the Test box at the bottom. Type in the trigger text and press
Control+J to expand the snippet and jump between placeholders.

5.8.9 The Reports tool
The editor includes a nice Reports tool (via Tools→Reports) that shows summaries of the files, images, links, words,
characters and styles used in the book. Every line in the report is hot-linked. Double clicking a line jumps to the place
in the book where that item is used or defined (as appropriate). For example, in the Links view, you can double click
entries the Source column to jump to where the link is defined and entries in the Target column to jump to where the
link points.
5.9 Special features in the code editor
The calibre HTML editor is very powerful. It has many features that make editing of HTML (and CSS) easier.
5.9.1 Syntax highlighting
The HTML editor has very sophisticated syntax highlighting. Features include:
• The text inside bold, italic and heading tags is made bold/italic
• As you move your cursor through the HTML, the matching HTML tags are highlighted, and you can jump to
the opening or closing tag with the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+{ and Ctrl+}. Similarly, you can select the
contents of a tag with Ctrl+Alt+T.
• Invalid HTML is highlighted with a red underline
• Spelling errors in the text inside HTML tags and attributes such as title are highlighted. The spell checking is
language aware, based on the value of the lang attribute of the current tag and the overall book language.
• CSS embedded inside <style> tags is highlighted
• Special characters that can be hard to distinguish such as non-breaking spaces, different types of hyphens, etc.
are highlighted.
• Links to other files in <a> tags, <img> and <link> tags all have the filenames highlighted. If the filename
they point to does not exist, the filename is marked with a red underline.

5.9.2 Context sensitive help
You can right click on an HTML tag name or a CSS property name to get help for that tag or property.
You can also hold down the Ctrl key and click on any filename inside a link tag to open that file in the editor
automatically. Similarly, Ctrl clicking a class name will take you to the first style rule that matches the tag and class.
Right clicking a class name in an HTML file will allow you to rename the class, changing all occurrences of the class
throughout the book and all its stylesheets.
5.9.3 Auto-complete
When editing an e-book, one of the most tedious tasks is creating links to other files inside the book, or to CSS
stylesheets, or images. You have to figure out the correct filename and relative path to the file. The editor has auto-
complete to make that easier.
As you type a filename, the editor automatically pops up suggestions. Simply use the Tab key to select the correct
file name. The editor even offers suggestions for links pointing to an anchor inside another HTML file. After you type
the # character, the editor will show you a list of all anchors in the target file, with a small snippet of text to help you
choose the right anchor.
Note that unlike most other completion systems, the editors completion system uses subsequence matching. This
means that you can type just two or three letters from anywhere in the filename to complete the filename. For example,
say you want the filename ../images/arrow1.png, you can simply type ia1 and press Tab to complete the
filename. When searching for matches, the completion system prioritizes letters that are at the start of a word, or
immediately after a path separator. Once you get used to this system, you will find it saves you a lot of time and effort.
5.9.4 Snippets
The calibre E-book editor supports snippets. A snippet is a piece of text that is either re-used often or contains a lot of
redundant text. The editor allows you to insert a snippet with only a few key strokes. The snippets are very powerful,
with many features, such as placeholders you can jump between, automatic mirroring of repeated text and so on. For
more information, see Snippets (page 94).
5.9. Special features in the code editor 99


CHAPTER
SIX
THE CALIBRE CONTENT SERVER
The calibre Content server allows you to access your calibre libraries and read books directly in a browser on your
favorite mobile phone or tablet device. As a result, you do not need to install any dedicated book reading/management
apps on your phone. Just use the browser. The server downloads and stores the book you are reading in an off-line
cache so that you can read it even when there is no internet connection.
Contents
• Accessing the Content server from other devices (page 102)

– Accessing the server from devices on your home network (page 102)
– Accessing the server from anywhere on the internet (page 103)
• The server interface (page 103)
– The book list (page 103)
– The book reader (page 104)
• Browser support (page 104)
• Enabling offline support (page 104)
• Managing user accounts from the command-line only (page 104)
• Integrating the calibre Content server into other servers (page 105)
– Using a full virtual host (page 105)
– Using a URL prefix (page 105)
• Creating a service for the calibre server on a modern Linux system (page 106)
To start the server, click the Connect/share button and choose Start Content server. You might get a message from
your computers firewall or anti-virus program asking if it is OK to allow access to calibre.exe. Click the Allow
or OK button. Then open a browser (preferably Chrome or Firefox) in your computer and type in the following address:
http://127.0.0.1:8080
This will open a page in the browser showing you your calibre libraries, click on any one and browse the books in it.
Click on a book, and it will show you all the metadata about the book, along with buttons to Read book and Download
book. Click the Read book button to start reading the book.
Note: The address used above http://127.0.0.1:8080 will only work on the computer that is running calibre.
To access the server from other computers/phones/tablets/etc. you will need to do a little more work, as described in
101
the next section.
6.1 Accessing the Content server from other devices
There are two types of remote device access that you will typically need. The first, simpler kind is from within your
home network. If you are running calibre on a computer on your home network and you have also connected your
other devices to the same home network, then you should be easily able to access the server on those devices.
6.1.1 Accessing the server from devices on your home network
After starting the server in calibre as described above, click the Connect/share button again. Instead of the Start
Content server action, you should see a Stop Content server action instead. To the right of this action will be listed an
IP address and port number. These look like a bunch of numbers separated by periods. For example:
Stop Content server [192.168.1.5, port 8080]
These numbers tell you what address to use to connect to the server in your devices. Following the example above, the
address becomes:
http://192.168.1.5:8080
The first part of the address is always http:// the next part is the IP address, which is the numbers before the
comma and finally we have the port number which must be added to the IP address with a colon (:). If you are lucky,
that should be all you need and you will be looking at the calibre libraries on your device. If not, read on.
Trouble-shooting the home network connection
If you are unable to access the server from your device, try the following steps:
1. Check that the server is running by opening the address http://127.0.0.1:8080 in a browser running on
the same computer as the server.
2. Check that your firewall/anti-virus is allowing connections to your computer on the port 8080 and to the calibre
program. The easiest way to eliminate the firewall/anti-virus as the source of problems is to temporarily turn
them both off and then try connecting. You should first disconnect from the internet, before turning off the
firewall, to keep your computer safe.
3. Check that your device and computer are on the same network. This means they should both be connected to the
same wireless router. In particular neither should be using a cellular or ISP provided direct-WiFi connection.
4. If you have non-standard networking setup, it might be that the IP address shown on the Connect/share menu is
incorrect. In such a case you will have to figure out what the correct IP address to use is, yourself. Unfortunately,
given the infinite diversity of network configurations possible, it is not possible to give you a roadmap for doing
so.
5. If you have setup a username and password, first try it without that to see if it is causing issues. Some e-
ink devices have browsers that do not handle authentication. You can sometimes workaround this by includ-
ing the username and password in the URL, for example: http://username:[email protected].
2:8080.
6. If you are stuck, you can always ask for help in the calibre user forums41 .
102 Chapter 6. The calibre Content server

6.1.2 Accessing the server from anywhere on the internet
Warning: Before doing this you should turn on username/password protection in the server, otherwise anyone
in the world will be able to access your books. Go to Preferences→Sharing→Sharing over the net and enable the
option to Require username and password to access the content server.
While the particular details on setting up internet access vary depending on the network configuration and type of
computer you are using, the basic schema is as follows.
1. Find out the external IP address of the computer you are going to run the server on. You can do that by visiting
the site What is my IP address42 in a browser running on the computer.
2. If the computer is behind a router, enable port forwarding on the router to forward the port 8080 (or whatever
port you choose to run the calibre Content server on) to the computer.
3. Make sure the calibre server is allowed through any firewalls/anti-virus programs on your computer.
4. Now you should be able to access the server on any internet-connected device using the IP address you found in
the first step. For example, if the IP address you found was 123.123.123.123 and the port you are using for
the calibre server is 8080, the address to use on your device becomes: http://123.123.123.123:8080.
5. Optionally, use a service like no-ip43 to setup an easy to remember address to use instead of the IP address you
found in the first step.
Note: For maximum security, you should also enable HTTPS on the content server. You can either do so directly in
the server by providing the path to the HTTPS certificate to use in the advanced configuration options for the server,
or you can setup a reverse proxy as described below, to use an existing HTTPS setup.
6.2 The server interface
The server interface is a simplified version of the main calibre interface, optimised for use with touch screens. The
home screen shows you books you are currently reading as well as allowing to choose a calibre library you want to
browse. The server in calibre gives you access to all your libraries, not just a single one, as before.
6.2.1 The book list
The server book list is a simple grid of covers. Tap on a cover to see the detailed metadata for a book, or to read the
book. If you prefer a more detailed list, you can change the default view by clicking the three vertical dots in the top
right corner.
Sorting and searching of the book list should be familiar to calibre users. They can be accessed by clicking their icons
in the top right area. They both work exactly the same as in the main calibre program. The search page even allows
you to construct search queries by clicking on authors/tags/etc., just as you can using the Tag browser in the main
program.
A much loved feature of the main program, Virtual libraries is present in the server interface as well. Click the three
vertical dots in the top right corner to choose a Virtual library.
42 https://www.whatismyip.com/
43 https://www.noip.com/free
6.2. The server interface 103

6.2.2 The book reader
You can read any book in your calibre library by simply tapping on it and then tapping the Read book button. The
books reader is very simple to operate. You can both tap and swipe to turn pages. Swiping up/down skips between
chapters. Tapping the top quarter of the screen gets you the detailed controls and viewer preferences.
If you leave the Content server running, you can even open the same book on multiple devices and it will remember
your last read position. If it does not you can force a sync by tapping in the top quarter and choosing Sync.
6.3 Browser support
The new calibre server makes lots of use of advanced HTML 5 and CSS 3 features. As such it requires an up-to-date
browser to use. It has been tested on Android Chrome and iOS Safari as well as Chrome and Firefox on the desktop.
The server is careful to use functionality that has either been already standardised or is on the standards track. As such
if it does not currently work with your favorite browser, it probably will once that browser has caught up.
If you are using a particularly old or limited browser or you dont like to run JavaScript, you can use the mobile view,
by simply adding /mobile to the the server address.
Note: On iOS, Apple allows only a single browser engine, so Firefox, Chrome and Safari are all actually the same
browser under the hood. The new server interface requires iOS 10.3.2 or newer. On Android, the server has been
tested with Chrome version 58 and newer.
6.4 Enabling offline support
Browser makers have been trying to force people to use SSL by disabling advanced features in their browsers for plain
HTTP connections. One such casualty is offline support. So you may need to enable HTTPS on the server to get
offline support working. In addition, in Firefox on Android, you will need to type about:config and search for
browser.tabs.useCache and toggle it to true.
6.5 Managing user accounts from the command-line only
The calibre program has a nice section in Preferences to allow you to manage user accounts for the server. However,
if you want to run the standalone server and cannot run the main calibre program on the same computer/user account,
you can also manage users using just the command-line.
You can manage user accounts using the --manage-users option to the standalone calibre-server program.
Suppose you want to store the user database in the folder /srv/calibre, then you create it by running:
calibre-server --userdb /srv/calibre/users.sqlite --manage-users
Just follow the prompts to create user accounts, set their permission, etc. Once you are done, you can run the server
as:
calibre-server --userdb /srv/calibre/users.sqlite --enable-auth
It will use the user accounts you created in the previous step.

6.6 Integrating the calibre Content server into other servers
Here, we will show you how to integrate the calibre Content server into another server. The most common reason for
this is to make use of SSL or to serve the calibre library as part of a larger site. The basic technique is to run the calibre
server and setup a reverse proxy to it from the main server.
A reverse proxy is when your normal server accepts incoming requests and passes them onto the calibre server. It then
reads the response from the calibre server and forwards it to the client. This means that you can simply run the calibre
server as normal without trying to integrate it closely with your main server.
6.6.1 Using a full virtual host
The simplest configuration is to dedicate a full virtual host to the calibre server. In this case, run the calibre server as:
calibre-server
Now setup the virtual host in your main server, for example, for nginx:
http {
client_max_body_size 64M; # needed to upload large books
}
server {
listen [::]:80;
server_name myserver.example.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
}
}
Or, for Apache:
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName myserver.example.com
AllowEncodedSlashes On
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass "/" "http://localhost:8080/"
</VirtualHost>
6.6.2 Using a URL prefix
If you do not want to dedicate a full virtual host to calibre, you can have it use a URL prefix. Start the calibre server
as:
calibre-server --url-prefix /calibre --port 8080
The key parameter here is --url-prefix /calibre. This causes the Content server to serve all URLs prefixed
by /calibre. To see this in action, visit http://localhost:8080/calibre in your browser. You should
see the normal Content server website, but now it will run under /calibre.
With nginx, the required configuration is:
6.6. Integrating the calibre Content server into other servers 105
http {
client_max_body_size 64M; # needed to upload large books
}
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;

location /calibre/ {
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$request_uri;
}
location /calibre {
# we need a trailing slash for the Application Cache to work
rewrite /calibre /calibre/ permanent;
}
For Apache, first enable the proxy modules in Apache, by adding the following to httpd.conf:
LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
The exact technique for enabling the proxy modules will vary depending on your Apache installation. Once you have
the proxy modules enabled, add the following rules to httpd.conf (or if you are using virtual hosts to the conf file
for the virtual host in question):
AllowEncodedSlashes On
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/calibre/(.*) http://127.0.0.1:8080/calibre/$1 [proxy]
RedirectMatch permanent ^/calibre$ /calibre/
Thats all, you will now be able to access the calibre Content server under the /calibre URL in your main server.
The above rules pass all requests under /calibre to the calibre server running on port 8080 and thanks to the
--url-prefix option above, the calibre server handles them transparently.
Note: When using a reverse proxy, you should tell the calibre Content server to only listen on localhost, by using
--listen-on 127.0.0.1. That way, the server will only listen for connections coming from the same computer,
i.e. from the reverse proxy.
Note: If you have setup SSL for your main server, you should tell the calibre server to use basic authentication instead
of digest authentication, as it is faster. To do so, pass the --auth-mode=basic option to calibre-server.
6.7 Creating a service for the calibre server on a modern Linux sys-
tem
You can easily create a service to run calibre at boot on a modern (systemd44 ) based Linux system. Just create the file
/etc/systemd/system/calibre-server.service with the contents shown below:
[Unit]
Description=calibre content server
After=network.target
44 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/

[Service]
Type=simple
User=mylinuxuser
Group=mylinuxgroup
ExecStart=/opt/calibre/calibre-server "/path/to/calibre library folder"
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Change mylinuxuser and mylinuxgroup to whatever user and group you want the server to run as. This should
be the same user and group that own the files in the calibre library folder. Note that it is generally not a good idea to
run the server as root. Also change the path to the calibre library folder to suit your system. You can add multiple
libraries if needed. See the help for the calibre-server command.
Now run:
sudo systemctl start calibre-server
to start the server. Check its status with:
sudo systemctl status calibre-server
To make it start at boot, run:
sudo systemctl enable calibre-server
Note: The calibre server does not need a running X server, but it does need the X libraries installed as some compo-
nents it uses link against them.
Note: The calibre server also supports systemd socket activation, so you can use that, if needed, as well.
6.7. Creating a service for the calibre server on a modern Linux system 107

CHAPTER
SEVEN
COMPARING E-BOOKS
calibre includes an integrated e-book comparison tool that can be used to see what has changed inside an e-book after
editing or converting it. It can compare books in the EPUB and AZW3 formats.
To use it, either open the e-book in the tool for Editing e-books (page 67) and then click File→Compare to other book
or use the Book details (page 16) panel. If you do a conversion from EPUB to EPUB, the original EPUB file will be
saved as ORIGINAL_EPUB. Simply right click on the ORIGINAL_EPUB entry in the Book details panel and choose
Compare to EPUB format.
The comparison tool that opens will look like the screenshot below. It shows you the differences in text, styles and
images in the chosen books.
109
7.1 Understanding the comparison view
As can be seen in the screenshot above, the comparison view shows the differences between the two books side by
side. Only the differences, with a few lines of context around them are shown. This makes it easy to see at a glance
only what was changed inside a large document like a book.
Added text is shown with a green background, removed text with a red background and changed text with a blue
background.
The line numbers of all changed text are show at the sides, making it easy to go to a particular change in the editor.
When you open the comparison tool from within the editor, you can also double click on a line in the right panel to go
to that line in the editor automatically.
One useful technique when comparing books is to tell the comparison tool to beautify the text and style files before
calculating differences. This can often result in cleaner and easier to follow differences. To do this, click the Options
110 Chapter 7. Comparing e-books

button in the bottom right and choose Beautify files before comparing. Note that beautifying can sometimes have
undesired effects, as it can cause invalid markup to be altered to make it valid. You can also change the number of
lines of context shown around differences via the Options button.
You can search for any text in the differences via the Search bar at the bottom. You will need to specify which panel
to search, the Left or the Right.
7.2 Launching the comparison tool
The comparison tool is most useful when you have two versions of the same book and you want to see what is different
between them. To that end, there are several ways to launch the tool.
7.2.1 Comparing two e-book files
Open the first file in the Editing e-books (page 67) tool. Now click File→Compare to another book and choose the
second file (it must be in the same format as the first). The comparison view will open with the file being edited on the
right and the second file on the left.
7.2.2 Comparing the ORIGINAL_FMT to FMT
When you do a conversion in calibre from a FMT to itself, the original file is saved as ORIGINAL_FMT. You can see
what was changed by the conversion, by right clicking on the ORIGINAL_FMT entry in the Book details (page 16)
panel in the main calibre window and selecting Compare to FMT. The comparison view will open with ORIGI-
NAL_FMT on the left and FMT on the right.
7.2.3 Comparing a checkpoint to the current state of the book while editing
The Editing e-books (page 67) tool has a very useful feature, called Checkpoints (page 79). This allows you to save
the current state of the book as a named checkpoint, to which you can revert if you do not like the changes you have
made since creating the checkpoint. Checkpoints are also created automatically when you perform various automated
actions in the editor. You can see the list of checkpoints by going to View→Checkpoints and then use the Compare
button to compare the book at the selected checkpoint with the current state. The comparison tool will show the
checkpoint on the left and the current state on the right.
7.2. Launching the comparison tool 111

112 Chapter 7. Comparing e-books

CHAPTER
EIGHT
EDITING E-BOOK METADATA
Contents
• Editing the metadata of one book at a time (page 113)

– Downloading metadata (page 114)
– Managing book formats (page 114)
– All about covers (page 114)
• Editing the metadata of many books at a time (page 114)
– Search and replace (page 114)
– Bulk downloading of metadata (page 115)
E-books come in all shapes and sizes and more often than not, their metadata (things like title/author/series/publisher)
is incomplete or incorrect. The simplest way to change metadata in calibre is to simply double click on an entry and
type in the correct replacement. For more sophisticated, power editing use the edit metadata tools discussed below.
8.1 Editing the metadata of one book at a time
Click the book you want to edit and then click the Edit metadata button or press the E key. A dialog opens that allows
you to edit all aspects of the metadata. It has various features to make editing faster and more efficient. A list of the
commonly used tips:
• You can click the button in between title and authors to swap them automatically.
• You can click the button next to author sort to have calibre automatically fill it in using the sort values stored
with each author. Use the Manage authors dialog to see and change the authors sort values. This dialog can be
opened by clicking and holding the button next to author sort.
• You can click the button next to tags to use the Tag editor to manage the tags associated with the book.
• The Ids box can be used to enter an ISBN (and many other types of id), it will have a red background if you
enter an invalid ISBN. It will be green for valid ISBNs.
• The author sort box will be red if the author sort value differs from what calibre thinks it should be.
113
8.1.1 Downloading metadata
The nicest feature of the edit metadata dialog is its ability to automatically fill in many metadata fields by getting
metadata from various websites. Currently, calibre uses isbndb.com, Google Books, Amazon and Library Thing. The
metadata download can fill in Title, author, series, tags, rating, description and ISBN for you.
To use the download, fill in the title and author fields and click the Fetch metadata button. calibre will present you
with a list of books that most closely match the title and author. If you fill in the ISBN field first, it will be used in
preference to the title and author. If no matches are found, try making your search a little less specific by including
only some key words in the title and only the author last name.
8.1.2 Managing book formats
In calibre, a single book entry can have many different formats associated with it. For example you may have obtained
the Complete Works of Shakespeare in EPUB format and later converted it to MOBI to read on your Kindle. calibre
automatically manages multiple formats for you. In the Available formats section of the Edit metadata dialog, you can
manage these formats. You can add a new format, delete an existing format and also ask calibre to set the metadata
and cover for the book entry from the metadata in one of the formats.
8.1.3 All about covers
You can ask calibre to download book covers for you, provided the book has a known ISBN. Alternatively you can
specify a file on your computer to use as the cover. calibre can even generate a default cover with basic metadata on it
for you. You can drag and drop images onto the cover to change it and also right click to copy/paste cover images.
In addition, there is a button to automatically trim borders from the cover, in case your cover image has an ugly border.
8.2 Editing the metadata of many books at a time
First select the books you want to edit by holding Ctrl or Shift and clicking on them. If you select more than
one book, clicking the Edit metadata button will cause the Bulk metadata edit dialog to open. Using this dialog, you
can quickly set the author/publisher/rating/tags/series etc of a bunch of books to the same value. This is particularly
useful if you have just imported a number of books that have some metadata in common. This dialog is very powerful,
for example, it has a Search and replace tab that you can use to perform bulk operations on metadata and even copy
metadata from one column to another.
The normal edit metadata dialog also has Next and Previous buttons that you can use to edit the metadata of several
books one after the other.
8.2.1 Search and replace
The Bulk metadata edit dialog allows you to perform arbitrarily powerful search and replace operations on the selected
books. By default it uses a simple text search and replace, but it also support regular expressions. For more on regular
expressions, see All about using regular expressions in calibre (page 191).
As noted above, there are two search and replace modes: character match and regular expression. Character match
will look in the Search field you choose for the characters you type in the search for box and replace those characters
with what you type in the replace with box. Each occurrence of the search characters in the field will be replaced. For
example, assume the field being searched contains a bad cat. If you search for a to be replaced with HELLO, then the
result will be HELLO bHELLOd cHELLOt.
114 Chapter 8. Editing e-book metadata

If the field you are searching on is a multiple field like tags, then each tag is treated separately. For example, if your
tags contain Horror, Scary, the search expression r, will not match anything because the expression will first be applied
to Horror and then to Scary.
If you want the search to ignore upper/lowercase differences, uncheck the Case sensitive box.
You can have calibre change the case of the result (information after the replace has happened) by choosing one of the
functions from the Apply function after replace box. The operations available are:
• Lower case – change all the characters in the field to lower case
• Upper case – change all the characters in the field to upper case
• Title case – capitalize each word in the result.
The Your test box is provided for you to enter text to check that search/replace is doing what you want. In the majority
of cases the book test boxes will be sufficient, but it is possible that there is a case you want to check that isnt shown
in these boxes. Enter that case into Your test.
Regular expression mode has some differences from character mode, beyond (of course) using regular expressions.
The first is that functions are applied to the parts of the string matched by the search string, not the entire field. The
second is that functions apply to the replacement string, not to the entire field.
The third and most important is that the replace string can make reference to parts of the search string by using
backreferences. A backreference is \\n where n is an integer that refers to the nth parenthesized group in the search
expression. For example, given the same example as above, a bad cat, a search expression a () (), and a replace
expression a \2 \1, the result will be a cat bad. Please see the All about using regular expressions in calibre (page 191)
for more information on backreferences.
One useful pattern: assume you want to change the case of an entire field. The easiest way to do this is to use character
mode, but lets further assume you want to use regular expression mode. The search expression should be (.*) the
replace expression should be \1, and the desired case change function should be selected.
Finally, in regular expression mode you can copy values from one field to another. Simply make the source and
destination field different. The copy can replace the destination field, prepend to the field (add to the front), or append
to the field (add at the end). The use comma checkbox tells calibre to (or not to) add a comma between the text and
the destination field in prepend and append modes. If the destination is multiple (e.g., tags), then you cannot uncheck
this box.
Search and replace is done after all the other metadata changes in the other tabs are applied. This can lead to some
confusion, because the test boxes will show the information before the other changes, but the operation will be applied
after the other changes. If you have any doubts about what is going to happen, do not mix search/replace with other
changes.
8.2.2 Bulk downloading of metadata
If you want to download the metadata for multiple books at once, right-click the Edit metadata button and select
Download metadata. You can choose to download only metadata, only covers, or both.
8.2. Editing the metadata of many books at a time 115

116 Chapter 8. Editing e-book metadata

CHAPTER
NINE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Contents
• E-book format conversion (page 117)

• Device integration (page 121)
• Library management (page 127)
• Miscellaneous (page 132)
9.1 E-book format conversion
Contents
• What formats does calibre support conversion to/from? (page 118)

• What are the best source formats to convert? (page 118)
• I converted a PDF file, but the result has various problems? (page 118)
• How do I convert my file containing non-English characters, or smart quotes? (page 118)
• Whats the deal with Table of Contents in MOBI files? (page 119)
• The covers for my MOBI files have stopped showing up in Kindle for PC/Kindle for Android/iPad etc.
(page 119)
• How do I convert a collection of HTML files in a specific order? (page 120)
• The EPUB I produced with calibre is not valid? (page 120)
• How do I use some of the advanced features of the conversion tools? (page 121)
117
9.1.1 What formats does calibre support conversion to/from?
calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert every input format in the
following list, to every output format.
Input Formats: AZW, AZW3, AZW4, CBZ, CBR, CB7, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, FBZ, HTML,
HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ
Output Formats: AZW3, EPUB, DOCX, FB2, HTMLZ, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PMLZ, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB,
TCR, TXT, TXTZ, ZIP
Note: PRC is a generic format, calibre supports PRC files with TextRead and MOBIBook headers. PDB is also a
generic format. calibre supports eReader, Plucker (input only), PML and zTxt PDB files. DJVU support is only for
converting DJVU files that contain embedded text. These are typically generated by OCR software. MOBI books can
be of two types Mobi6 and KF8. calibre fully supports both. MOBI files often have .azw or .azw3 file extensions.
DOCX files from Microsoft Word 2007 and newer are supported.
9.1.2 What are the best source formats to convert?
In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, AZW, EPUB, AZW3, FB2, FBZ, DOCX, HTML, PRC, ODT, RTF,
PDB, TXT, PDF
9.1.3 I converted a PDF file, but the result has various problems?
PDF is a terrible format to convert from. For a list of the various issues you will encounter when converting PDF, see:
Convert PDF documents (page 63).
9.1.4 How do I convert my file containing non-English characters, or smart quotes?
There are two aspects to this problem:

1. Knowing the encoding of the source file: calibre tries to guess what character encoding your source files
use, but often, this is impossible, so you need to tell it what encoding to use. This can be done in the
GUI via the Input character encoding field in the Look & feel→Text section of the conversion dialog.
The command-line tools have an ebook-convert-txt-input --input-encoding (page 307)
option.
2. When adding HTML files to calibre, you may need to tell calibre what encoding the files are in. To do
this go to Preferences→Advanced→Plugins→File type and customize the HTML to ZIP plugin, telling it
what encoding your HTML files are in. Now when you add HTML files to calibre they will be correctly
processed. HTML files from different sources often have different encodings, so you may have to change
this setting repeatedly. A common encoding for many files from the web is cp1252 and I would suggest
you try that first. Note that when converting HTML files, leave the input encoding setting mentioned
above blank. This is because the HTML to ZIP plugin automatically converts the HTML files to a standard
encoding (UTF-8).
118 Chapter 9. Frequently Asked Questions

9.1.5 Whats the deal with Table of Contents in MOBI files?
The first thing to realize is that most e-books have two tables of contents. One is the traditional Table of Contents, like
the ToC you find in paper books. This Table of Contents is part of the main document flow and can be styled however
you like. This ToC is called the content ToC.
Then there is the metadata ToC. A metadata ToC is a ToC that is not part of the book text and is typically accessed by
some special button on a reader. For example, in the calibre E-book viewer, you use the Show Table of Contents button
to see this ToC. This ToC cannot be styled by the book creator. How it is represented is up to the viewer program.
In the MOBI format, the situation is a little confused. This is because the MOBI format, alone amongst mainstream
e-book formats, does not have decent support for a metadata ToC. A MOBI book simulates the presence of a metadata
ToC by putting an extra content ToC at the end of the book. When you click Goto Table of Contents on your Kindle,
it is to this extra content ToC that the Kindle takes you.
Now it might well seem to you that the MOBI book has two identical ToCs. Remember that one is semantically a
content ToC and the other is a metadata ToC, even though both might have exactly the same entries and look the same.
One can be accessed directly from the Kindles menus, the other cannot.
When converting to MOBI, calibre detects the metadata ToC in the input document and generates an end-of-file ToC
in the output MOBI file. You can turn this off by an option in the MOBI Output settings. You can also tell calibre
whether to put it at the start or the end of the book via an option in the MOBI Output settings. Remember this ToC is
semantically a metadata ToC, in any format other than MOBI it cannot not be part of the text. The fact that it is part
of the text in MOBI is an accident caused by the limitations of MOBI. If you want a ToC at a particular location in
your document text, create one by hand. So we strongly recommend that you leave the default as it is, i.e. with the
metadata ToC at the end of the book. Also note that if you disable the generation of the end-of-file ToC the resulting
MOBI file may not function correctly on a Kindle, since the Kindles use the metadata ToC for many things, including
the Page Flip feature.
If you have a hand edited ToC in the input document, you can use the ToC detection options in calibre to automatically
generate the metadata ToC from it. See the conversion section of the User Manual for more details on how to use these
options.
Finally, I encourage you to ditch the content ToC and only have a metadata ToC in your e-books. Metadata ToCs will
give the people reading your e-books a much superior navigation experience (except on the Kindle, where they are
essentially the same as a content ToC).
Note: The newer AZW3 format has proper support for a metadata ToC. However, the Kindle firmware tends to
malfunction if you disable the generation of the end-of-file inline ToC. So it is recommended that you leave the
generated ToC alone. If you create an AZW3 file with a metadata ToC and no end-of-file generated ToC, some
features on the Kindle will not work, such as the Page Flip feature.
9.1.6 The covers for my MOBI files have stopped showing up in Kindle for
PC/Kindle for Android/iPad etc.
This is caused by a bug in the Amazon software. You can work around it by going to
Preferences→Conversion→Output Options→MOBI output and setting the Enable sharing of book content op-
tion. If you are reconverting a previously converted book, you will also have to enable the option in the conversion
dialog for that individual book (as per book conversion settings are saved and take precedence).
Note that doing this will mean that the generated MOBI will show up under personal documents instead of Books on
the Kindle Fire and Amazon whispersync will not work, but the covers will. Its your choice which functionality is
more important to you. I encourage you to contact Amazon and ask them to fix this bug.
9.1. E-book format conversion 119

The bug in Amazons software is that when you put a MOBI file on a Kindle, unless the file is marked as a Personal
document, Amazon assumes you bought the book from it and tries to download the cover thumbnail for it from its
servers. When the download fails, it refuses to fallback to the cover defined in the MOBI file. This is likely deliberate
on Amazons part to try to force authors to sell only through them. In other words, the Kindle only displays covers for
books marked as Personal Documents or books bought directly from Amazon.
If you send a MOBI file to an e-ink Kindle with calibre using a USB connection, calibre works around this Amazon
bug by uploading a cover thumbnail itself. However, that workaround is only possible when using a USB connection
and sending with calibre. Note that if you send using email, Amazon will automatically mark the MOBI file as a
Personal Document and the cover will work, but the book will show up in Personal Documents.
9.1.7 How do I convert a collection of HTML files in a specific order?
In order to convert a collection of HTML files in a specific order, you have to create a table of contents file. That is,
another HTML file that contains links to all the other files in the desired order. Such a file looks like:
<html>
<body>
<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
<p style="text-indent:0pt">
<a href="file1.html">First File</a><br/>
<a href="file2.html">Second File</a><br/>
.
.
.
</p>
</body>
</html>
Then, just add this HTML file to the GUI and use the Convert button to create your e-book. You can use the option in
the Table of Contents section in the conversion dialog to control how the Table of Contents is generated.
Note: By default, when adding HTML files, calibre follows links in the files in depth first order. This means that if
file A.html links to B.html and C.html and D.html, but B.html also links to D.html, then the files will be in the order
A.html, B.html, D.html, C.html. If instead you want the order to be A.html, B.html, C.html, D.html then you must tell
calibre to add your files in breadth first order. Do this by going to Preferences→Advanced→Plugins→File type and
customizing the HTML to ZIP plugin.
9.1.8 The EPUB I produced with calibre is not valid?
calibre does not guarantee that an EPUB produced by it is valid. The only guarantee it makes is that if you feed it
valid XHTML 1.1 + CSS 2.1 it will output a valid EPUB. calibre tries hard to ensure that EPUBs it produces actually
work as intended on a wide variety of devices, a goal that is incompatible with producing valid EPUBs, and one that
is far more important to the vast majority of its users. If you need a tool that always produces valid EPUBs, calibre
is not for you. This means, that if you want to send a calibre produced EPUB to an online store that uses an EPUB
validity checker, you have to make sure that the EPUB is valid yourself, calibre will not do it for you – in other words
you must feed calibre valid XHTML + CSS as the input documents.

9.1.9 How do I use some of the advanced features of the conversion tools?
You can get help on any individual feature of the converters by mousing over it in the GUI or running
ebook-convert dummy.html .epub -h at a terminal. A good place to start is to look at the following demo
file that demonstrates some of the advanced features html-demo.zip45
9.2 Device integration
Contents
• What devices does calibre support? (page 121)

• How can I help get my device supported in calibre? (page 121)
• My device is not being detected by calibre? (page 122)
• My device is non-standard or unusual. What can I do to connect to it? (page 122)
• How do I use calibre with my iPad/iPhone/iPod touch? (page 123)
• How do I use calibre with my Android phone/tablet or Kindle Fire HD? (page 123)
• Can I access my calibre books using the web browser in my Kindle or other reading device? (page 125)
• I cannot send emails using calibre? (page 125)
• My device is getting mounted read-only in Linux, so calibre cannot connect to it? (page 126)
• Why does calibre not support collections on the Kindle or shelves on the Nook? (page 126)
• I am getting an error when I try to use calibre with my Kobo Touch/Glo/etc.? (page 126)
• Covers for books I send to my e-ink Kindle show up momentarily and then are replaced by a generic cover?
(page 127)
• I transferred some books to my Kindle using calibre and they did not show up? (page 127)
9.2.1 What devices does calibre support?
calibre can directly connect to all the major (and most of the minor) e-book reading devices, smartphones, tablets, etc.
In addition, using the Connect to folder function you can use it with any e-book reader that exports itself as a USB
disk. Finally, you can connect wirelessly to any device that has a web browser using the calibre Content server.
9.2.2 How can I help get my device supported in calibre?
If your device appears as a USB disk to the operating system, adding support for it to calibre is very easy. We just
need some information from you:
• Complete list of e-book formats that your device supports.
• Is there a special folder on the device in which all e-book files should be placed? Also does the device detect
files placed in sub-folders?
45 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/html-demo.zip
9.2. Device integration 121

• We also need information about your device that calibre will collect automatically. First, if your device supports
SD cards, insert them. Then connect your device to the computer. In calibre go to Preferences→Miscellaneous
and click the Debug device detection button. This will create some debug output. Copy it to a file and repeat the
process, this time with your device disconnected from your computer.
• Send both the above outputs to us with the other information and we will write a device driver for your device.
Once you send us the output for a particular operating system, support for the device in that operating system will
appear in the next release of calibre. To send us the output, open a bug report and attach the output to it. See calibre
bugs46 .
9.2.3 My device is not being detected by calibre?
Follow these steps to find the problem:

• Make sure that you are connecting only a single device to your computer at a time. Do not have another calibre
supported device like an iPhone/iPad etc. at the same time.
• If you are connecting an Apple iDevice (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone), Apple no longer allows third party software
to connect to their devices using a USB cable. Instead use a wireless connection, via the calibre Content server.
• If you are connecting a Kindle Fire HD or other Android device, read the note under Using a USB cable
(page 124).
• On macOS if you get permission errors when connecting a device to calibre, you can fix that by looking under
System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Files and Folders.
• Make sure you are running the latest version of calibre (currently 5.14.0). The latest version can always be
downloaded from the calibre website47 . You can tell what version of calibre you are currently running by
looking at the bottom line of the main calibre window.
• Ensure your operating system is seeing the device. That is, the device should show up in Windows Explorer (in
Windows) or Finder (in macOS).
• In calibre, go to Preferences→Ignored Devices and check that your device is not being ignored
• If all the above steps fail, go to Preferences→Miscellaneous and click Debug device detection with your device
attached and post the output as a ticket on the calibre bug tracker48 .
9.2.4 My device is non-standard or unusual. What can I do to connect to it?
In addition to the Connect to folder function found under the Connect/share button, calibre provides a User
defined device plugin that can be used to connect to any USB device that shows up as a disk drive in your
operating system. Note: on Windows, the device must have a drive letter for calibre to use it. See the device
plugin Preferences -> Plugins -> Device plugins -> User defined and Preferences ->
Miscellaneous -> Get information to setup the user defined device for more informa-
tion. Note that if you are using the user defined plugin for a device normally detected by a builtin calibre plugin,
you must disable the builtin plugin first, so that your user defined plugin is used instead.
46 https://calibre-ebook.com/bugs
47 https://calibre-ebook.com/download
48 https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre

9.2.5 How do I use calibre with my iPad/iPhone/iPod touch?
The easiest way to transfer books wirelessly to your Apple device (iPad/iPhone/iPod) is to use the Calibre Compan-
ion49 iOS app. This app allows calibre to connect to your Apple device wirelessly, just as though you plugged in the
device with a USB cable. You can browse files on the device in calibre and use the Send to device button to transfer
files to your device wirelessly.
Another easy way to browse your calibre collection from your Apple device is by using the calibre Content server,
which makes your collection available over the net. First perform the following steps in calibre
• Set the Preferred Output Format in calibre to EPUB (The output format can be set under
Preferences→Interface→Behavior)
• Set the output profile to iPad (this will work for iPhone/iPods as well), under
Preferences→Conversion→Common options→Page setup
• Convert the books you want to read on your iDevice to EPUB format by selecting them and clicking the Convert
button.
• Turn on the Content server by clicking the Connect/share button and leave calibre running. You can also tell
calibre to automatically start the Content server via Preferences→Sharing→Sharing over the net.
The Content server allows you to read books directly in Safari itself. In addition, there are many apps for your iDevice
that can connect to the calibre Content server. Examples include: Marvin, Mapleread and iBooks itself.
Using the Content server
Start the Safari browser and type in the IP address and port of the computer running the calibre server, like this:
http://192.168.1.2:8080/
Replace 192.168.1.2 with the local IP address of the computer running calibre. See The calibre Content server
(page 101) for details on running the server and finding out the right IP address to use.
You will see a list of books in Safari, tap on any book and you will be given the option to either download it, or read it
in the browser itself. If you choose to download it, Safari will ask you if you want to open it with iBooks.
9.2.6 How do I use calibre with my Android phone/tablet or Kindle Fire HD?
There are two ways that you can connect your Android device to calibre. Using a USB cable – or wirelessly, over the
air. The first step to using an Android device is installing an e-book reading application on it. There are many free
and paid e-book reading applications for Android: Some examples (in no particular order): FBReader50 , Moon+51 ,
Mantano52 , Aldiko53 , Kindle54 .
49 https://calibrecompanion.co?utm_source=Calibre&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=Main&utm_term=FAQ&utm_content=IOS
50 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.geometerplus.zlibrary.ui.android&hl=en
51 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreader&hl=en
52 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mantano.reader.android.lite&hl=en
53 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aldiko.android&hl=en
54 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.kindle&feature=related_apps

Using a USB cable
Simply plug your device into the computer with a USB cable. calibre should automatically detect the device and
then you can transfer books to it by clicking the Send to device button. Note that on macOS and Linux only a single
program can connect to an Android device at a time, so make sure the device is not opened in the OS File manager, or
the Android File Transfer utility, etc.
Note: With newer Android devices, you might have to jump through a few hoops to get the connection working,
as Google really does not want you to be independent of its cloud. First, unlock the screen before plugging in the
USB cable. When you plugin in the USB cable you will get a popup notification. Make sure it says some thing like
Transferring Media files or MTP (Media Transfer mode). If it does not, tap the notification, and change the mode to
Media Transfer (MTP). You may need to restart calibre at this point in order for your device to be recognized. Finally,
you might get a popup on the device every time calibre or the operating system actually tries to connect to it, asking
for permission, tap OK.
Note: With the Kindle Fire 8 or newer there is an icon that shows up when the USB cable is plugged in, showing that
the device is charging. Tap that and switch the device to data transfer mode, and then start calibre, it should then be
detected.
Over the air
The easiest way to transfer books wirelessly to your Android device is to use the Calibre Companion55 Android app.
This app allows calibre to connect to your Android device wirelessly, just as though you plugged in the device with
a USB cable. You can browse files on the device in calibre and use the Send to device button to transfer files to your
device wirelessly.
calibre also has a builtin web server, the Content server. You can browse your calibre collection on your Android
device by using the calibre Content server, which makes your collection available over the net. First perform the
following steps in calibre
• Set the Preferred Output Format in calibre to EPUB for normal Android devices or MOBI for Kindles (The
output format can be set under Preferences→Interface→Behavior)
• Convert the books you want to read on your device to EPUB/MOBI format by selecting them and clicking the
Convert button.
• Turn on the Content server in calibres preferences and leave calibre running.
Now on your Android device, open the browser and browse to
http://192.168.1.2:8080/
Replace 192.168.1.2 with the local IP address of the computer running calibre. See The calibre Content server
(page 101) for details on running the server and finding out the right IP address to use.
You can now browse your book collection and download books from calibre to your device to open with whatever
e-book reading software you have on your android device.
Calibre Companion and many reading apps support browsing the calibre library directly. For example, in Aldiko, click
My Catalogs, then + to add a catalog, then give the catalog a title such as calibre and provide the URL listed above.
You can now browse the calibre library and download directly into the reading software.
55 https://calibrecompanion.co?utm_source=Calibre&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=Main&utm_term=FAQ&utm_content=Android

9.2.7 Can I access my calibre books using the web browser in my Kindle or other
reading device?
calibre has a Content server that exports the books in calibre as a web page. See The calibre Content server (page 101)
for details.
Some devices, like the Kindle (1/2/DX), do not allow you to access port 8080 (the default port on which the content
server runs). In that case, change the port in the calibre Preferences to 80. (On some operating systems, you may not
be able to run the server on a port number less than 1024 because of security settings. In this case the simplest solution
is to adjust your router to forward requests on port 80 to port 8080).
Also some devices do not have browsers advanced enough to run the app-like interface used by the content server. For
such devices, you can simply add /mobile to the server URL to get a simplified, non-JavaScript interface.
9.2.8 I cannot send emails using calibre?
Because of the large amount of spam in email, sending email can be tricky, as different mail servers use different
strategies to block email. The most common problem is if you are sending email directly (without a mail relay) in
calibre. Many servers (for example, Amazon) block email that does not come from a well known relay. The most
robust way to setup email sending in calibre is to do the following:
• Create a free GMX account at GMX56 .
• Goto Preferences→Sharing→Sharing books by email in calibre and click the Use GMX button and fill in the
information asked for.
• Log into your GMX account on the website and enable SMTP sending (Settings->POP3 & IMAP->Send and
receive emails via external program)
• calibre will then be able to use GMX to send the mail.
• If you are sending to your Kindle, remember to update the email preferences on your Amazon Kindle page to
allow email sent from your GMX email address. Also note that Amazon does not allow email delivery of AZW3
and new style (KF8) MOBI files. Finally, Amazon recently started sending confirmation emails that you have to
click on back to your GMX account before the book is actually delivered. They prefer you use Gmail to avoid
the confirmation emails. See the note below for setting up Gmail to work with calibre.
Even after doing this, you may have problems. One common source of problems is that some poorly designed antivirus
programs block calibre from opening a connection to send email. Try adding an exclusion for calibre in your antivirus
program.
Note: Microsoft/Google/GMX can disable your account if you use it to send large amounts of email. So,
when using these services to send mail calibre automatically restricts itself to sending one book every five min-
utes. If you dont mind risking your account being blocked you can reduce this wait interval by going to
Preferences→Advanced→Tweaks in calibre.
Note: Google recently deliberately broke their email sending protocol (SMTP) support in an attempt to force everyone
to use their web interface so they can show you more ads. They are trying to claim that SMTP is insecure, that is
incorrect and simply an excuse. If you have trouble with Gmail you will need to setup an app password57 . Use this
app password as the password for Gmail in the calibre settings.
56 https://www.gmx.com
57 https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833

Note: If you are concerned about giving calibre access to your email account, simply create a new free email account
with GMX or Hotmail and use it only for calibre.
9.2.9 My device is getting mounted read-only in Linux, so calibre cannot connect

to it?
Linux kernels mount devices read-only when their filesystems have errors. You can repair the filesystem with:
sudo fsck.vfat -y /dev/sdc
Replace /dev/sdc with the path to the device node of your device. You can find the device node of your device, which
will always be under /dev by examining the output of:
mount
9.2.10 Why does calibre not support collections on the Kindle or shelves on the
Nook?
Neither the Kindle nor the Nook provide any way to manipulate collections over a USB connection. If you really care
about using collections, I would urge you to sell your Kindle/Nook and get a Kobo. Only Kobo seems to understand
that life is too short to be entering collections one by one on an e-ink screen
Note that in the case of the Kindle, there is a way to manipulate collections via USB, but it requires that the Kindle
be rebooted every time it is disconnected from the computer, for the changes to the collections to be recognized. As
such, it is unlikely that any calibre developers will ever feel motivated enough to support it. There is however, a calibre
plugin that allows you to create collections on your Kindle from the calibre metadata. It is available from here58 .
Note: Amazon have removed the ability to manipulate collections completely in their newer models, like the Kindle
Touch and Kindle Fire, making even the above plugin useless, unless you root your Kindle and install custom firmware.
9.2.11 I am getting an error when I try to use calibre with my Kobo Touch/Glo/etc.?
The Kobo has very buggy firmware. Connecting to it has been known to fail at random. Certain combinations of
motherboard, USB ports/cables/hubs can exacerbate this tendency to fail. If you are getting an error when connecting
to your touch with calibre try the following, each of which has solved the problem for some calibre users.
• Connect the Kobo directly to your computer, not via USB Hub
• Try a different USB cable and a different USB port on your computer
• Log out of the Kobo and log in again, this causes it to rebuild the database, fixing corrupted database errors.
• Try upgrading the firmware on your Kobo Touch to the latest
• Try resetting the Kobo (sometimes this cures the problem for a little while, but then it re-appears, in which case
you have to reset again and again)
• Try only putting one or two books onto the Kobo at a time and do not keep large collections on the Kobo

9.2.12 Covers for books I send to my e-ink Kindle show up momentarily and then
are replaced by a generic cover?
This happens because of an Amazon bug. They try to download a cover for the book from their servers and when
that fails, they replace the existing cover that calibre created with a generic cover. For details see this forum thread59 .
As of version 4.17, calibre has a workaround, where if you connect the Kindle to calibre after the covers have been
destroyed by Amazon, calibre will restore them automatically. So in order to see the covers on your Kindle, you have
to:
1) Send the book to the Kindle with calibre
2) Disconnect the Kindle and wait for Amazon to destroy the cover
3) Reconnect the Kindle to calibre
Note that this workaround only works for books sent with calibre 4.17 or later. Alternately, simply keep your Kindle
in airplane mode, you dont really want Amazon knowing every book you read anyway. I encourage you to contact
Amazon customer support and complain loudly about this bug. Maybe Amazon will listen.
Note: If the workaround is not working for you make sure you Kindle firmware is at least version 5.12.5, released in
April 2020.
9.2.13 I transferred some books to my Kindle using calibre and they did not show
up?
Books sent to the Kindle only show up on the Kindle after they have been indexed by the Kindle. This can take some
time. If the book still does not show up after some time, then it is likely that the Kindle indexer crashed. Sometimes
a particular book can cause the indexer to crash. Unfortunately, Amazon has not provided any way to deduce which
book is causing a crash on the Kindle. Your only recourse is to either reset the Kindle, or delete all files from its
memory using Windows Explorer (or whatever file manager you use) and then send the books to it again, one by
one, until you discover the problem book. Once you have found the problem book, delete it off the Kindle and do a
MOBI to MOBI or MOBI to AZW3 conversion in calibre and then send it back. This will most likely take care of the
problem.
9.3 Library management
Contents
• Where are the book files stored? (page 128)

• How does calibre manage author names and sorting? (page 128)
• Why doesnt calibre let me store books in my own folder structure? (page 129)
• Why doesnt calibre have a column for foo? (page 130)
• Can I have a column showing the formats or the ISBN? (page 130)
• How do I move my calibre data from one computer to another? (page 130)
• The list of books in calibre is blank! (page 131)
9.3. Library management 127

• I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS? (page 131)
9.3.1 Where are the book files stored?
When you first run calibre, it will ask you for a folder in which to store your books. Whenever you add a book to
calibre, it will copy the book into that folder. Books in the folder are nicely arranged into sub-folders by Author and
Title. Note that the contents of this folder are automatically managed by calibre, do not add any files/folders manually
to this folder, as they may be automatically deleted. If you want to add a file associated to a particular book, use the
top right area of Edit metadata dialog to do so. Then, calibre will automatically put that file into the correct folder and
move it around when the title/author changes.
Metadata about the books is stored in the file metadata.db at the top level of the library folder. This file is a sqlite
database. When backing up your library make sure you copy the entire folder and all its sub-folders.
The library folder and all its contents make up what is called a calibre library. You can have multiple such libraries.
To manage the libraries, click the calibre icon on the toolbar. You can create new libraries, remove/rename existing
ones and switch between libraries easily.
You can copy or move books between different libraries (once you have more than one library setup) by right clicking
on a book and selecting the Copy to library action.
9.3.2 How does calibre manage author names and sorting?
Author names are complex, especially across cultures, see this note60 for some of the complexities. calibre has a
very flexible strategy for managing author names. The first thing to understand is that books and authors are separate
entities in calibre. A book can have more than one author, and an author can have more than one book. You can
manage the authors of a book by the edit metadata dialog. You can manage individual authors by right clicking on the
author in the Tag browser on the left of the main calibre screen and selecting Manage authors. Using this dialog you
can change the name of an author and also how that name is sorted. This will automatically change the name of the
author in all the books of that author. When a book has multiple authors, separate their names using the & character.
Now coming to author name sorting:
• When a new author is added to calibre (this happens whenever a book by a new author is added), calibre
automatically computes a sort string for both the book and the author.
• Authors in the Tag browser are sorted by the sort value for the authors. Remember that this is different from
the Author sort field for a book.
• By default, this sort algorithm assumes that the author name is in First name Last name format and
generates a Last name, First name sort value.
• You can change this algorithm by going to Preferences→Advanced→Tweaks and setting the au-
thor_sort_copy_method tweak.
• You can force calibre to recalculate the author sort values for every author by right clicking on any author and
selecting Manage authors, then pushing the Recalculate all author sort values button. Do this after you have set
the author_sort_copy_method tweak to what you want.
• You can force calibre to recalculate the author sort values for all books by using the bulk metadata edit dialog
(select all books and click edit metadata, check the Automatically set author sort checkbox, then press OK.)
• When recalculating the author sort values for books, calibre uses the author sort values for each individual
author. Therefore, ensure that the individual author sort values are correct before recalculating the books author
sort values.
60 https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-personal-names.en.php?changelang=en

• You can control whether the Tag browser display authors using their names or their sort values by setting the
categories_use_field_for_author_name tweak in Preferences→Advanced→Tweaks
Note that you can set an individual authors sort value to whatever you want using Manage authors. This is useful
when dealing with names that calibre will not get right, such as complex multi-part names like Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra or when dealing with Asian names like Sun Tzu.
With all this flexibility, it is possible to have calibre manage your author names however you like. For example, one
common request is to have calibre display author names LN, FN. To do this, and if the note below does not apply to
you, then:
• Set the author_sort_copy_method tweak to copy as described above.
• Restart calibre. Do not change any book metadata before doing the remaining steps.
• Change all author names to LN, FN using the Manage authors dialog.
• After you have changed all the authors, press the Recalculate all author sort values button.
• Press OK, at which point calibre will change the authors in all your books. This can take a while.
Note:
When changing from FN LN to LN, FN, it is often the case that the values in author_sort are already in LN, FN format. If this is
• Set the author_sort_copy_method tweak to copy as described above.

• Restart calibre. Do not change any book metadata before doing the remaining steps.
• Open the Manage authors dialog. Press the copy all author sort values to author button.
• Check through the authors to be sure you are happy. You can still press Cancel to abandon the changes.
Once you press OK, there is no undo.
• Press OK, at which point calibre will change the authors in all your books. This can take a while.
9.3.3 Why doesnt calibre let me store books in my own folder structure?
The whole point of calibres library management features is that they provide a search and sort based interface for
locating books that is much more efficient than any possible folder scheme you could come up with for your collection.
Indeed, once you become comfortable using calibres interface to find, sort and browse your collection, you wont ever
feel the need to hunt through the files on your disk to find a book again. By managing books in its own folder structure
of Author -> Title -> Book files, calibre is able to achieve a high level of reliability and standardization. To illustrate
why a search/tagging based interface is superior to folders, consider the following. Suppose your book collection is
nicely sorted into folders with the following scheme:
Genre -> Author -> Series -> ReadStatus
Now this makes it very easy to find for example all science fiction books by Isaac Asimov in the Foundation series.
But suppose you want to find all unread science fiction books. Theres no easy way to do this with this folder scheme,
you would instead need a folder scheme that looks like:
ReadStatus -> Genre -> Author -> Series
In calibre, you would instead use tags to mark genre and read status and then just use a simple search query like
tag:scifi and not tag:read. calibre even has a nice graphical interface, so you dont need to learn its
search language instead you can just click on tags to include or exclude them from the search.

To those of you that claim that you need access to the filesystem, so that you can have access to your books over the
network, calibre has an excellent Content server that gives you access to your calibre library over the net.
If you are worried that someday calibre will cease to be developed, leaving all your books marooned in its folder
structure, explore the powerful Save to Disk feature in calibre that lets you export all your files into a folder structure
of arbitrary complexity based on their metadata.
Finally, the reason there are numbers at the end of every title folder, is for robustness. That number is the id number of
the book record in the calibre database. The presence of the number allows you to have multiple records with the same
title and author names. It is also part of what allows calibre to magically regenerate the database with all metadata if
the database file gets corrupted. Given that calibres mission is to get you to stop storing metadata in filenames and
stop using the filesystem to find things, the increased robustness afforded by the id numbers is well worth the uglier
folder names.
If you are still not convinced, then Im afraid calibre is not for you. Look elsewhere for your book cataloguing needs.
Just so were clear, this is not going to change. Kindly do not contact us in an attempt to get us to change this.
9.3.4 Why doesnt calibre have a column for foo?
calibre is designed to have columns for the most frequently and widely used fields. In addition, you can add any
columns you like. Columns can be added via Preferences→Interface→Add your own columns. Watch the tutorial UI
Power tips61 to learn how to create your own columns, or read this blog post62 .
You can also create virtual columns that contain combinations of the metadata from other columns. In the add column
dialog use the Quick create links to easily create columns to show the book ISBN or formats. You can use the powerful
calibre template language to do much more with columns. For more details, see The calibre template language
(page 149).
9.3.5 Can I have a column showing the formats or the ISBN?
Yes, you can. Follow the instructions in the answer above for adding custom columns.
9.3.6 How do I move my calibre data from one computer to another?
You can export all calibre data (books, settings and plugins) and then import it on another computer. First lets see how
to export the data:
• Right click the calibre icon in the main calibre toolbar and select Export/import all calibre data. Note that if
there is currently a device connected, this menu option will not be available – so, disconnect any connected
devices. Then click the button labelled Export all your calibre data. You will see a list of all your calibre
libraries. Click OK and choose an empty folder somewhere on your computer. The exported data will be saved
in this folder. Simply copy this folder to your new computer and follow the instructions below to import the
data.
• Install calibre on your new computer and run through the Welcome wizard, it does not matter what you do there,
as you will be importing your old settings in the next step. You will now have an empty calibre, with just the
Getting Started guide in your library. Once again, right click the calibre button and choose Export/import all
calibre data. Then click the button labelled Import previously exported data. Select the folder with the exported
data that you copied over earlier. You will now have a list of libraries you can import. Go through the list
one by one, and select the new location for each library (a location is just an empty folder somewhere on your
computer). Click OK. After the import completes, calibre will restart, with all your old libraries, settings and
calibre plugins.
61 https://calibre-ebook.com/demo#tutorials
62 https://blog.calibre-ebook.com/calibre-custom-columns/

Note: This import/export functionality is only available from calibre version 2.47 onwards. If you have an older
version of calibre, or if you encounter problems with the import/export, you can just copy over your calibre library
folder manually, as described in the next paragraph.
Simply copy the calibre library folder from the old to the new computer. You can find out what the library folder is by
clicking the calibre icon in the toolbar. Choose the Switch/create calibre library action and you will see the path to the
current calibre library.
Now on the new computer, start calibre for the first time. It will run the Welcome wizard asking you for the location of
the calibre library. Point it to the previously copied folder. If the computer you are transferring to already has a calibre
installation, then the Welcome wizard wont run. In that case, right-click the calibre icon in the toolbar and point it to
the newly copied folder. You will now have two calibre libraries on your computer and you can switch between them
by clicking the calibre icon on the toolbar. Transferring your library in this manner preserver all your metadata, tags,
custom columns, etc.
9.3.7 The list of books in calibre is blank!
In order to understand why that happened, you have to understand what a calibre library is. At the most basic level,
a calibre library is just a folder. Whenever you add a book to calibre, that books files are copied into this folder
(arranged into sub folders by author and title). Inside the calibre library folder, at the top level, you will see a file
called metadata.db. This file is where calibre stores the metadata like title/author/rating/tags etc. for every book in
your calibre library. The list of books that calibre displays is created by reading the contents of this metadata.db file.
There can be two reasons why calibre is showing a empty list of books:
• Your calibre library folder changed its location. This can happen if it was on an external disk and the drive letter
for that disk changed. Or if you accidentally moved the folder. In this case, calibre cannot find its library and so
starts up with an empty library instead. To remedy this, do a right-click on the calibre icon in the calibre toolbar
and select Switch/create library. Click the little blue icon to select the new location of your calibre library and
click OK. If you dont know the new location search your computer for the file metadata.db.
• Your metadata.db file was deleted/corrupted. In this case, you can ask calibre to rebuild the metadata.db from its
backups. Right click the calibre icon in the calibre toolbar and select Library maintenance->Restore database.
calibre will automatically rebuild metadata.db.
9.3.8 I am getting errors with my calibre library on a networked drive/NAS?
Do not put your calibre library on a networked drive.

A filesystem is a complex beast. Most network filesystems lack various filesystem features that calibre uses. Some
dont support file locking, some dont support hardlinking, some are just flaky. Additionally, calibre is a single user
application, if you accidentally run two copies of calibre on the same networked library, bad things will happen.
Finally, different OSes impose different limitations on filesystems, so if you share your networked drive across OSes,
once again, bad things will happen.
Consider using the calibre Content server to make your books available on other computers. Run calibre on a single
computer and access it via the Content server or a Remote Desktop solution.
If you must share the actual library, use a file syncing tool like DropBox or rsync instead of a networked drive. If you
are using a file-syncing tool it is essential that you make sure that both calibre and the file syncing tool do not try to
access the calibre library at the same time. In other words, do not run the file syncing tool and calibre at the same
time.

Even with these tools there is danger of data corruption/loss, so only do this if you are willing to live with that risk. In
particular, be aware that Google Drive is incompatible with calibre, if you put your calibre library in Google Drive,
you will suffer data loss. See this thread63 for details.
9.4 Miscellaneous
Contents
• I want calibre to download news from my favorite news website. (page 132)
• Why the name calibre? (page 133)
• Why does calibre show only some of my fonts on macOS? (page 133)
• calibre is not starting on Windows? (page 133)
• calibre freezes/crashes occasionally? (page 134)
• The calibre E-book viewer and Edit book tools do not work on Windows? (page 134)
• Using the viewer or doing any conversions results in a permission denied error on Windows (page 134)
• calibre is not starting/crashing on macOS? (page 135)
• I downloaded the installer, but it is not working? (page 135)
• My antivirus program claims calibre is a virus/trojan? (page 136)
• How do I backup calibre? (page 136)
• How do I use purchased EPUB books with calibre (or what do I do with .acsm files)? (page 136)
• I am getting a Permission Denied error? (page 136)
• Can I have the comment metadata show up on my reader? (page 137)
• How do I get calibre to use my HTTP proxy? (page 137)
• I want some feature added to calibre. What can I do? (page 137)
• Why doesnt calibre have an automatic update? (page 138)
• How is calibre licensed? (page 138)
• How do I run calibre from my USB stick? (page 138)
• How do I run parts of calibre like news download and the Content server on my own Linux server? (page 138)
9.4.1 I want calibre to download news from my favorite news website.
If you are reasonably proficient with computers, you can teach calibre to download news from any website of your
choosing. To learn how to do this see Adding your favorite news website (page 25).
Otherwise, you can request a particular news site by posting in the calibre Recipes forum64 .

9.4.2 Why the name calibre?
Take your pick:

• Convertor And LIBRary for E-books
• A high calibre product
• A tribute to the SONY Librie which was the first e-ink based e-book reader
• My wife chose it ;-)
calibre is pronounced as cal-i-ber not ca-li-bre. If youre wondering, calibre is the British/commonwealth spelling for
caliber. Being Indian, thats the natural spelling for me.
9.4.3 Why does calibre show only some of my fonts on macOS?
calibre embeds fonts in e-book files it creates. E-book files support embedding only TrueType and OpenType (.ttf and
.otf) fonts. Most fonts on macOS systems are in .dfont format, thus they cannot be embedded. calibre shows only
TrueType and OpenType fonts found on your system. You can obtain many such fonts on the web. Simply download
the .ttf/.otf files and add them to the Library/Fonts folder in your home folder.
9.4.4 calibre is not starting on Windows?
There can be several causes for this:

• If you get an error about calibre not being able to open a file because it is in use by another program, do the
following:
– Uninstall calibre
– Reboot your computer
– Re-install calibre. But do not start calibre from the installation wizard.
– Temporarily disable your antivirus program (disconnect from the Internet before doing so, to be safe)
– Look inside the folder you chose for your calibre library. If you see a file named metadata.db, delete it.
– Start calibre
– From now on you should be able to start calibre normally.
• If you get an error about a Python function terminating unexpectedly after upgrading calibre, first uninstall
calibre, then delete the folders (if they exists) C:\Program Files\Calibre and C:\Program Files\
Calibre2. Now re-install and you should be fine.
• If you get an error in the Welcome wizard on an initial run of calibre, try choosing a folder like C:\library
as the calibre library (calibre sometimes has trouble with library locations if the path contains non-English
characters, or only numbers, etc.)
• Try running it as Administrator (Right click on the icon and select Run as Administrator)
If it still wont launch, start a command prompt (press the Windows key and R; then type cmd.exe in the Run dialog
that appears). At the command prompt type the following command and press Enter:
calibre-debug -g
Post any output you see in a help message on the Forum65 .

9.4. Miscellaneous 133

9.4.5 calibre freezes/crashes occasionally?
There are several possible things I know of, that can cause this:
• You recently connected an external monitor or TV to your computer. In this case, whenever calibre opens a new
window like the edit metadata window or the conversion dialog, it appears on the second monitor where you
dont notice it and so you think calibre has frozen. Disconnect your second monitor and restart calibre.
• The following programs have been reported to cause crashes in calibre: If you are running any of these, close
them before starting calibre, or uninstall them: RoboForm, Logitech SetPoint Settings, Constant Guard Protec-
tion by Xfinity, Spybot, Killer Network Manager, Nahimic UI Interface, Acronis True Image.
• You are using a Wacom branded USB mouse/tablet. There is an incompatibility between Wacom drivers and
the graphics toolkit calibre uses. Try using a non-Wacom mouse.
• On some 64 bit versions of Windows there are security software/settings that prevent 64-bit calibre from working
properly. If you are using the 64-bit version of calibre try switching to the 32-bit version.
• If the crash happens when you are trying to copy text from the calibre E-book viewer, it is most likely caused
by some clipboard monitoring/managing application you have running. Turn it off and you should be fine.
• If the crashes happen specifically when you are using a file dialog, like clicking on the Add books button or the
Save to Disk button, then you have some software that has installed broken Shell extensions on your computer.
Known culprits include: SpiderOak, odrive sync and Dell Backup and Recovery and NetDrive. If you have one
of these, uninstall them and you will be fine. You can also use the NirSoft Shell Extension Viewer66 to see what
shell extensions are installed on your system and disable them individually, if you dont want to uninstall the full
program. Remember to use Restart Explorer or reboot your computer after disabling the shell extensions.
If none of the above apply to you, then there is some other program on your computer that is interfering with calibre.
First reboot your computer in safe mode, to have as few running programs as possible, and see if the crashes still
happen. If they do not, then you know it is some program causing the problem. The most likely such culprit is a
program that modifies other programs behavior, such as an antivirus, a device driver, something like RoboForm (an
automatic form filling app) or an assistive technology like Voice Control or a Screen Reader.
The only way to find the culprit is to eliminate the programs one by one and see which one is causing the issue.
Basically, stop a program, run calibre, check for crashes. If they still happen, stop another program and repeat.
9.4.6 The calibre E-book viewer and Edit book tools do not work on Windows?
These two programs use hardware acceleration as they embed a version of the Chrome browser to render HTML. If
they do not work it will be because of incompatibility with your systems GPU (graphics) drivers. Try updating these
first, and reboot. If that does not fix it, you can set the QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS environment variable to
the value --disable-gpu to turn off hardware acceleration. See this page67 for details.
9.4.7 Using the viewer or doing any conversions results in a permission denied
error on Windows
Something on your computer is preventing calibre from accessing its own temporary files. Most likely the permissions
on your Temp folder are incorrect. Go to the folder file:C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local in Windows Explorer
and then right click on the file:Temp folder, select Properties and go to the Security tab. Make sure that your user
account has full control for this folder.
Some users have reported that running the following command in an Administrator Command Prompt fixed their
permissions. To get an Administrator Command Prompt search for cmd.exe in the start menu, then right click on the
66 https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html
67 https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebengine-debugging.html

command prompt entry and select Run as Administrator. At the command prompt type the following command and
press Enter:
icacls "%appdata%\..\Local\Temp" /reset /T
Alternately, you can run calibre as Administrator, but doing so will cause some functionality, such as drag and drop to
not work.
Finally, some users have reported that disabling UAC fixes the problem.
9.4.8 calibre is not starting/crashing on macOS?
One common cause of failures on macOS is the use of accessibility technologies that are incompatible with the graphics
toolkit calibre uses. Try turning off VoiceOver if you have it on. Also go to System Preferences->System->Universal
Access and turn off the setting for enabling access for assistive devices in all the tabs. Another cause can be some
third party apps that modify system behavior, such as Smart Scroll.
You can obtain debug output about why calibre is not starting by running Console.app. Debug output will be printed
to it. If the debug output contains a line that looks like:
Qt: internal: -108: Error ATSUMeasureTextImage text/qfontengine_mac.mm
then the problem is probably a corrupted font cache. You can clear the cache by following these instructions68 . If that
doesnt solve it, look for a corrupted font file on your system, in ~/Library/Fonts or the like. An easy way to check
for corrupted fonts in macOS is to start the Font Book application, select all fonts and then in the File menu, choose
Validate fonts.
9.4.9 I downloaded the installer, but it is not working?
Downloading from the Internet can sometimes result in a corrupted download. If the calibre installer you downloaded
is not opening, try downloading it again. If re-downloading it does not work, download it from an alternate location69 .
If the installer still doesnt work, then something on your computer is preventing it from running.
• Try temporarily disabling your antivirus program (Microsoft Security Essentials, or Kaspersky or Norton or
McAfee or whatever). This is most likely the culprit if the upgrade process is hanging in the middle.
• Similarly, if the installer is failing/rolling and you have Microsoft PowerToys running, quit it.
• Try rebooting your computer and running a registry cleaner like Wise registry cleaner70 .
• Try a clean install. That is, uninstall calibre, delete C:\Program Files\Calibre2 (or wherever you
previously chose to install calibre). Then re-install calibre. Note that uninstalling does not touch your books or
settings.
• Try downloading the installer with an alternate browser. For example if you are using Microsoft Edge, try using
Firefox or Chrome instead.
• If you get an error about a missing DLL on Windows, then most likely, the permissions on your temporary
folder are incorrect. Go to the folder C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local in Windows explorer and
then right click on the Temp folder and select Properties and go to the Security tab. Make sure that your user
account has full control for this folder.
If you still cannot get the installer to work and you are on Windows, you can use the calibre portable install71 , which
does not need an installer (it is just a zip file).
68 https://www.macworld.com/article/1139383/fontcacheclear.html
69 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/releases/latest
70 https://www.wisecleaner.com
71 https://calibre-ebook.com/download_portable

9.4.10 My antivirus program claims calibre is a virus/trojan?
The first thing to check is that you are downloading calibre from the official website: https://calibre-ebook.com/
download. Make sure you are clicking the download links on the left, not the advertisements on the right. calibre is a
very popular program and unscrupulous people try to setup websites offering it for download to fool the unwary.
If you have the official download and your antivirus program is still claiming calibre is a virus, then, your antivirus
program is wrong. Antivirus programs use heuristics, patterns of code that look suspicious to detect viruses. Its rather
like racial profiling. calibre is a completely open source product. You can actually browse the source code yourself (or
hire someone to do it for you) to verify that it is not a virus. Please report the false identification to whatever company
you buy your antivirus software from. If the antivirus program is preventing you from downloading/installing calibre,
disable it temporarily, install calibre and then re-enable it.
9.4.11 How do I backup calibre?
The most important thing to backup is the calibre library folder, that contains all your books and metadata. This is the
folder you chose for your calibre library when you ran calibre for the first time. You can get the path to the library
folder by clicking the calibre icon on the main toolbar. You must backup this complete folder with all its files and
sub-folders.
You can switch calibre to using a backed up library folder by simply clicking the calibre icon on the toolbar and
choosing your backup library folder. A backed up library folder backs up your custom columns and saved searches as
well as all your books and metadata.
If you want to backup the calibre configuration/plugins, you have to backup the config folder. You can find this config
folder via Preferences→Miscellaneous. Note that restoring configuration folders is not officially supported, but should
work in most cases. Just copy the contents of the backup folder into the current configuration folder to restore.
9.4.12 How do I use purchased EPUB books with calibre (or what do I do with .acsm
files)?
Most purchased EPUB books have DRM (page 353). This prevents calibre from opening them. You can still use
calibre to store and transfer them to your e-book reader. First, you must authorize your reader on a Windows machine
with Adobe Digital Editions. Once this is done, EPUB books transferred with calibre will work fine on your reader.
When you purchase an epub book from a website, you will get an .acsm file. This file should be opened with Adobe
Digital Editions, which will then download the actual .epub e-book. The e-book file will be stored in the folder My
Digital Editions, from where you can add it to calibre.
9.4.13 I am getting a Permission Denied error?
A permission denied error can occur because of many possible reasons, none of them having anything to do with
calibre.
• You can get permission denied errors if you are using an SD card with write protect enabled.
• On macOS if you get permission errors when connecting a device to calibre, you can fix that by looking under
System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Files and Folders.
• If you, or some program you used changed the file permissions of the files in question to read only.
• If there is a filesystem error on the device which caused your operating system to mount the filesystem in read
only mode or mark a particular file as read only pending recovery.
• If the files have their owner set to a user other than you.
• If your file is open in another program.

• If the file resides on a device, you may have reached the limit of a maximum of 256 files in the root of the device.
In this case you need to reformat the device/sd card referred to in the error message with a FAT32 filesystem, or
delete some files from the SD card/device memory.
You will need to fix the underlying cause of the permissions error before resuming to use calibre. Read the error
message carefully, see what file it points to and fix the permissions on that file or its containing folders.
9.4.14 Can I have the comment metadata show up on my reader?
Most readers do not support this. You should complain to the manufacturer about it and hopefully if enough people
complain, things will change. In the meantime, you can insert the metadata, including comments into a Jacket page at
the start of the e-book, by using the option to Insert metadata as page at start of book during conversion. The option is
found in the Structure detection section of the conversion settings. Note that for this to have effect you have to convert
the book. If your book is already in a format that does not need conversion, you can convert from that format to the
same format.
Another alternative is to create a catalog in e-book form containing a listing of all the books in your calibre library,
with their metadata. Click-and-hold the Convert button to access the catalog creation tool. And before you ask, no
you cannot have the catalog link directly to books on your reader.
9.4.15 How do I get calibre to use my HTTP proxy?
By default, calibre uses whatever proxy settings are set in your OS. Sometimes these are incorrect, for example, on
Windows if you dont use Microsoft Edge then the proxy settings may not be up to date. You can tell calibre to use a
particular proxy server by setting the http_proxy and https_proxy environment variables. The format of the
variable is: http://username:password@servername you should ask your network administrator to give
you the correct value for this variable. Note that calibre only supports HTTP proxies not SOCKS proxies. You can see
the current proxies used by calibre in Preferences->Miscellaneous.
9.4.16 I want some feature added to calibre. What can I do?
You have two choices:

1. Create a patch by hacking on calibre and send it to me for review and inclusion. See Development72 .
2. Open a bug requesting the feature73 . Remember that while you may think your feature request is extremely
important/essential, calibre developers might not agree. Fortunately, calibre is open source, which means
you always have the option of implementing your feature yourself, or hiring someone to do it for you.
Furthermore, calibre has a comprehensive plugin architecture, so you might be able to develop your feature
as a plugin, see Writing your own plugins to extend calibres functionality (page 202).
72 https://calibre-ebook.com/get-involved
73 https://calibre-ebook.com/bugs

9.4.17 Why doesnt calibre have an automatic update?
For many reasons:

• There is no need to update every week. If you are happy with how calibre works turn off the update notification
and be on your merry way. Check back to see if you want to update once a year or so. There is a check box to
turn off the update notification, on the update notification itself.
• calibre downloads currently use about 150TB of bandwidth a month74 . Implementing automatic updates would
greatly increase that and end up costing thousands of dollars a month, which someone has to pay.
• If I implement a dialog that downloads the update and launches it, instead of going to the website as it does now,
that would save the most ardent calibre updater, at most five clicks a week. There are far higher priority things
to do in calibre development.
• If you really, really hate downloading calibre every week but still want to be up to the latest, I encourage you to
run from source, which makes updating trivial. Instructions are available here (page 327).
• There are third party automatic updaters for calibre made by calibre users in the calibre forum75 .
9.4.18 How is calibre licensed?
calibre is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 (an open source license). This means that you are free
to redistribute calibre as long as you make the source code available. So if you want to put calibre on a CD with your
product, you must also put the calibre source code on the CD. The source code is available for download76 . You are
free to use the results of conversions from calibre however you want. You cannot use either code or libraries from
calibre in your software without making your software open source. For details, see The GNU GPL v377 .
9.4.19 How do I run calibre from my USB stick?
A portable version of calibre is available here78 .
9.4.20 How do I run parts of calibre like news download and the Content server on
my own Linux server?
First, you must install calibre onto your Linux server. If your server is using a modern Linux distribution, you should
have no problems installing calibre onto it.
Note: calibre needs GLIBC >= 2.18 and libstdc++ >= 6.0.21. If you have an older server, you will either need to
compile these from source, or use calibre 3.48 which requires GLIBC >= 2.17 or 2.85.1 which requires GLIBC >=
2.13 or calibre 1.48 which requires only GLIBC >= 2.10. In addition, although the calibre command line utilities
do not need a running X server, some of them do require the X server libraries to be installed on your system. This
is because of Qt, which is used for various image processing tasks, and links against these libraries. If you get an
ImportError about some Qt modules, you are likely missing some X libraries.
You can run the calibre server via the command:

74 https://calibre-ebook.com/dynamic/downloads
76 https://download.calibre-ebook.com
77 https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
78 https://calibre-ebook.com/download_portable

/opt/calibre/calibre-server /path/to/the/library/you/want/to/share
You can download news and convert it into an e-book with the command:
/opt/calibre/ebook-convert "Title of news source.recipe" outputfile.epub
If you want to generate MOBI, use outputfile.mobi instead and use --output-profile kindle.
You can email downloaded news with the command:
/opt/calibre/calibre-smtp
I leave figuring out the exact command line as an exercise for the reader.
Finally, you can add downloaded news to the calibre library with:
/opt/calibre/calibredb add --with-library /path/to/library outfile.epub
Remember to read the Command Line Interface (page 273) section of the calibre User Manual to learn more about
these, and other commands.


CHAPTER
TEN
TUTORIALS
Here you will find tutorials to get you started using calibres more advanced features, such as XPath and templates.
10.1 Managing subgroups of books, for example genre
Some people wish to organize the books in their library into subgroups, similar to subfolders. The most commonly
provided reason is to create genre hierarchies, but there are many others. One user asked for a way to organize
textbooks by subject and course number. Another wanted to keep track of gifts by subject and recipient. This tutorial
will use the genre example for the rest of this post.
Before going on, please note that we are not talking about folders on the hard disk. Subgroups are not file folders.
Books will not be copied anywhere. calibres library file structure is not affected. Instead, we are presenting a way to
organize and display subgroups of books within a calibre library.
• Setup (page 143)

• Searching (page 145)
• Restrictions (page 146)
• Useful template functions (page 146)
The commonly-provided requirements for subgroups such as genres are:

• A subgroup (e.g., a genre) must contain (point to) books, not categories of books. This is what distinguishes
subgroups from calibre user categories.
• A book can be in multiple subgroups (genres). This distinguishes subgroups from physical file folders.
• Subgroups (genres) must form a hierarchy; subgroups can contain subgroups.
Tags give you the first two. If you tag a book with the genre then you can use the Tag browser (or search) for find the
books with that genre, giving you the first. Many books can have the same tag(s), giving you the second. The problem
is that tags dont satisfy the third requirement. They dont provide a hierarchy.
141
The calibre hierarchy feature gives you the third – the

ability to see the genres in a tree and the ability to easily search for books in genre or sub-genre. For example, assume
that your genre structure is similar to the following:
Genre
. History
.. Japanese
.. Military
.. Roman
. Mysteries
.. English
.. Vampire
. Science Fiction
.. Alternate History
.. Military
.. Space Opera
. Thrillers
.. Crime
.. Horror
etc.
By using the hierarchy feature, you can see these genres in the Tag browser in tree form, as shown in the screen image.
In this example the outermost level (Genre) is a custom column that contains the genres. Genres containing sub-genres
appear with a small triangle next to them. Clicking on that triangle will open the item and show the sub-genres, as you
can see with History and Science Fiction.
Clicking on a genre can search for all books with that genre or children of that genre. For example, clicking on
Science Fiction can give all three of the child genres, Alternate History, Military, and Space Opera. Clicking on
Alternate History will give books in that genre, ignoring those in Military and Space Opera. Of course, a book can
have multiple genres. If a book has both Space Opera and Military genres, then you will see that book if you click on
either genre. Searching is discussed in more detail below.
Another thing you can see from the image is that the genre Military appears twice, once under History and once under
Science Fiction. Because the genres are in a hierarchy, these are two separate genres. A book can be in one, the other,
or (doubtfully in this case) both. For example, the books in Winston Churchills The Second World War could be in
142 Chapter 10. Tutorials

History.Military. David Webers Honor Harrington books could be in Science Fiction.Military, and for that matter also
in Science Fiction.Space Opera.
Once a genre exists, that is at least one book has that genre, you can easily apply it to other books by dragging the
books from the library view onto the genre you want the books to have. You can also apply genres in the metadata
editors; more on this below.
10.1.1 Setup
By now, your question might be How was all of this setup? There are three steps: 1) create the custom column, 2) tell
calibre that the new column is to be treated as a hierarchy, and 3) add genres.
You create the custom column in the usual way, using Preferences -> Add your own columns. This example uses
#genre as the lookup name and Genre as the column heading. The column type is Comma-separated text, like tags,
shown in the Tag browser.
Then after restarting calibre, you must tell calibre that the column is to be treated as a hierarchy. Go to Preferences →
Look & feel → Tag browser and enter the lookup name #genre into the Categories with hierarchical items box. Press
Apply, and you are done with setting up.
10.1. Managing subgroups of books, for example genre 143

At the point there are no genres in the column. We are left with the last step: how to apply a genre to a book. A genre
does not exist in calibre until it appears on at least one book. To learn how to apply a genre for the first time, we must
go into some detail about what a genre looks like in the metadata for a book.
A hierarchy of things is built by creating an item consisting of phrases separated by periods. Continuing the genre
example, these items would History.Military, Mysteries.Vampire, Science Fiction.Space Opera, etc. Thus to create a
new genre, you pick a book that should have that genre, edit its metadata, and enter the new genre into the column you
created. Continuing our example, if you want to assign a new genre Comics with a sub-genre Superheroes to a book,
you would edit metadata for that (comic) book, choose the Custom metadata tab, and then enter Comics.Superheroes
as shown in the following (ignore the other custom columns):
After doing the above, you see in the Tag browser:

From here on, to apply this new genre to a book (a comic book, presumably), you can either drag the book onto the
genre, or add it to the book using edit metadata in exactly the same way as done above.
Note: Hierarchical display only works if the Tag browser is set to sort items by name. This is the default and can be
checked by clicking the Configure button at the bottom of the Tag browser.
10.1.2 Searching
The easiest way to search for genres is using the Tag browser, clicking on the genre you wish to see. Clicking on a
genre with children will show you books with that genre and all child genres. However, this might bring up a question.
Just because a genre has children doesnt mean that it isnt a genre in its own right. For example, a book can have the
genre History but not History.Military. How do you search for books with only History?
The Tag browser search mechanism knows if an item has children. If it does, clicking on the item cycles through
5 searches instead of the normal three. The first is the normal green plus, which shows you books with that genre
only (e.g., History). The second is a doubled plus (shown above), which shows you books with that genre and all
sub-genres (e.g., History and History.Military). The third is the normal red minus, which shows you books without
that exact genre. The fourth is a doubled minus, which shows you books without that genre or sub-genres. The fifth is
back to the beginning, no mark, meaning no search.
10.1. Managing subgroups of books, for example genre 145

10.1.3 Restrictions
If you search for a genre then create a saved search for it, you can use the restrict to box to create a Virtual library of
books with that genre. This is useful if you want to do other searches within the genre or to manage/update metadata for
books in the genre. Continuing our example, you can create a Saved search named History.Japanese by first clicking
on the genre Japanese in the Tag browser to get a search into the search field, entering History.Japanese into the saved
search field, then pushing the Save search button (the green box with the white plus, on the right-hand side).
After creating the saved search, you can use it as a restriction.
10.1.4 Useful template functions
You might want to use the genre information in a template, such as with save to disk or send to device. The
question might then be How do I get the outermost genre name or names? A calibre template function,
subitems, is provided to make doing this easier.
For example, assume you want to add the outermost genre level to the save-to-disk template to make genre
folders, as in History/The Gathering Storm - Churchill, Winston. To do this, you must extract the first
level of the hierarchy and add it to the front along with a slash to indicate that it should make a folder.
The template below accomplishes this:
{#genre:subitems(0,1)||/}{title} - {authors}
See The template language (page 149) for more information about templates and the subitems() function.

10.2 XPath tutorial
In this tutorial, you will be given a gentle introduction to XPath79 , a query language that can be used to select arbitrary
parts of HTML80 documents in calibre. XPath is a widely used standard, and googling it will yield a ton of information.
This tutorial, however, focuses on using XPath for e-book related tasks like finding chapter headings in an unstructured
HTML document.
Contents
• Selecting by tag name (page 147)

• Selecting by attributes (page 148)
• Selecting by tag content (page 148)
• Sample e-book (page 148)
• XPath built-in functions (page 149)
10.2.1 Selecting by tag name
The simplest form of selection is to select tags by name. For example, suppose you want to select all the <h2> tags in
a document. The XPath query for this is simply:
//h:h2 (Selects all <h2> tags)
The prefix // means search at any level of the document. Now suppose you want to search for <span> tags that are
inside <a> tags. That can be achieved with:
//h:a/h:span (Selects <span> tags inside <a> tags)
If you want to search for tags at a particular level in the document, change the prefix:
/h:body/h:div/h:p (Selects <p> tags that are children of <div> tags that are
children of the <body> tag)
This will match only <p>A very short e-book to demonstrate the use of XPath.</p> in the
Sample e-book (page 148) but not any of the other <p> tags. The h: prefix in the above examples is needed to match
XHTML tags. This is because internally, calibre represents all content as XHTML. In XHTML tags have a namespace,
and h: is the namespace prefix for HTML tags.
Now suppose you want to select both <h1> and <h2> tags. To do that, we need a XPath construct called predicate.
A predicate is simply a test that is used to select tags. Tests can be arbitrarily powerful and as this tutorial progresses,
you will see more powerful examples. A predicate is created by enclosing the test expression in square brackets:
//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']
There are several new features in this XPath expression. The first is the use of the wildcard *. It means match any tag.
Now look at the test expression name()='h1' or name()='h2'. name() is an example of a built-in function. It
simply evaluates to the name of the tag. So by using it, we can select tags whose names are either h1 or h2. Note that
the name() function ignores namespaces so that there is no need for the h: prefix. XPath has several useful built-in
functions. A few more will be introduced in this tutorial.
79 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPath
80 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML
10.2. XPath tutorial 147

10.2.2 Selecting by attributes
To select tags based on their attributes, the use of predicates is required:
//*[@style] (Select all tags that have a style attribute)

//*[@class="chapter"] (Select all tags that have class="chapter")
//h:h1[@class="bookTitle"] (Select all h1 tags that have class="bookTitle")
Here, the @ operator refers to the attributes of the tag. You can use some of the XPath built-in functions (page 149) to
perform more sophisticated matching on attribute values.
10.2.3 Selecting by tag content
Using XPath, you can even select tags based on the text they contain. The best way to do this is to use the power of
regular expressions via the built-in function re:test():
//h:h2[re:test(., 'chapter|section', 'i')] (Selects <h2> tags that contain the words
,→chapter or
section)
Here the . operator refers to the contents of the tag, just as the @ operator referred to its attributes.
10.2.4 Sample e-book
<html>
<head>
<title>A very short e-book</title>
<meta name="charset" value="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="bookTitle">A very short e-book</h1>
<p style="text-align:right">Written by Kovid Goyal</p>
<div class="introduction">
<p>A very short e-book to demonstrate the use of XPath.</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter">Chapter One</h2>

<p>This is a truly fascinating chapter.</p>
<h2 class="chapter">Chapter Two</h2>

<p>A worthy continuation of a fine tradition.</p>
</body>
</html>

10.2.5 XPath built-in functions
name() The name of the current tag.

contains() contains(s1, s2) returns true if s1 contains s2.
re:test() re:test(src, pattern, flags) returns true if the string src matches the regular expression pat-
tern. A particularly useful flag is i, it makes matching case insensitive. A good primer on the syntax for regular
expressions can be found at regexp syntax81
10.3 The calibre template language
The calibre template language is a calibre-specific language used throughout calibre for tasks such as specifying file
paths, formatting values, and computing the value for user-specified columns. Examples:
• Specify the folder structure and file names when saving files from the calibre library to the disk or e-book reader.
• Define rules for adding icons and colors to the calibre book list.
• Define virtual columns that contain data from other columns.
• Advanced library searching.
• Advanced metadata search and replace.
The language is built around the notion of a template, which specifies which book metadata to use, computations on
that metadata, and how it is to be formatted.
10.3.1 Basic Templates
A basic template consists one or more template expressions. A template expression consists of text
and names in curly brackets ({}) that is replaced by the corresponding metadata from the book being processed. For
example, the default template in calibre used for saving books to device has 4 template expressions:
{author_sort}/{title}/{title} - {authors}
For the book The Foundation by Isaac Asimov the will become:
Asimov, Isaac/The Foundation/The Foundation - Isaac Asimov
The slashes are not template expressions because they are in between in {}. Such text is left where it appears.
For example, if the template is:
{author_sort} Some Important Text {title}/{title} - {authors}
then for The Foundation the template produces:
Asimov, Isaac Some Important Text The Foundation/The Foundation - Isaac Asimov
A template expression can access all the metadata available in calibre, including custom columns (columns
you create yourself), by using a columns lookup name. To find the lookup name for a column (sometimes called
fields), hover your mouse over the column header in calibres book list. Lookup names for custom columns always
begin with #. For series type columns there is an additional field named #lookup name_index that is the series
index for that book in the series. For example, if you have a custom series column named #myseries, there will
also be a column named #myseries_index. The standard series columns index is named series_index.
10.3. The calibre template language 149

In addition to the standard column based fields, you also can use:
• {formats} - A list of formats available in the calibre library for a book
• {identifiers:select(isbn)} - The ISBN of the book
If the metadata for field for a given a book is not defined then the field in the template is replaced by the empty string
(''). For example, consider the following template:
{author_sort}/{series}/{title} {series_index}
If Asimovs book Second Foundation is in the series Foundation then the template produces:
Asimov, Isaac/Foundation/Second Foundation 3
If a series has not been entered for the book then the template produces:
Asimov, Isaac/Second Foundation
The template processor automatically removes multiple slashes and leading or trailing spaces.
10.3.2 Advanced formatting
In addition to metadata substitution, templates can conditionally include additional text and control how substituted
data is formatted.
Conditionally including text
Sometimes you want text to appear in the output only if a field is not empty. A common case is series and
series_index where you want either nothing or the two values separated by a hyphen. calibre handles this case
using a special template expression syntax.
For example and using the above Foundation example, assume you want the template to produce Foundation - 3 -
Second Foundation. This template produces that output:
{series} - {series_index} - {title}
However, if a book has no series the template will produce - - the title, which is probably not what you want. Generally,
people want the result be the title without the extraneous hyphens. You can accomplish this using the following
template syntax:
{field:|prefix_text|suffix_text}
This template expression says that if field has the the value XXXX then the result will be pre-
fix_textXXXXXsuffix_text. If field is empty (has no value) then the result will be the empty string (nothing) because
the prefix and suffix are ignored. The prefix and suffix can contain blanks.
Do not use subtemplates (`{ }`) or functions (see below) in the prefix or the suffix.
Using this syntax, we can solve the above no-series problem with the template:
{series}{series_index:| - | - }{title}
The hyphens will be included only if the book has a series index, which it has only if it has a series. Continuing the
Foundation example again, the template will produce Foundation - 1 - Second Foundation.
Notes:
• You must include the colon after the lookup name if you are using a prefix or a suffix.
• You must either use either no or both | characters. Using one, as in {field:| - }, is not allowed.

• It is OK to provide no text for either the prefix or the suffix, such as in {series:|| - }. The template
{title:||} is the same as {title}.
Formatting
Suppose you want the series_index to be formatted as three digits with leading zeros. This does the trick:
{series_index:0>3s} - Three digits with leading zeros
For trailing zeros, use:
{series_index:0<3s} - Three digits with trailing zeros
If you use series indices with fractional values, e.g., 1.1, you might want the decimal points to line up. For example,
you might want the indices 1 and 2.5 to appear as 01.00 and 02.50 so that they will sort correctly on a device that does
lexical sorting. To do this, use:
{series_index:0>5.2f} - Five characters consisting of two digits with leading zeros, a decimal
point, then 2 digits after the decimal point.
If you want only the first two letters of the data, use:
{author_sort:.2} - Only the first two letters of the author sort name
Much of the calibre template language formatting comes from Python. For more details on the syntax of these ad-
vanced formatting operations see the Python documentation82 .
10.3.3 Using templates to define custom columns
Templates can be used to display information that isnt in calibre metadata, or to display metadata differently from
calibres normal format. For example, you might want to show the ISBN, a field that calibre does not display. You can
accomplish this creating a custom column with the type Column built from other columns (hereafter called composite
columns) and providing a template to generate the displayed text. The column will display the result of evaluating the
template. For example, to display the ISBN, create the column and enter {identifiers:select(isbn)} in the
template box. To display a column containing the values of two series custom columns, separated by a comma, use
{#series1:||,}{#series2}.
Composite columns can use any template option, including formatting.
Note: You cannot edit the data displayed in a composite column. Instead you edit the source columns. If you edit a
composite column, for example by double-clicking it, calibre will open the template for editing, not the underlying
data.
10.3.4 Using functions in templates - Single Function Mode
Suppose you want to display the value of a field in upper case when that field is normally in title case. You can do
this using template functions. For example, to display the title in upper case use the uppercase function, as in
{title:uppercase()}. To display it in title case, use {title:titlecase()}.
Functions go into the format part of the template, after the : and before the first | or the closing } if no prefix/suffix
is used. If you have both a format and a function reference, the function comes after a second :. Functions return the
value of the column specified in the template, suitably modified.
The syntax for using functions is one of:
82 https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatstrings

{lookup_name:function(arguments)}
{lookup_name:format:function(arguments)}
{lookup_name:function(arguments)|prefix|suffix}
{lookup_name:format:function(arguments)|prefix|suffix}
Function names must always be followed by opening and closing parentheses. Some functions require extra values
(arguments), and these go inside the parentheses. Arguments are separated by commas. Literal commas (commas as
text, not argument separators) must be preceded by a backslash (\) . The last (or only) argument cannot contain a
textual closing parenthesis.
Functions are evaluated before format specifications and the prefix/suffix. See further down for an example of using
both a format and a function.
Important: If you have programming experience, please note that the syntax in Single Function Mode is not what you
expect. Strings are not quoted and spaces are significant. All arguments are considered to be constants; there are no
expressions.
Do not use subtemplates (`{ }`) as function arguments. Instead, use Template Program Mode (page 164) and
General Program Mode (page 155).
Some functions require regular expressions. In the template language regular expression matching is case-insensitive.
In the function documentation below, the notation [something]* means that something can be repeated zero or
more times. The notation [something]+ means that the something is repeated one or more times (must exist at
least one time).
The functions intended for use in Single Function Mode are:
• capitalize() – returns the value with the first letter upper case and the rest lower case.
• contains(pattern, text if match, text if not match) – checks if the value is matched
by the regular expression pattern. Returns text if match if the pattern matches the value, otherwise
returns text if no match.
• count(separator) – interprets the value as a list of items separated by separator and returns the number
of items in the list. Most lists use a comma as the separator, but authors uses an ampersand (&). Examples:
{tags:count(,)}, {authors:count(&)}. Aliases: count(), list_count()
• format_number(template) – interprets the value as a number and formats that number using a Python
formatting template such as {0:5.2f} or {0:,d} or ${0:5,.2f}. The formatting template must begin
with {0: and end with } as in the above examples. Exception: you can leave off the leading {0: and trailing
} if the format template contains only a format. See the template language and the Python documentation83 for
more examples. Returns the empty string if formatting fails.
• human_readable() – expects the value to be a number and returns a string representing that number in KB,
MB, GB, etc.
• ifempty(text if empty) – if the value is not empty then return the value of the field, otherwise return
text if empty.
• in_list(separator, [ pattern, found_val, ]* not_found_val) – interpret the value as
a list of items separated by separator, checking the pattern against each item in the list. If the pattern
matches an item then return found_val, otherwise return not_found_val. The pair pattern and
found_value can be repeated as many times as desired, permitting returning different values depending
on the items value. The patterns are checked in order, and the first match is returned.
• language_strings(localize) – return the language names84 for the language codes85 passed in as the
value. Example: {languages:language_strings()}. If localize is zero, return the strings in English.
83 https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#formatstrings
84 https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php

If localize is not zero, return the strings in the language of the current locale. Lang_codes is a comma-
separated list.
• list_item(index, separator) – interpret the value as a list of items separated by separator, re-
turning the indexth item. The first item is number zero. The last item has the index -1 as in list_item(-1,
separator). If the item is not in the list, then the empty string is returned.
• lookup([ pattern, key, ]* else_key) – The patterns will be checked against the value in order.
If a pattern matches then the value of the field named by key is returned. If no pattern matches then the value
of the field named by else_key is returned. See``switch`` (below).
• lowercase() – returns the value of the field in lower case.
• rating_to_stars(use_half_stars) – Returns the rating as string of star () characters. The value must
be a number between 0 and 5. Set use_half_stars to 1 if you want half star characters for fractional numbers
available with custom ratings columns.
• re(pattern, replacement) – return the value after applying the regular expression. All instances of
pattern in the value are replaced with replacement. The template language uses case insensitive Python
regular expressions86 .
• select(key) – interpret the value as a comma-separated list of items with each item having the form
id:value (the calibre identifier format). The function finds the first pair with the id equal to key and
returns the corresponding value. If no id matches then the function returns the empty string.
• shorten(left chars, middle text, right chars) – Return a shortened version of the value,
consisting of left chars characters from the beginning of the value, followed by middle text, followed
by right chars characters from the end of the value. Left chars and right chars must be non-
negative integers. Example: assume you want to display the title with a length of at most 15 characters in length.
One template that does this is {title:shorten(9,-,5)}. For a book with the title Ancient English Laws
in the Times of Ivanhoe the result will be Ancient E-nhoe: the first 9 characters of the title, a -, then the last 5
characters. If the values length is less than left chars + right chars + the length of middle text
then the value will be returned unchanged. For example, the title The Dome would not be changed.
• str_in_list(separator, [ string, found_val, ]+ not_found_val) – interpret the
value as a list of items separated by separator then compare string against each value in the list. The
string is not a regular expression. If string is equal to any item (ignoring case) then return the corre-
sponding found_val. If string contains separators then it is also treated as a list and each subvalue
is checked. The string and found_value pairs can be repeated as many times as desired, permitting
returning different values depending on strings value. If none of the strings match then not_found_value
is returned. The strings are checked in order. The first match is returned.
• subitems(start_index, end_index) – This function breaks apart lists of tag-like hierarchical items
such as genres. It interprets the value as a comma-separated list of tag-like items, where each item is a period-
separated list. It returns a new list made by extracting from each item the components from start_index to
end_index, then merging the results back together. Duplicates are removed. The first subitem in a period-
separated list has an index of zero. If an index is negative then it counts from the end of the list. As a special
case, an end_index of zero is assumed to be the length of the list.
Examples:
– Assuming a #genre column containing A.B.C:
* {#genre:subitems(0,1)} returns A
* {#genre:subitems(0,2)} returns A.B
* {#genre:subitems(1,0)} returns B.C
– Assuming a #genre column containing A.B.C, D.E:
86 https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html

* {#genre:subitems(0,1)} returns A, D
* {#genre:subitems(0,2)} returns A.B, D.E
• sublist(start_index, end_index, separator) – interpret the value as a list of items separated
by separator, returning a new list made from the items from start_index to end_index. The first item
is number zero. If an index is negative, then it counts from the end of the list. As a special case, an end_index
of zero is assumed to be the length of the list.
Examples assuming that the tags column (which is comma-separated) contains A, B ,C:
– {tags:sublist(0,1,\,)} returns A
– {tags:sublist(-1,0,\,)} returns C
– {tags:sublist(0,-1,\,)} returns A, B
• swap_around_articles(separator) – returns the value with articles moved to the end. The value
can be a list, in which case each item in the list is processed. If the value is a list then you must provide the
separator. If no separator is provided then the value is treated as being a single value, not a list. The
articles are those used by calibre to generate the title_sort.
• swap_around_comma() – given a value of the form B, A, return A B. This is most useful for converting
names in LN, FN format to FN LN. If there is no comma in the value then the function returns the value
unchanged.
• switch([pattern, value,]+ else_value) – for each pattern, value pair, checks if the value
matches the regular expression pattern and if so returns the associated value. If no pattern matches,
then else_value is returned. You can have as many pattern, value pairs as you wish. The first match
is returned.
• test(text if not empty, text if empty) – return text if not empty if the value is not
empty, otherwise return text if empty.
• titlecase() – returns the value of the field in title case.
• transliterate() – Return a string in a latin alphabet formed by approximating the sound of the words
in the source field. For example, if the source field is this function returns Fiodor Mikhailovich
Dostoievskii.
• uppercase() – returns the value of the field in upper case.
Using functions and formatting in the same template
Suppose you have an integer custom column #myint that you want displayed with leading zeros, as in 003. One
way to do this is to use a format of 0>3s. However, by default if a number (integer or float) equals zero then the value
is displayed as the empty string so zero values will produce the empty string, not 000. If you want to see 000 values
then you use both the format string and the ifempty function to change the empty value back to a zero. The template
would be:
{#myint:0>3s:ifempty(0)}
Note that you can use the prefix and suffix as well. If you want the number to appear as [003] or [000], then use
the template:
{#myint:0>3s:ifempty(0)|[|]}

10.3.5 General Program Mode
General Program Mode (GPM) replaces template expressions with a program written in the template language. The
syntax of the language is defined by the following grammar:
program ::= 'program:' expression_list

expression_list ::= top_expression [ ';' top_expression ]*
top_expression ::= or_expression
or_expression ::= and_expression [ '||' and_expression ]*
and_expression ::= not_expression [ '&&' not_expression ]*
not_expression ::= [ '!' not_expression ]* | compare_exp
compare_expr ::= add_sub_expr [ compare_op add_sub_expr ]
compare_op ::= '==' | '!=' | '>=' | '>' | '<=' | '<' | 'in' |
'==#' | '!=#' | '>=#' | '>#' | '<=#' | '<#'
add_sub_expr ::= times_div_expr [ add_sub_op times_div_expr ]*
add_sub_op ::= '+' | '-'
times_div_expr ::= unary_op_expr [ times_div_op unary_op_expr ]*
times_div_op ::= '*' | '/'
unary_op_expr ::= [ add_sub_op unary_op_expr ]* | expression
expression ::= identifier | constant | function | assignment | field_reference |
if_expression | for_expression | '(' expression_list ')'
field_reference ::= '$' [ '$' ] [ '#' ] identifier
identifier ::= id_start [ id_rest ]*
id_start ::= letter | underscore
id_rest ::= id_start | digit
constant ::= " string " | ' string ' | number
function ::= identifier '(' expression_list [ ',' expression_list ]* ')'
assignment ::= identifier '=' top_expression
if_expression ::= 'if' condition 'then' expression_list
[ elif_expression ] [ 'else' expression_list ] 'fi'
condition ::= top_expression
elif_expression ::= 'elif' condition 'then' expression_list elif_expression | ''
for_expression ::= 'for' identifier 'in' list_expression
[ 'separator' separator_expr ] ':' expression_list 'rof'
list_expression ::= top_expression
separator_expr ::= top_expression
Notes:
• a top_expression always has a value. The value of an expression_list is the value of the last
top_expression in the list. For example, the value of the expression list 1;2;'foobar';3 is 3.
• In a logical context, any non-empty value is True
• In a logical context, the empty value is False
• Strings and numbers can be used interchangeably. For example, 10 and '10' are the same thing.
• Comments are lines starting with a # character. Comments beginning later in a line are not supported.
Operator Precedence
The operator precedence (order of evaluation) from highest (evaluated first) to lowest (evaluated last) is:
• Function calls, constants, parenthesized expressions, statement expressions, assignment expressions, field refer-
ences.
• Unary plus (+) and minus (-). These operators evaluate right to left.
These and all the other arithmetic operators return integers if the expression results in a fractional part equal to
zero. For example, if an expression returns 3.0 it is changed to 3.

• Multiply (*) and divide (/). These operators are associative and evaluate left to right. Use parentheses if you
want to change the order of evaluation.
• Add (+) and subtract (-). These operators are associative and evaluate left to right.
• Numeric and string comparisons. These operators return '1' if the comparison succeeds, otherwise the empty
string (''). Comparisons are not associative: a < b < c is a syntax error.
• Unary logical not (!). This operator returns '1' if the expression is False (evaluates to the empty string),
otherwise ''.
• Logical and (&&). This operator returns 1 if both the left-hand and right-hand expressions are True, or the empty
string '' if either is False. It is associative, evaluates left to right, and does short-circuiting87 .
• Logical or (||). This operator returns '1' if either the left-hand or right-hand expression is True, or '' if both
are False. It is associative, evaluates left to right, and does short-circuiting88 . It is an inclusive or, returning '1'
if both the left- and right-hand expressions are True.
Field References
A field_reference evaluates to the value of the metadata field named by lookup name that follows the $ or $$.
Using $ is equivalent to using the field() function. Using $$ is equivalent to using the raw_field function.
Examples:
* $authors ==> field('authors')

* $#genre ==> field('#genre')
* $$pubdate ==> raw_field('pubdate')
* $$#my_int ==> raw_field('#my_int')
If Expressions
If expressions first evaluate the condition. If the condition is True (a non-empty value) then the
expression_list in the then clause is evaluated. If it is False then if present the expression_list in
the elif or else clause is evaluated. The elif and else parts are optional. The words if, then, elif, else,
and fi are reserved; you cannot use them as identifier names. You can put newlines and white space wherever they
make sense. The condition is a top_expression not an expression_list; semicolons are not allowed.
The expression_lists are semicolon-separated sequences of top_expressions. An if expression returns
the result of the last top_expression in the evaluated expression_list, or the empty string if no expression
list was evaluated.
Examples:
* program: if field('series') then 'yes' else 'no' fi

* program:
if field('series') then
a = 'yes';
b = 'no'
else
a = 'no';
b = 'yes'
fi;
strcat(a, '-', b)
Nested if example:
program:
if field('series') then
87 https://chortle.ccsu.edu/java5/Notes/chap40/ch40_2.html
88 https://chortle.ccsu.edu/java5/Notes/chap40/ch40_2.html


if check_yes_no(field('#mybool'), '', '', '1') then
'yes'
else
'no'
fi
else
'no series'
fi
As said above, an if produces a value. This means that all the following are equivalent:
* program: if field('series') then 'foo' else 'bar' fi

* program: if field('series') then a = 'foo' else a = 'bar' fi; a
* program: a = if field('series') then 'foo' else 'bar' fi; a
As a last example, this program returns the value of the series column if the book has a series, otherwise the value
of the title column:
program: field(if field('series') then 'series' else 'title' fi)
For Expressions
The for expression iterates over a list of values, processing them one at a time. The list_expression must
evaluate to either a metadata field lookup name, for example tags or #genre, or a list of values. If the result
is a valid lookup name then the fields value is fetched and the separator specified for that field type is used. If
the result isnt a valid lookup name then it is assumed to be a list of values. The list is assumed to be separated by
commas unless the optional keyword separator is supplied, in which case the list values must be separated by
the result of evaluating the separator_expr. Each value in the list is assigned to the specified variable then the
expression_list is evaluated.
Example: This template removes the first hierarchical name for each value in Genre (#genre), constructing a list
with the new names:
program:
new_tags = '';
for i in '#genre':
j = re(i, '^.*?\.(.*)$', '\1');
new_tags = list_union(new_tags, j, ',')
rof;
new_tags
If the original Genre is History.Military, Science Fiction.Alternate History, ReadMe then the template returns Military,
Alternate History, ReadMe. You could use this template in calibres Edit metadata in bulk → Search & replace with
Search for set to template to strip off the first level of the hierarchy and assign the resulting value to Genre.
Note: the last line in the template, new_tags, isnt strictly necessary in this case because for returns the value of the
last top_expression in the expression list. The value of an assignment is the value of its expression, so the value of the
for statement is what was assigned to new_tags.
Relational Operators
Relational operators return '1' if the comparison is true, otherwise the empty string ().
There are two forms of relational operators: string comparisons and numeric comparisons.
String comparisons do case-insensitive string comparison using lexical order. The supported string comparison op-
erators are ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=, and in. For the in operator, the result of the left hand expression is interpreted

as a regular expression pattern. The in operator is True if the value of left-hand expression interpreted as a regular
expression matches the value of the right hand expression. The match is case-insensitive.
The numeric comparison operators are ==#, !=#, <#, <=#, >#, >=#. The left and right expressions must evaluate to
numeric values with two exceptions: both the string value None (undefined field) and the empty string evaluate to the
value zero.
Examples:
• program: field('series') == 'foo' returns '1' if the books series is foo, otherwise ''.
• program: 'f.o' in field('series') returns '1' if the books series matches the regular expres-
sion f.o (e.g., foo, Off Onyx, etc.), otherwise ''.
• program: if field('series') != 'foo' then 'bar' else 'mumble' fi returns
'bar' if the books series is not foo. Otherwise it returns 'mumble'.
• program: if field('series') == 'foo' || field('series') == '1632' then
'yes' else 'no' fi returns 'yes' if series is either 'foo' or '1632', otherwise 'no'.
• program: if '^(foo|1632)$' in field('series') then 'yes' else 'no' fi
returns 'yes' if series is either 'foo' or '1632', otherwise 'no'.
• program: if 11 > 2 then 'yes' else 'no' fi returns 'no' because the > operator does a
lexical comparison.
• program: if 11 ># 2 then 'yes' else 'no' fi returns 'yes' because the ># operator does
a numeric comparison.
Additional Available Functions
The following functions are available in addition to those described in Single Function Mode (page 151).
In GPM the functions described in Single Function Mode all require an additional first parameter specifying the value
to operate upon. All parameters are expression_lists (see the grammar above).
• add(x [, y]*) – returns the sum of its arguments. Throws an exception if an argument is not a number. In
most cases you can use the + operator instead of this function.
• and(value [, value]*) – returns the string 1 if all values are not empty, otherwise returns the empty
string. You can have as many values as you want. In most cases you can use the && operator instead of this
function. One reason not to replace and with && is if short-circuiting can change the results because of side
effects. For example, and(a='',b=5) will always do both assignments, where the && operator wont do the
second.
• assign(id, val) – assigns val to id, then returns val. id must be an identifier, not an expression. In
most cases you can use the = operator instead of this function.
• approximate_formats() – return a comma-separated list of formats associated with the book. There is
no guarantee that the list is correct, although it probably is. This and other zero-parameter functions can be
called in Template Program Mode (see below) using the template {:'approximate_formats()'}. Note
that resulting format names are always uppercase, as in EPUB. The approximate_formats() function is
significantly faster than the formats_... functions discussed below.
• author_links(val_separator, pair_separator) – returns a string containing a list of authors
and those authors link values in the form:
author1 val_separator author1_link pair_separator author2 val_separator author2_

,→link etc.
An author is separated from its link value by the val_separator string with no added spaces.
author:linkvalue pairs are separated by the pair_separator string argument with no added spaces.

It is up to you to choose separator strings that do not occur in author names or links. An author is included even
if the author link is empty.
• author_sorts(val_separator) – returns a string containing a list of authors sort values for the authors
of the book. The sort is the one in the author metadata information (different from the author_sort in books).
The returned list has the form author sort 1 val_separator author sort 2 etc. with no added
spaces. The author sort values in this list are in the same order as the authors of the book. If you want spaces
around val_separator then include them in the val_separator string.
• booksize() – returns the value of the calibre size field. Returns if there are no formats.
• check_yes_no(field_name, is_undefined, is_false, is_true) – checks if the value of
the yes/no field named by the lookup name field_name is one of the values specified by the parameters,
returning 'yes' if a match is found otherwise returning the empty string. Set the parameter is_undefined,
is_false, or is_true to 1 (the number) to check that condition, otherwise set it to 0. Example:
check_yes_no("#bool", 1, 0, 1) returns 'yes' if the yes/no field #bool is either True or unde-
fined (neither True nor False).
More than one of is_undefined, is_false, or is_true can be set to 1.
• ceiling(x) – returns the smallest integer greater than or equal to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
• cmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) – compares x and y after converting both to numbers. Returns lt if x <#
y, eq if x ==# y, otherwise gt. This function can usually be replaced with one of the numeric compare
operators (==#, <#, >#, etc).
• connected_device_name(storage_location_key) – if a device is connected then return the de-
vice name, otherwise return the empty string. Each storage location on a device has its own device name. The
storage_location_key names are 'main', 'carda' and 'cardb'. This function works only in the
GUI.
• connected_device_uuid(storage_location_key) – if a device is connected then return the de-
vice uuid (unique id), otherwise return the empty string. Each storage location on a device has a different uuid.
The storage_location_key location names are 'main', 'carda' and 'cardb'. This function works
only in the GUI.
• current_library_name() – return the last name on the path to the current calibre library.
• current_library_path() – return the full path to the current calibre library.
• days_between(date1, date2) – return the number of days between date1 and date2. The number
is positive if date1 is greater than date2, otherwise negative. If either date1 or date2 are not dates, the
function returns the empty string.
• divide(x, y) – returns x / y. Throws an exception if either x or y are not numbers. This function can
usually be replaced by the / operator.
• eval(string) – evaluates the string as a program, passing the local variables. This permits using the tem-
plate processor to construct complex results from local variables. In Template Program Mode (page 164),
because the { and } characters are interpreted before the template is evaluated you must use [[ for the { character
and ]] for the } character. They are converted automatically. Note also that prefixes and suffixes (the |prefix|suffix
syntax) cannot be used in the argument to this function when using Template Program Mode (page 164).
• field(lookup_name) – returns the value of the metadata field with lookup name lookup_name.
• field_exists(field_name) – checks if a field (column) with the lookup name field_name exists,
returning '1' if so and the empty string if not.
• finish_formatting(val, fmt, prefix, suffix) – apply the format, prefix, and suffix to a value
in the same way as done in a template like {series_index:05.2f| - |- }. This function is provided

to ease conversion of complex single-function- or template-program-mode templates to GPM Templates. For

example, the following program produces the same output as the above template:
program: finish_formatting(field("series_index"), "05.2f", " - ", " - ")
Another example: for the template {series:re(([^\s])[^\s]+(\s|$),\

1)}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} use:
program:
strcat(
re(field('series'), '([^\s])[^\s]+(\s|$)', '\1'),
finish_formatting(field('series_index'), '0>2s', ' - ', ' - '),
field('title')
)
• first_matching_cmp(val, [ cmp, result, ]* else_result) – compares val < cmp in

sequence, returning the associated result for the first comparison that succeeds. Returns else_result if no com-
parison succeeds. Example:
i = 10;
first_matching_cmp(i,5,"small",10,"middle",15,"large","giant")
returns "large". The same example with a first value of 16 returns "giant".
• first_non_empty(value [, value]*) – returns the first value that is not empty. If all values are
empty, then the empty string is returned. You can have as many values as you want.
• floor(x) – returns the largest integer less than or equal to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
• format_date(val, format_string) – format the value, which must be a date string, using the for-
mat_string, returning a string. The formatting codes are:
– d : the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
– dd : the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
– ddd : the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. Mon to Sun).
– dddd : the long localized day name (e.g. Monday to Sunday).
– M : the month as number without a leading zero (1 to 12).
– MM : the month as number with a leading zero (01 to 12)
– MMM : the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. Jan to Dec).
– MMMM : the long localized month name (e.g. January to December).
– yy : the year as two digit number (00 to 99).
– yyyy : the year as four digit number.
– h : the hours without a leading 0 (0 to 11 or 0 to 23, depending on am/pm)
– hh : the hours with a leading 0 (00 to 11 or 00 to 23, depending on am/pm)
– m : the minutes without a leading 0 (0 to 59)
– mm : the minutes with a leading 0 (00 to 59)
– s : the seconds without a leading 0 (0 to 59)
– ss : the seconds with a leading 0 (00 to 59)

– ap : use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with ap replaced by the localized string for am or
pm.
– AP : use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with AP replaced by the localized string for AM or
PM.
– iso : the date with time and timezone. Must be the only format present.
– to_number : convert the date & time into a floating point number (a timestamp)
– from_number : convert a floating point number (a timestamp) into an iso formatted date. If you
want a different date format then add the desired formatting string after from_number and a colon (:).
Example: from_number:MMM dd yyyy
You might get unexpected results if the date you are formatting contains localized month names, which can
happen if you changed the date format tweaks to contain MMMM. In this case, instead of using the field()
function as in:
format_date(field('pubdate'), 'yyyy')
use the raw_field() function as in:

format_date(raw_field('pubdate'), 'yyyy')
• formats_modtimes(date_format_string) – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated items

FMT:DATE representing modification times for the formats of a book. The date_format_string param-
eter specifies how the date is to be formatted. See the format_date() function for details. You can use
the select function to get the modification time for a specific format. Note that format names are always
uppercase, as in EPUB.
• formats_paths() – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated items FMT:PATH giving the full path
to the formats of a book. You can use the select function to get the path for a specific format. Note that format
names are always uppercase, as in EPUB.
• formats_sizes() – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated FMT:SIZE items giving the sizes in
bytes of the formats of a book. You can use the select function to get the size for a specific format. Note that
format names are always uppercase, as in EPUB.
• fractional_part(x) – returns the value after the decimal point. For example, fractional_part(3.
14) returns 0.14. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
• has_cover() – return 'Yes' if the book has a cover, otherwise the empty string.
• is_marked() – check whether the book is marked in calibre. If it is then return the value of the mark, either
'true' (lower case) or a comma-separated list of named marks. Returns '' (the empty string) if the book is
not marked. This function works only in the GUI.
• language_codes(lang_strings) – return the language codes89 for the language names passed in
lang_strings. The strings must be in the language of the current locale. Lang_strings is a comma-separated
list.
• list_contains(value, separator, [ pattern, found_val, ]* not_found_val) –
(Alias of in_list) Interpreting the value as a list of items separated by separator, evaluate the pattern
against each value in the list. If the pattern matches any value then return found_val, otherwise return
not_found_val. The pattern and found_value can be repeated as many times as desired, permitting
returning different values depending on the search. The patterns are checked in order. The first match is
returned. Aliases: in_list(), list_contains()
• list_count(value, separator) – interprets value as a list of items separated by separator, re-
turning the count of items in the list. Aliases: count(), list_count()

• list_count_matching(list, pattern, separator) – interprets list as a list of items sepa-

rated by separator, returning the number of items in the list that match the regular expression pattern.
Aliases: list_count_matching(), count_matching()
• list_difference(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by removing from list1 any
item found in list2 using a case-insensitive comparison. The items in list1 and list2 are separated by
separator, as are the items in the returned list.
• list_equals(list1, sep1, list2, sep2, yes_val, no_val) – return yes_val if list1
and list2 contain the same items, otherwise return no_val. The items are determined by splitting each list
using the appropriate separator character (sep1 or sep2). The order of items in the lists is not relevant. The
comparison is case-insensitive.
• list_intersection(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by removing from list1
any item not found in list2, using a case-insensitive comparison. The items in list1 and list2 are
separated by separator, as are the items in the returned list.
• list_re(src_list, separator, include_re, opt_replace) – Construct a list by first sepa-
rating src_list into items using the separator character. For each item in the list, check if it matches
include_re. If it does then add it to the list to be returned. If opt_replace is not the empty string then
apply the replacement before adding the item to the returned list.
• list_re_group(src_list, separator, include_re, search_re [,
template_for_group]*) – Like list_re except replacements are not optional. It uses re_group(item,
search_re, template ...) when doing the replacements.
• list_remove_duplicates(list, separator) – return a list made by removing duplicate items in
list. If items differ only in case then the last is returned. The items in list are separated by separator,
as are the items in the returned list.
• list_sort(list, direction, separator) – return list sorted using a case-insensitive lexical
sort. If direction is zero, list is sorted ascending, otherwise descending. The list items are separated by
separator, as are the items in the returned list.
• list_split(list_val, sep, id_prefix) – splits list_val into separate values using sep, then
assigns the values to local variables named id_prefix_N where N is the position of the value in the list. The
first item has position 0 (zero). The function returns the last element in the list.
Example:
list_split('one:two:foo', ':', 'var')
is equivalent to:
var_0 = 'one';
var_1 = 'two';
var_3 = 'foo
• list_union(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by merging the items in list1 and
list2, removing duplicate items using a case-insensitive comparison. If items differ in case, the one in list1
is used. The items in list1 and list2 are separated by separator, as are the items in the returned list.
Aliases: merge_lists(), list_union()
• mod(x, y) – returns the floor of the remainder of x / y. Throws an exception if either x or y is not a
number.
• multiply(x [, y]*) – returns the product of its arguments. Throws an exception if any argument is not a
number. This function can usually be replaced by the * operator.
• not(value) – returns the string 1 if the value is empty, otherwise returns the empty string. This function can
usually be replaced with the unary not (!) operator.

• ondevice() – return the string 'Yes' if ondevice is set, otherwise return the empty string.
• or(value [, value]*) – returns the string '1' if any value is not empty, otherwise returns the empty
string. You can have as many values as you want. This function can usually be replaced by the || operator. A
reason it cannot be replaced is if short-circuiting will change the results because of side effects.
• print(a [, b]*) – prints the arguments to standard output. Unless you start calibre from the command
line (calibre-debug -g), the output will go to a black hole. The print function always returns the empty
string.
• raw_field(lookup_name [, optional_default]) – returns the metadata field named by
lookup_name without applying any formatting. It evaluates and returns the optional second argument
optional_default if the fields value is undefined (None).
• raw_list(lookup_name, separator) – returns the metadata list named by lookup_name without
applying any formatting or sorting, with the items separated by separator.
• re_group(value, pattern [, template_for_group]*) – return a string made by applying the
regular expression pattern to value and replacing each matched instance with the the value returned by the cor-
responding template. In Template Program Mode (page 164), like for the template and the eval functions,
you use [[ for { and ]] for }.
The following example looks for a series with more than one word and uppercases the first word:
program: re_group(field('series'), "(\S* )(.*)", "{$:uppercase()}", "{$}")'}
• round(x) – returns the nearest integer to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.

• series_sort() – returns the series sort value.
• strcat(a [, b]*) – can take any number of arguments. Returns a string formed by concatenating all the
arguments.
• strcat_max(max, string1 [, prefix2, string2]*) – Returns a string formed by concatenat-
ing the arguments. The returned value is initialized to string1. Strings made from prefix, string pairs
are added to the end of the value as long as the resulting string length is less than max. Prefixes can be empty.
Returns string1 even if string1 is longer than max. You can pass as many prefix, string pairs as
you wish.
• strcmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) – does a case-insensitive lexical comparison of x and y. Returns lt if x <
y, eq if x == y, otherwise gt. This function can often be replaced by one of the lexical comparison operators
(==, >, <, etc.)
• strlen(value) – Returns the length of the string value.
• substr(str, start, end) – returns the startth through the endth characters of str. The first char-
acter in str is the zeroth character. If end is negative, then it indicates that many characters counting from the
right. If end is zero, then it indicates the last character. For example, substr('12345', 1, 0) returns
'2345', and substr('12345', 1, -1) returns '234'.
• subtract(x, y) – returns x - y. Throws an exception if either x or y are not numbers. This function can
usually be replaced by the - operator.
• today() – return a date+time string for today (now). This value is designed for use in format_date or
days_between, but can be manipulated like any other string. The date is in ISO90 date/time format.
• template(x) – evaluates x as a template. The evaluation is done in its own context, meaning that variables
are not shared between the caller and the template evaluation.
90 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

10.3.6 More complex programs in template expressions - Template Program Mode
Template Program Mode (TPM) is a blend of General Program Mode (page 155) and Single Function Mode
(page 151). TPM differs from Single Function Mode in that it permits writing template expressions that refer to
other metadata fields, use nested functions, modify variables, and do arithmetic. It differs from General Program
Mode in that the template is contained between { and } characters and doesnt begin with the word program:. The
program portion of the template is a General Program Mode expression list.
Example: assume you want a template to show the series for a book if it has one, otherwise show the value of a custom
field #genre. You cannot do this in the Single Function Mode (page 151) because you cannot make reference to another
metadata field within a template expression. In TPM you can, as the following expression demonstrates:
{#series:'ifempty($, field('#genre'))'}
The example shows several things:

• TPM is used if the expression begins with :' and ends with '. Anything else is assumed to be in Single
Function Mode (page 151).
• the variable $ stands for the field named in the template: the expression is operating upon, #series in this
case.
• functions must be given all their arguments. There is no default value. For example, the standard built-in
functions must be given an additional initial parameter indicating the source field.
• white space is ignored and can be used anywhere within the expression.
• constant strings are enclosed in matching quotes, either ' or ".
All the functions listed under Single Function Mode and General Program Mode can be used in TPM.
In TPM, using { and } characters in string literals can lead to errors or unexpected results because they confuse the
template processor. It tries to treat them as template expression boundaries, not characters. In some but not all cases
you can replace a { with [[ and a } with ]]. Generally, if your program contains { and } characters then you should
use General Program Mode.
As with General Program Mode, for functions documented under Single Function Mode (page 151) you must supply
the value the function is to act upon as the first parameter in addition to the documented parameters. In TPM you can
use $ to access the value specified by the lookup name for the template expression.
10.3.7 Stored General Program Mode Templates
General Program Mode (page 155) supports saving templates and calling those templates from another template,
much like calling stored functions. You save templates using Preferences→Advanced→Template functions. More
information is provided in that dialog. You call a template the same way you call a function, passing positional
arguments if desired. An argument can be any expression. Examples of calling a template, assuming the stored
template is named foo:
• foo() – call the template passing no arguments.
• foo(a, b) call the template passing the values of the two variables a and b.
• foo(if field('series') then field('series_index') else 0 fi) – if the book has a
series then pass the series_index, otherwise pass the value 0.
You retrieve the arguments passed in the call to the stored template using the arguments function. It both declares
and initializes local variables, effectively parameters. The variables are positional; they get the value of the value given
in the call in the same position. If the corresponding parameter is not provided in the call then arguments assigns
that variable the provided default value. If there is no default value then the variable is set to the empty string. For
example, the following arguments function declares 2 variables, key, alternate:

arguments(key, alternate='series')
Examples, again assuming the stored template is named foo:

• foo('#myseries') – argument key is assigned the value 'myseries' and the argument alternate
is assigned the default value 'series'.
• foo('series', '#genre') the variable key is assigned the value 'series' and the variable
alternate is assigned the value '#genre'.
• foo() – the variable key is assigned the empty string and the variable alternate is assigned the value
'series'.
An easy way to test stored templates is using the Template tester dialog. For ease of access give it a keyboard
shortcut in Preferences→Advanced→Keyboard shortcuts→Template tester. Giving the Stored templates dialog
a shortcut will help switching more rapidly between the tester and editing the stored templates source code.
10.3.8 Providing additional information to templates
A developer can choose to pass additional information to the template processor, such as application-specific book
metadata or information about what the processor is being asked to do. A template can access this information and
use it during the evaluation.
Developer: how to pass additional information
The additional information is a Python dictionary containing pairs variable_name: variable_value
where the values must be strings. The template can access the dict, creating template local variables named
variable_name containing the value variable_value. The user cannot change the name so it is best to use
names that wont collide with other template local variables, for example by prefixing the name with an underscore.
This dict is passed to the template processor (the formatter) using the named parameter
global_vars=your_dict. The full method signature is:
def safe_format(self, fmt, kwargs, error_value, book,

column_name=None, template_cache=None,
strip_results=True, template_functions=None,
global_vars={})
Template writer: how to access the additional information

You access the additional information (the globals dict) in a template using the template function:
globals(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*)
where id is any legal variable name. This function checks whether the additional information provided by the de-
veloper contains the name. If it does then the function assigns the provided value to a template local variable with
that name. If the name is not in the additional information and if an expression is provided, the expression is
evaluated and the result is assigned to the local variable. If neither a value nor an expression is provided, the function
assigns the empty string ('') to the local variable.
A template can set a value in the globals dict using the template function:
set_globals(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*)
This function sets the globals dict key:value pair id:value where value is the value of the template local
variable id. If that local variable doesnt exist then value is set to the result of evaluating expression.

10.3.9 Notes on the difference between modes
The three program modes, Single Function Mode (page 151) (SFM), Template Program Mode (page 164) (TPM),
and General Program Mode (page 155) (GPM), work differently. SFM is intended to be simple so it hides a lot of
programming language bits.
Differences:
• In SFM the value of the column is always passed as an invisible first argument to a function included in the
template.
• SFM doesnt support the difference between variables and strings; all values are strings.
• The following SFM template returns either the series name or the string no series:
{series:ifempty(no series)}
The equivalent template in TPM is
{series:'ifempty($, 'no series')'}
The equivalent template in GPM is:
program: ifempty(field('series'), 'no series')
The first argument to ifempty is the value of the field series. The second argument is the string no
series. In SFM the first argument, the value of the field, is automatically passed (the invisible argument).
• Several template functions, for example booksize() and current_library_name(), take no argu-
ments. Because of the invisible argument you cannot use these functions in SFM.
• Nested functions, where a function calls another function to compute an argument, cannot be used in SFM. For
example this template, intended to return the first 5 characters of the series value uppercased, wont work in
SFM:
{series:uppercase(substr(0,5))}
• TPM and GPM support nested functions. The above template in TPM would be:
{series:'uppercase(substr($, 0,5))'}
In GPM it would be:
program: uppercase(substr(field('series'), 0,5))
• As noted in the above Template Program Mode (page 164) section, using { and } characters in TPM string
literals can lead to errors or unexpected results because they confuse the template processor. It tries to treat them
as template boundaries, not characters. In some but not all cases you can replace a { with [[ and a } with ]].
Generally, if your program contains { and } characters then you should use General Program Mode.

10.3.10 User-defined Python template functions
You can add your own Python functions to the template processor. Such functions can be used in any of the three
template programming modes. The functions are added by going to Preferences → Advanced → Template functions.
Instructions are shown in that dialog.
10.3.11 Special notes for save/send templates
Special processing is applied when a template is used in a save to disk or send to device template. The values of the
fields are cleaned, replacing characters that are special to file systems with underscores, including slashes. This means
that field text cannot be used to create folders. However, slashes are not changed in prefix or suffix strings, so slashes
in these strings will cause folders to be created. Because of this, you can create variable-depth folder structure.
For example, assume we want the folder structure series/series_index - title, with the caveat that if series does not
exist, then the title should be in the top folder. The template to do this is:
{series:||/}{series_index:|| - }{title}
The slash and the hyphen appear only if series is not empty.
The lookup function lets us do even fancier processing. For example, assume that if a book has a series, then we want
the folder structure series/series index - title.fmt. If the book does not have a series then we want the folder structure
genre/author_sort/title.fmt. If the book has no genre then we want to use Unknown. We want two completely different
paths, depending on the value of series.
To accomplish this, we:
1. Create a composite field (give it lookup name #aa) containing {series}/{series_index} - {title}.
If the series is not empty, then this template will produce series/series_index - title.
2. Create a composite field (give it lookup name #bb) containing {#genre:ifempty(Unknown)}/
{author_sort}/{title}. This template produces genre/author_sort/title, where an empty genre is re-
placed with Unknown.
3. Set the save template to {series:lookup(.,#aa,#bb}. This template chooses composite field #aa if
series is not empty and composite field #bb if series is empty. We therefore have two completely different save
paths, depending on whether or not series is empty.
10.3.12 Templates and plugboards
Plugboards are used for changing the metadata written into books during send-to-device and save-to-disk operations.
A plugboard permits you to specify a template to provide the data to write into the books metadata. You can use
plugboards to modify the following fields: authors, author_sort, language, publisher, tags, title, title_sort. This feature
helps people who want to use different metadata in books on devices to solve sorting or display issues.
When you create a plugboard, you specify the format and device for which the plugboard is to be used. A special
device is provided, save_to_disk, that is used when saving formats (as opposed to sending them to a device).
Once you have chosen the format and device, you choose the metadata fields to change, providing templates to supply
the new values. These templates are connected to their destination fields, hence the name plugboards. You can of
course use composite columns in these templates.
When a plugboard might apply (Content server, save to disk, or send to device), calibre searches the defined plugboards
to choose the correct one for the given format and device. For example, to find the appropriate plugboard for an EPUB
book being sent to an ANDROID device, calibre searches the plugboards using the following search order:
• a plugboard with an exact match on format and device, e.g., EPUB and ANDROID

• a plugboard with an exact match on format and the special any device choice, e.g., EPUB and any device
• a plugboard with the special any format choice and an exact match on device, e.g., any format and
ANDROID
• a plugboard with any format and any device
The tags and authors fields have special treatment, because both of these fields can hold more than one item. A book
can have many tags and many authors. When you specify that one of these two fields is to be changed, the templates
result is examined to see if more than one item is there. For tags, the result is cut apart wherever calibre finds a comma.
For example, if the template produces the value Thriller, Horror, then the result will be two tags, Thriller
and Horror. There is no way to put a comma in the middle of a tag.
The same thing happens for authors, but using a different character for the cut, a & (ampersand) instead of a comma.
For example, if the template produces the value Blogs, Joe&Posts, Susan, then the book will end up with two
authors, Blogs, Joe and Posts, Susan. If the template produces the value Blogs, Joe;Posts, Susan,
then the book will have one author with a rather strange name.
Plugboards affect the metadata written into the book when it is saved to disk or written to the device. Plugboards
do not affect the metadata used by save to disk and send to device to create the file names. Instead, file
names are constructed using the templates entered on the appropriate preferences window.
10.3.13 Tips:
• Use the Template Tester to test templates. Add the tester to the context menu for books in the library and/or give
it a keyboard shortcut.
• Templates can use other templates by referencing composite columns built with the desired template. Alterna-
tively, you can use Stored Templates.
• In a plugboard, you can set a field to empty (or whatever is equivalent to empty) by using the special template
{}. This template will always evaluate to an empty string.
• The technique described above to show numbers even if they have a zero value works with the standard field
series_index.
10.3.14 Function reference
Reference for all built-in template language functions
Here, we document all the built-in functions available in the calibre template language. Every function is implemented
as a class in python and you can click the source links to see the source code, in case the documentation is insufficient.
The functions are arranged in logical groups by type.
• Arithmetic (page 172)

– add(x [, y]*) (page 172)
– ceiling(x) (page 172)
– divide(x, y) (page 172)
– floor(x) (page 172)
– fractional_part(x) (page 172)
– mod(x) (page 172)

– multiply(x [, y]*) (page 172)

– round(x) (page 173)
– subtract(x, y) (page 173)
• Boolean (page 173)
– and(value [, value]*) (page 173)
– not(value) (page 173)
– or(value [, value]*) (page 173)
• Date functions (page 173)
– days_between(date1, date2) (page 173)
– today() (page 174)
• Formatting values (page 174)
– finish_formatting(val, fmt, prefix, suffix) (page 174)
– format_date(val, format_string) (page 174)
– format_number(v, template) (page 175)
– human_readable(v) (page 175)
– rating_to_stars(value, use_half_stars) (page 175)
• Get values from metadata (page 175)
– annotation_count() (page 175)
– approximate_formats() (page 175)
– author_links(val_separator, pair_separator) (page 175)
– author_sorts(val_separator) (page 176)
– booksize() (page 176)
– connected_device_name(storage_location) (page 176)
– connected_device_uuid(storage_location) (page 176)
– current_library_name() (page 176)
– current_library_path() (page 176)
– field(lookup_name) (page 177)
– formats_modtimes(date_format) (page 177)
– formats_paths() (page 177)
– formats_sizes() (page 177)
– has_cover() (page 177)
– is_marked() (page 177)
– language_codes(lang_strings) (page 177)
– language_strings(lang_codes, localize) (page 178)
– ondevice() (page 178)

– raw_field(lookup_name [, optional_default]) (page 178)

– raw_list(lookup_name, separator) (page 178)
– series_sort() (page 178)
– user_categories() (page 178)
– virtual_libraries() (page 179)
• If-then-else (page 179)
– check_yes_no(field_name, is_undefined, is_false, is_true) (page 179)
– contains(val, pattern, text if match, text if not match) (page 179)
– field_exists(field_name) (page 179)
– ifempty(val, text if empty) (page 179)
– test(val, text if not empty, text if empty) (page 179)
• Iterating over values (page 180)
– first_non_empty(value [, value]*) (page 180)
– lookup(val, [pattern, field,]+ else_field) (page 180)
– switch(val, [pattern, value,]+ else_value) (page 180)
• List lookup (page 180)
– identifier_in_list(val, id, found_val, not_found_val) (page 180)
– in_list(val, separator, [ pattern, found_val, ]+ not_found_val) (page 180)
– list_item(val, index, separator) (page 181)
– select(val, key) (page 181)
– str_in_list(val, separator, [string, found_val, ]+ not_found_val) (page 181)
• List manipulation (page 181)
– count(val, separator) (page 181)
– list_count_matching(list, pattern, separator) (page 181)
– list_difference(list1, list2, separator) (page 182)
– list_equals(list1, sep1, list2, sep2, yes_val, no_val) (page 182)
– list_intersection(list1, list2, separator) (page 182)
– list_re(src_list, separator, include_re, opt_replace) (page 182)
– list_re_group(src_list, separator, include_re, search_re [, group_template]+) (page 182)
– list_remove_duplicates(list, separator) (page 182)
– list_sort(list, direction, separator) (page 183)
– list_split(list_val, sep, id_prefix) (page 183)
– list_union(list1, list2, separator) (page 183)
– subitems(val, start_index, end_index) (page 183)
– sublist(val, start_index, end_index, separator) (page 183)

• Other (page 184)

– assign(id, val) (page 184)
– print(a[, b]*) (page 184)
• Recursion (page 184)
– eval(template) (page 184)
– template(x) (page 184)
• Relational (page 184)
– cmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) (page 184)
– first_matching_cmp(val, [cmp1, result1,]+, else_result) (page 185)
– strcmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) (page 185)
• String case changes (page 185)
– capitalize(val) (page 185)
– lowercase(val) (page 185)
– titlecase(val) (page 185)
– uppercase(val) (page 185)
• String manipulation (page 185)
– re(val, pattern, replacement) (page 185)
– re_group(val, pattern [, template_for_group]*) (page 186)
– shorten(val, left chars, middle text, right chars) (page 186)
– strcat(a [, b]*) (page 186)
– strcat_max(max, string1 [, prefix2, string2]*) (page 186)
– strlen(a) (page 186)
– substr(str, start, end) (page 186)
– swap_around_articles(val, separator) (page 187)
– swap_around_comma(val) (page 187)
– transliterate(a) (page 187)
• other (page 187)
– arguments(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*) (page 187)
– globals(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*) (page 187)
• API of the Metadata objects (page 187)

Arithmetic
add(x [, y]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAdd
add(x [, y]*) – returns the sum of its arguments. Throws an exception if an argument is not a number. This
function can often be replaced with the + operator.
ceiling(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCeiling
ceiling(x) – returns the smallest integer greater than or equal to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
divide(x, y)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinDivide
divide(x, y) – returns x / y. Throws an exception if either x or y are not numbers. This function can often be
replaced with the / operator.
floor(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFloor
floor(x) – returns the largest integer less than or equal to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
fractional_part(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFractionalPart
fractional_part(x) – returns the value after the decimal point. For example, fractional_part(3.14) returns 0.14.
Throws an exception if x is not a number.
mod(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinMod
mod(x) – returns floor(remainder of x / y). Throws an exception if either x or y is not a number.
multiply(x [, y]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinMultiply
multiply(x [, y]*) – returns the product of its arguments. Throws an exception if any argument is not a number.
This function can often be replaced with the * operator.

round(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinRound
round(x) – returns the nearest integer to x. Throws an exception if x is not a number.
subtract(x, y)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSubtract
subtract(x, y) – returns x - y. Throws an exception if either x or y are not numbers. This function can often be
replaced with the - operator.
Boolean
and(value [, value]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAnd
and(value [, value]*) – returns the string 1 if all values are not empty, otherwise returns the empty string. This
function works well with test or first_non_empty. You can have as many values as you want. In many cases the
&& operator can replace this function.
not(value)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinNot
not(value) – returns the string 1 if the value is empty, otherwise returns the empty string. This function works
well with test or first_non_empty. In many cases the ! operator can replace this function.
or(value [, value]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinOr
or(value [, value]*) – returns the string 1 if any value is not empty, otherwise returns the empty string. This
function works well with test or first_non_empty. You can have as many values as you want. In many cases the
|| operator can replace this function.
Date functions
days_between(date1, date2)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinDaysBetween
days_between(date1, date2) – return the number of days between date1 and date2. The number is positive if
date1 is greater than date2, otherwise negative. If either date1 or date2 are not dates, the function returns the
empty string.

today()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinToday
today() – return a date string for today. This value is designed for use in format_date or days_between, but can
be manipulated like any other string. The date is in ISO format.
Formatting values
finish_formatting(val, fmt, prefix, suffix)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFinishFormatting
finish_formatting(val, fmt, prefix, suffix) – apply the format, prefix, and suffix to a value in the same way as
done in a template like {series_index:05.2f| - |- }. For example, the following program produces the same output
as the above template: program: finish_formatting(field(series_index), 05.2f, - , - )
format_date(val, format_string)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFormatDate
format_date(val, format_string) – format the value, which must be a date, using the format_string, returning a
string. The formatting codes are: d : the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31) dd : the day as number
with a leading zero (01 to 31) ddd : the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. Mon to Sun). dddd : the long
localized day name (e.g. Monday to Sunday). M : the month as number without a leading zero (1 to 12). MM :
the month as number with a leading zero (01 to 12) MMM : the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. Jan to
Dec). MMMM : the long localized month name (e.g. January to December). yy : the year as two digit number
(00 to 99). yyyy : the year as four digit number. h : the hours without a leading 0 (0 to 11 or 0 to 23, depending
on am/pm) hh : the hours with a leading 0 (00 to 11 or 00 to 23, depending on am/pm) m : the minutes without
a leading 0 (0 to 59) mm : the minutes with a leading 0 (00 to 59) s : the seconds without a leading 0 (0 to 59)
ss : the seconds with a leading 0 (00 to 59) ap : use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with ap replaced
by the localized string for am or pm AP : use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with AP replaced
by the localized string for AM or PM iso : the date with time and timezone. Must be the only format present
to_number: the date as a floating point number from_number[:fmt]: format the timestamp using fmt if present
otherwise iso

format_number(v, template)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFormatNumber
format_number(v, template) – format the number v using a Python formatting template such as {0:5.2f} or
{0:,d} or ${0:5,.2f}. The field_name part of the template must be a 0 (zero) (the {0: in the above examples).
See the template language and Python documentation for more examples. You can leave off the leading {0: and
trailing } if the template contains only a format. Returns the empty string if formatting fails.
human_readable(v)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinHumanReadable
human_readable(v) – return a string representing the number v in KB, MB, GB, etc.
rating_to_stars(value, use_half_stars)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinRatingToStars
rating_to_stars(value, use_half_stars) – Returns the rating as string of star characters. The value is a number
between 0 and 5. Set use_half_stars to 1 if you want half star characters for custom ratings columns that support
non-integer ratings, for example 2.5.
Get values from metadata
annotation_count()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAnnotationCount
annotation_count() – return the total number of annotations of all types attached to the current book. This
function works only in the GUI.
approximate_formats()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinApproximateFormats
approximate_formats() – return a comma-separated list of formats that at one point were associated with the
book. There is no guarantee that this list is correct, although it probably is. This function can be called in
template program mode using the template {:approximate_formats()}. Note that format names are always up-
percase, as in EPUB. This function works only in the GUI. If you want to use these values in save-to-disk or
send-to-device templates then you must make a custom Column built from other columns, use the function in
that columns template, and use that columns value in your save/send templates
author_links(val_separator, pair_separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAuthorLinks
author_links(val_separator, pair_separator) – returns a string containing a list of authors and that authors link
values in the form author1 val_separator author1link pair_separator author2 val_separator author2link etc. An
author is separated from its link value by the val_separator string with no added spaces. author:linkvalue pairs
are separated by the pair_separator string argument with no added spaces. It is up to you to choose separator
strings that do not occur in author names or links. An author is included even if the author link is empty.

author_sorts(val_separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAuthorSorts
author_sorts(val_separator) – returns a string containing a list of authors sort values for the authors of the book.
The sort is the one in the author metadata (different from the author_sort in books). The returned list has the
form author sort 1 val_separator author sort 2 etc. The author sort values in this list are in the same order as the
authors of the book. If you want spaces around val_separator then include them in the separator string
booksize()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinBooksize
booksize() – return value of the size field. This function works only in the GUI. If you want to use this value in
save-to-disk or send-to-device templates then you must make a custom Column built from other columns, use
the function in that columns template, and use that columns value in your save/send templates
connected_device_name(storage_location)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinConnectedDeviceName
connected_device_name(storage_location) – if a device is connected then return the device name, otherwise
return the empty string. Each storage location on a device can have a different name. The location names are
main, carda and cardb. This function works only in the GUI.
connected_device_uuid(storage_location)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinConnectedDeviceUUID
connected_device_uuid(storage_location) – if a device is connected then return the device uuid (unique id),
otherwise return the empty string. Each storage location on a device has a different uuid. The location names
are main, carda and cardb. This function works only in the GUI.
current_library_name()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCurrentLibraryName
current_library_name() – return the last name on the path to the current calibre library. This function can be
called in template program mode using the template {:current_library_name()}.
current_library_path()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCurrentLibraryPath
current_library_path() – return the path to the current calibre library. This function can be called in template
program mode using the template {:current_library_path()}.

field(lookup_name)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinField
field(lookup_name) – returns the metadata field named by lookup_name
formats_modtimes(date_format)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFormatsModtimes
formats_modtimes(date_format) – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated items representing modifi-
cation times for the formats of a book. The date_format parameter specifies how the date is to be formatted. See
the format_date function for details. You can use the select function to get the mod time for a specific format.
Note that format names are always uppercase, as in EPUB.
formats_paths()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFormatsPaths
formats_paths() – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated items representing full path to the formats
of a book. You can use the select function to get the path for a specific format. Note that format names are
always uppercase, as in EPUB.
formats_sizes()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFormatsSizes
formats_sizes() – return a comma-separated list of colon-separated items representing sizes in bytes of the
formats of a book. You can use the select function to get the size for a specific format. Note that format names
are always uppercase, as in EPUB.
has_cover()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinHasCover
has_cover() – return Yes if the book has a cover, otherwise return the empty string
is_marked()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinIsMarked
is_marked() – check whether the book is marked in calibre. If it is then return the value of the mark, either true
or the comma-separated list of named marks. Returns if the book is not marked.
language_codes(lang_strings)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinLanguageCodes
language_codes(lang_strings) – return the language codes for the strings passed in lang_strings. The strings
must be in the language of the current locale. Lang_strings is a comma-separated list.

language_strings(lang_codes, localize)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinLanguageStrings
language_strings(lang_codes, localize) – return the strings for the language codes passed in lang_codes. If
localize is zero, return the strings in English. If localize is not zero, return the strings in the language of the
current locale. Lang_codes is a comma-separated list.
ondevice()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinOndevice
ondevice() – return Yes if ondevice is set, otherwise return the empty string. This function works only in the
GUI. If you want to use this value in save-to-disk or send-to-device templates then you must make a custom
Column built from other columns, use the function in that columns template, and use that columns value in your
save/send templates
raw_field(lookup_name [, optional_default])
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinRawField
raw_field(lookup_name [, optional_default]) – returns the metadata field named by lookup_name without ap-
plying any formatting. It evaluates and returns the optional second argument default if the field is undefined
(None).
raw_list(lookup_name, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinRawList
raw_list(lookup_name, separator) – returns the metadata list named by lookup_name without applying any
formatting or sorting and with items separated by separator.
series_sort()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSeriesSort
series_sort() – return the series sort value
user_categories()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinUserCategories
user_categories() – return a comma-separated list of the user categories that contain this book. This function
works only in the GUI. If you want to use these values in save-to-disk or send-to-device templates then you
must make a custom Column built from other columns, use the function in that columns template, and use that
columns value in your save/send templates

virtual_libraries()
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinVirtualLibraries
virtual_libraries() – return a comma-separated list of Virtual libraries that contain this book. This function works
only in the GUI. If you want to use these values in save-to-disk or send-to-device templates then you must make
a custom Column built from other columns, use the function in that columns template, and use that columns
value in your save/send templates
If-then-else
check_yes_no(field_name, is_undefined, is_false, is_true)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCheckYesNo
check_yes_no(field_name, is_undefined, is_false, is_true) – checks the value of the yes/no field named by the
lookup key field_name for a value specified by the parameters, returning yes if a match is found, otherwise
returning an empty string. Set the parameter is_undefined, is_false, or is_true to 1 (the number) to check that
condition, otherwise set it to 0. Example: check_yes_no(#bool, 1, 0, 1) returns yes if the yes/no field #bool is
either undefined (neither True nor False) or True. More than one of is_undefined, is_false, or is_true can be set
to 1. This function is usually used by the test() or is_empty() functions.
contains(val, pattern, text if match, text if not match)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinContains
contains(val, pattern, text if match, text if not match) – checks if val contains matches for the regular expression
pattern. Returns text if match if matches are found, otherwise it returns text if no match
field_exists(field_name)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFieldExists
field_exists(field_name) – checks if a field (column) named field_name exists, returning 1 if so and if not.
ifempty(val, text if empty)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinIfempty
ifempty(val, text if empty) – return val if val is not empty, otherwise return text if empty
test(val, text if not empty, text if empty)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinTest
test(val, text if not empty, text if empty) – return text if not empty if val is not empty, otherwise return text if
empty

Iterating over values
first_non_empty(value [, value]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFirstNonEmpty
first_non_empty(value [, value]*) – returns the first value that is not empty. If all values are empty, then the
empty string is returned. You can have as many values as you want.
lookup(val, [pattern, field,]+ else_field)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinLookup
lookup(val, [pattern, field,]+ else_field) – like switch, except the arguments are field (metadata) names, not text.
The value of the appropriate field will be fetched and used. Note that because composite columns are fields, you
can use this function in one composite field to use the value of some other composite field. This is extremely
useful when constructing variable save paths
switch(val, [pattern, value,]+ else_value)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSwitch
switch(val, [pattern, value,]+ else_value) – for each pattern, value pair, checks if val matches the regular ex-
pression pattern and if so, returns that value. If no pattern matches, then else_value is returned. You can have
as many pattern, value pairs as you want
List lookup
identifier_in_list(val, id, found_val, not_found_val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinIdentifierInList
identifier_in_list(val, id, found_val, not_found_val) – treat val as a list of identifiers separated by commas,
comparing the string against each value in the list. An identifier has the format identifier:value. The id parameter
should be either id or id:regexp. The first case matches if there is any identifier with that id. The second case
matches if the regexp matches the identifiers value. If there is a match, return found_val, otherwise return
not_found_val.
in_list(val, separator, [ pattern, found_val, ]+ not_found_val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinInList
in_list(val, separator, [ pattern, found_val, ]+ not_found_val) – treating val as a list of items separated by sepa-
rator, if the pattern matches any of the list values then return found_val.If the pattern matches no list value then
return not_found_val. The pattern and found_value pairs can be repeated as many times as desired. The patterns
are checked in order. The found_val for the first match is returned. Aliases: in_list(), list_contains()

list_item(val, index, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListitem
list_item(val, index, separator) – interpret the value as a list of items separated by separator, returning the
index`th item. The first item is number zero. The last item can be returned using `list_item(-1,separator). If
the item is not in the list, then the empty value is returned. The separator has the same meaning as in the count
function.
select(val, key)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSelect
select(val, key) – interpret the value as a comma-separated list of items, with the items being id:value. Find the
pair with the id equal to key, and return the corresponding value. Returns the empty string if no match is found.
str_in_list(val, separator, [string, found_val, ]+ not_found_val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinStrInList
str_in_list(val, separator, [string, found_val, ]+ not_found_val) – treating val as a list of items separated by
separator, if the string matches any of the list values then return found_val.If the string matches no list value
then return not_found_val. The comparison is exact match (not contains) and is case insensitive. The string and
found_value pairs can be repeated as many times as desired. The patterns are checked in order. The found_val
for the first match is returned.
List manipulation
count(val, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCount
count(val, separator) – interprets the value as a list of items separated by separator, returning the number of items
in the list. Most lists use a comma as the separator, but authors uses an ampersand. Examples: {tags:count(,)},
{authors:count(&)}. Aliases: count(), list_count()
list_count_matching(list, pattern, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListCountMatching
list_count_matching(list, pattern, separator) – interprets list as a list of items separated by separator, return-
ing the number of items in the list that match the regular expression pattern. Aliases: list_count_matching(),
count_matching()

list_difference(list1, list2, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListDifference
list_difference(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by removing from list1 any item found in list2, using
a case-insensitive comparison. The items in list1 and list2 are separated by separator, as are the items in the
returned list.
list_equals(list1, sep1, list2, sep2, yes_val, no_val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListEquals
list_equals(list1, sep1, list2, sep2, yes_val, no_val) – return yes_val if list1 and list2 contain the same items,
otherwise return no_val. The items are determined by splitting each list using the appropriate separator character
(sep1 or sep2). The order of items in the lists is not relevant. The comparison is case insensitive.
list_intersection(list1, list2, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListIntersection
list_intersection(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by removing from list1 any item not found in list2,
using a case-insensitive comparison. The items in list1 and list2 are separated by separator, as are the items in
the returned list.
list_re(src_list, separator, include_re, opt_replace)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListRe
list_re(src_list, separator, include_re, opt_replace) – Construct a list by first separating src_list into items using
the separator character. For each item in the list, check if it matches include_re. If it does, then add it to the list
to be returned. If opt_replace is not the empty string, then apply the replacement before adding the item to the
returned list.
list_re_group(src_list, separator, include_re, search_re [, group_template]+)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListReGroup
list_re_group(src_list, separator, include_re, search_re [, group_template]+) – Like list_re except replacements
are not optional. It uses re_group(list_item, search_re, group_template, ) when doing the replacements on the
resulting list.
list_remove_duplicates(list, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListRemoveDuplicates
list_remove_duplicates(list, separator) – return a list made by removing duplicate items in the source list. If
items differ only in case, the last of them is returned. The items in source list are separated by separator, as are
the items in the returned list.

list_sort(list, direction, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListSort
list_sort(list, direction, separator) – return list sorted using a case-insensitive sort. If direction is zero, the list
is sorted ascending, otherwise descending. The list items are separated by separator, as are the items in the
returned list.
list_split(list_val, sep, id_prefix)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListSplit
list_split(list_val, sep, id_prefix) – splits the list_val into separate values using sep, then assigns the values to
variables named id_prefix_N where N is the position of the value in the list. The first item has position 0 (zero).
The function returns the last element in the list. Example: split(one:two:foo, :, var) is equivalent to var_0 = one;
var_1 = two; var_3 = foo.
list_union(list1, list2, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinListUnion
list_union(list1, list2, separator) – return a list made by merging the items in list1 and list2, removing duplicate
items using a case-insensitive comparison. If items differ in case, the one in list1 is used. The items in list1 and
list2 are separated by separator, as are the items in the returned list. Aliases: list_union(), merge_lists()
subitems(val, start_index, end_index)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSubitems
subitems(val, start_index, end_index) – This function is used to break apart lists of items such as genres. It
interprets the value as a comma-separated list of items, where each item is a period-separated list. Returns a
new list made by first finding all the period-separated items, then for each such item extracting the start_index
to the end_index components, then combining the results back together. The first component in a period-
separated list has an index of zero. If an index is negative, then it counts from the end of the list. As a
special case, an end_index of zero is assumed to be the length of the list. Example using basic template mode
and assuming a #genre value of A.B.C: {#genre:subitems(0,1)} returns A. {#genre:subitems(0,2)} returns A.B.
{#genre:subitems(1,0)} returns B.C. Assuming a #genre value of A.B.C, D.E.F, {#genre:subitems(0,1)} returns
A, D. {#genre:subitems(0,2)} returns A.B, D.E
sublist(val, start_index, end_index, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSublist
sublist(val, start_index, end_index, separator) – interpret the value as a list of items separated by separator,
returning a new list made from the start_index to the end_index item. The first item is number zero. If an index
is negative, then it counts from the end of the list. As a special case, an end_index of zero is assumed to be the
length of the list. Examples using basic template mode and assuming that the tags column (which is comma-
separated) contains A, B, C: {tags:sublist(0,1,\,)} returns A. {tags:sublist(-1,0,\,)} returns C. {tags:sublist(0,-
1,\,)} returns A, B.

Other
assign(id, val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinAssign
assign(id, val) – assigns val to id, then returns val. id must be an identifier, not an expression. This function can
often be replaced with the = operator.
print(a[, b]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinPrint
print(a[, b]*) – prints the arguments to standard output. Unless you start calibre from the command line (calibre-
debug -g), the output will go to a black hole.
Recursion
eval(template)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinEval
eval(template) – evaluates the template, passing the local variables (those assigned to) instead of the book
metadata. This permits using the template processor to construct complex results from local variables. Because
the { and } characters are special, you must use [[ for the { character and ]] for the } character; they are converted
automatically. Note also that prefixes and suffixes (the |prefix|suffix syntax) cannot be used in the argument to
this function when using template program mode.
template(x)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinTemplate
template(x) – evaluates x as a template. The evaluation is done in its own context, meaning that variables
are not shared between the caller and the template evaluation. Because the { and } characters are special,
you must use [[ for the { character and ]] for the } character; they are converted automatically. For example,
template([[title_sort]]) will evaluate the template {title_sort} and return its value. Note also that prefixes and
suffixes (the |prefix|suffix syntax) cannot be used in the argument to this function when using template program
mode.
Relational
cmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCmp
cmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) – compares x and y after converting both to numbers. Returns lt if x < y. Returns eq if x
== y. Otherwise returns gt. In many cases the numeric comparison operators (>#, <#, ==# etc) can replace this
function.

first_matching_cmp(val, [cmp1, result1,]+, else_result)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinFirstMatchingCmp
first_matching_cmp(val, [cmp1, result1,]+, else_result) – compares val < cmpN in sequence, returning re-
sultN for the first comparison that succeeds. Returns else_result if no comparison succeeds. Example:
first_matching_cmp(10,5,small,10,middle,15,large,giant) returns large. The same example with a first value
of 16 returns giant.
strcmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinStrcmp
strcmp(x, y, lt, eq, gt) – does a case-insensitive comparison of x and y as strings. Returns lt if x < y. Returns eq
if x == y. Otherwise returns gt. In many cases the lexical comparison operators (>, <, == etc) can replace this
function.
String case changes
capitalize(val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinCapitalize
capitalize(val) – return val capitalized
lowercase(val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinLowercase
lowercase(val) – return val in lower case
titlecase(val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinTitlecase
titlecase(val) – return val in title case
uppercase(val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinUppercase
uppercase(val) – return val in upper case
String manipulation
re(val, pattern, replacement)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinRe
re(val, pattern, replacement) – return val after applying the regular expression. All instances of pattern are
replaced with replacement. As in all of calibre, these are Python-compatible regular expressions

re_group(val, pattern [, template_for_group]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinReGroup
re_group(val, pattern [, template_for_group]*) – return a string made by applying the regular expression pattern
to the val and replacing each matched instance with the string computed by replacing each matched group by
the value returned by the corresponding template. The original matched value for the group is available as $. In
template program mode, like for the template and the eval functions, you use [[ for { and ]] for }. The following
example in template program mode looks for series with more than one word and uppercases the first word:
{series:re_group($, (S* )(.*), [[$:uppercase()]], [[$]])}
shorten(val, left chars, middle text, right chars)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinShorten
shorten(val, left chars, middle text, right chars) – Return a shortened version of val, consisting of left chars
characters from the beginning of val, followed by middle text, followed by right chars characters from the end
of the string. Left chars and right chars must be integers. For example, assume the title of the book is Ancient
English Laws in the Times of Ivanhoe, and you want it to fit in a space of at most 15 characters. If you use
{title:shorten(9,-,5)}, the result will be Ancient E-nhoe. If the fields length is less than left chars + right chars
+ the length of middle text, then the field will be used intact. For example, the title The Dome would not be
changed.
strcat(a [, b]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinStrcat
strcat(a [, b]*) – can take any number of arguments. Returns the string formed by concatenating all the arguments
strcat_max(max, string1 [, prefix2, string2]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinStrcatMax
strcat_max(max, string1 [, prefix2, string2]*) – Returns a string formed by concatenating the arguments. The
returned value is initialized to string1. Prefix, string pairs are added to the end of the value as long as the
resulting string length is less than max. String1 is returned even if string1 is longer than max. You can pass as
many prefix, string pairs as you wish.
strlen(a)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinStrlen
strlen(a) – Returns the length of the string passed as the argument
substr(str, start, end)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSubstr
substr(str, start, end) – returns the startth through the endth characters of str. The first character in str is the
zeroth character. If end is negative, then it indicates that many characters counting from the right. If end is
zero, then it indicates the last character. For example, substr(12345, 1, 0) returns 2345, and substr(12345, 1, -1)
returns 234.

swap_around_articles(val, separator)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSwapAroundArticles
swap_around_articles(val, separator) – returns the val with articles moved to the end. The value can be a list,
in which case each member of the list is processed. If the value is a list then you must provide the list value
separator. If no separator is provided then the value is treated as being a single value, not a list.
swap_around_comma(val)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSwapAroundComma
swap_around_comma(val) – given a value of the form B, A, return A B. This is most useful for converting
names in LN, FN format to FN LN. If there is no comma, the function returns val unchanged
transliterate(a)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinTransliterate
transliterate(a) – Returns a string in a latin alphabet formed by approximating the sound of the words in the
source string. For example, if the source is the function returns Fiodor Mikhailovich Dostoievskii.
other
arguments(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinArguments
arguments(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*) – Used in a stored template to retrieve the arguments passed in
the call. It both declares and initializes local variables, effectively parameters. The variables are positional; they
get the value of the value given in the call in the same position. If the corresponding parameter is not provided
in the call then arguments assigns that variable the provided default value. If there is no default value then the
variable is set to the empty string.
globals(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*)
class calibre.utils.formatter_functions.BuiltinSetGlobals
globals(id[=expression] [, id[=expression]]*) – Retrieves global variables that can be passed into the formatter. It
both declares and initializes local variables with the names of the global variables passed in. If the corresponding
variable is not provided in the passed-in globals then it assigns that variable the provided default value. If there
is no default value then the variable is set to the empty string.
API of the Metadata objects
The python implementation of the template functions is passed in a Metadata object. Knowing its API is useful if you
want to define your own template functions.
class calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata(title, authors=('Unknown'),
other=None, template_cache=None,
formatter=None)
A class representing all the metadata for a book. The various standard metadata fields are available as attributes
of this object. You can also stick arbitrary attributes onto this object.

Metadata from custom columns should be accessed via the get() method, passing in the lookup name for the
column, for example: #mytags.
Use the is_null() (page 188) method to test if a field is null.
This object also has functions to format fields into strings.
The list of standard metadata fields grows with time is in STANDARD_METADATA_FIELDS (page 189).
Please keep the method based API of this class to a minimum. Every method becomes a reserved field name.
is_null(field)
Return True if the value of field is null in this object. null means it is unknown or evaluates to False. So a
title of _(Unknown) is null or a language of und is null.
Be careful with numeric fields since this will return True for zero as well as None.
Also returns True if the field does not exist.
deepcopy(class_generator=<function Metadata.<lambda>>)
Do not use this method unless you know what you are doing, if you want to create a simple clone of
this object, use deepcopy_metadata() instead. Class_generator must be a function that returns an
instance of Metadata or a subclass of it.
get_identifiers()
Return a copy of the identifiers dictionary. The dict is small, and the penalty for using a reference where a
copy is needed is large. Also, we dont want any manipulations of the returned dict to show up in the book.
set_identifiers(identifiers)
Set all identifiers. Note that if you previously set ISBN, calling this method will delete it.
set_identifier(typ, val)
If val is empty, deletes identifier of type typ
standard_field_keys()
return a list of all possible keys, even if this book doesnt have them
custom_field_keys()
return a list of the custom fields in this book
all_field_keys()
All field keys known by this instance, even if their value is None
metadata_for_field(key)
return metadata describing a standard or custom field.
all_non_none_fields()
Return a dictionary containing all non-None metadata fields, including the custom ones.
get_standard_metadata(field, make_copy)
return field metadata from the field if it is there. Otherwise return None. field is the key name, not the
label. Return a copy if requested, just in case the user wants to change values in the dict.
get_all_standard_metadata(make_copy)
return a dict containing all the standard field metadata associated with the book.
get_all_user_metadata(make_copy)
return a dict containing all the custom field metadata associated with the book.
get_user_metadata(field, make_copy)
return field metadata from the object if it is there. Otherwise return None. field is the key name, not the
label. Return a copy if requested, just in case the user wants to change values in the dict.

set_all_user_metadata(metadata)
store custom field metadata into the object. Field is the key name not the label
set_user_metadata(field, metadata)
store custom field metadata for one column into the object. Field is the key name not the label
remove_stale_user_metadata(other_mi)
Remove user metadata keys (custom column keys) if they dont exist in other_mi, which must be a metadata
object
template_to_attribute(other, ops)
Takes a list [(src,dest), (src,dest)], evaluates the template in the context of other, then copies the result to
self[dest]. This is on a best-efforts basis. Some assignments can make no sense.
smart_update(other, replace_metadata=False)
Merge the information in other into self. In case of conflicts, the information in other takes precedence,
unless the information in other is NULL.
format_field(key, series_with_index=True)
Returns the tuple (display_name, formatted_value)
to_html()
A HTML representation of this object.
calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.STANDARD_METADATA_FIELDS
The set of standard metadata fields.
__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
'''
All fields must have a NULL value represented as None for simple types,
an empty list/dictionary for complex types and (None, None) for cover_data
'''
SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS = frozenset((
'tags', # Ordered list
'rating', # A floating point number between 0 and 10
'comments', # A simple HTML enabled string
'series', # A simple string
'series_index', # A floating point number
# Of the form { scheme1:value1, scheme2:value2}
# For example: {'isbn':'123456789', 'doi':'xxxx', ... }
'identifiers',
))
'''
The list of names that convert to identifiers when in get and set.
'''
TOP_LEVEL_IDENTIFIERS = frozenset((
'isbn',
))
PUBLICATION_METADATA_FIELDS = frozenset((
'title', # title must never be None. Should be _('Unknown')
# Pseudo field that can be set, but if not set is auto generated
# from title and languages
'title_sort',
'authors', # Ordered list. Must never be None, can be [_('Unknown')]
'author_sort_map', # Map of sort strings for each author


# Pseudo field that can be set, but if not set is auto generated
# from authors and languages
'author_sort',
'book_producer',
'timestamp', # Dates and times must be timezone aware
'pubdate',
'last_modified',
'rights',
# So far only known publication type is periodical:calibre
# If None, means book
'publication_type',
'uuid', # A UUID usually of type 4
'languages', # ordered list of languages in this publication
'publisher', # Simple string, no special semantics
# Absolute path to image file encoded in filesystem_encoding
'cover',
# Of the form (format, data) where format is, for e.g. 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif'...
'cover_data',
# Either thumbnail data, or an object with the attribute
# image_path which is the path to an image file, encoded
# in filesystem_encoding
'thumbnail',
))
BOOK_STRUCTURE_FIELDS = frozenset((
# These are used by code, Null values are None.
'toc', 'spine', 'guide', 'manifest',
))
USER_METADATA_FIELDS = frozenset((
# A dict of dicts similar to field_metadata. Each field description dict
# also contains a value field with the key #value#.
'user_metadata',
))
DEVICE_METADATA_FIELDS = frozenset((
'device_collections', # Ordered list of strings
'lpath', # Unicode, / separated
'size', # In bytes
'mime', # Mimetype of the book file being represented
))
CALIBRE_METADATA_FIELDS = frozenset((
'application_id', # An application id, currently set to the db_id.
'db_id', # the calibre primary key of the item.
'formats', # list of formats (extensions) for this book
# a dict of user category names, where the value is a list of item names
# from the book that are in that category
'user_categories',
# a dict of author to an associated hyperlink
'author_link_map',
))
ALL_METADATA_FIELDS = SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS.union(
PUBLICATION_METADATA_FIELDS).union(
BOOK_STRUCTURE_FIELDS).union(
USER_METADATA_FIELDS).union(


DEVICE_METADATA_FIELDS).union(
CALIBRE_METADATA_FIELDS)
# All fields except custom fields

STANDARD_METADATA_FIELDS = SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS.union(
CALIBRE_METADATA_FIELDS)
# Metadata fields that smart update must do special processing to copy.

SC_FIELDS_NOT_COPIED = frozenset(('title', 'title_sort', 'authors',
'author_sort', 'author_sort_map',
'cover_data', 'tags', 'languages',
'identifiers'))
# Metadata fields that smart update should copy only if the source is not None
SC_FIELDS_COPY_NOT_NULL = frozenset(('device_collections', 'lpath', 'size', 'comments
,→', 'thumbnail'))
# Metadata fields that smart update should copy without special handling
SC_COPYABLE_FIELDS = SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS.union(
CALIBRE_METADATA_FIELDS) - \
SC_FIELDS_NOT_COPIED.union(
SC_FIELDS_COPY_NOT_NULL)
SERIALIZABLE_FIELDS = SOCIAL_METADATA_FIELDS.union(
USER_METADATA_FIELDS).union(
CALIBRE_METADATA_FIELDS).union(
DEVICE_METADATA_FIELDS) - \
frozenset(('device_collections', 'formats',
'cover_data'))
# these are rebuilt when needed
10.4 All about using regular expressions in calibre
Regular expressions are features used in many places in calibre to perform sophisticated manipulation of e-book
content and metadata. This tutorial is a gentle introduction to getting you started with using regular expressions in
calibre.
Contents
• First, a word of warning and a word of courage (page 192)

• Where in calibre can you use regular expressions? (page 192)
• What on earth is a regular expression? (page 192)
• Care to explain? (page 193)
10.4. All about using regular expressions in calibre 191

• That doesnt sound too bad. Whats next? (page 193)

• Hey, neat! This is starting to make sense! (page 193)
• Well, these special characters are very neat and all, but what if I wanted to match a dot or a question mark?
(page 194)
• So, what are the most useful sets? (page 194)
• But if I had a few varying strings I wanted to match, things get complicated? (page 194)
• You missed (page 195)
• In the beginning, you said there was a way to make a regular expression case insensitive? (page 195)
• I think Im beginning to understand these regular expressions now how do I use them in calibre? (page 195)
– Conversions (page 195)
– Adding books (page 196)
– Bulk editing metadata (page 196)
• Quick reference (page 197)
• Credits (page 201)
10.4.1 First, a word of warning and a word of courage
This is, inevitably, going to be somewhat technical- after all, regular expressions are a technical tool for doing technical
stuff. Im going to have to use some jargon and concepts that may seem complicated or convoluted. Im going to try
to explain those concepts as clearly as I can, but really cant do without using them at all. That being said, dont be
discouraged by any jargon, as Ive tried to explain everything new. And while regular expressions themselves may seem
like an arcane, black magic (or, to be more prosaic, a random string of mumbo-jumbo letters and signs), I promise that
they are not all that complicated. Even those who understand regular expressions really well have trouble reading the
more complex ones, but writing them isnt as difficult- you construct the expression step by step. So, take a step and
follow me into the rabbit hole.
10.4.2 Where in calibre can you use regular expressions?
There are a few places calibre uses regular expressions. Theres the Search & replace in conversion options, metadata
detection from filenames in the import settings and Search & replace when editing the metadata of books in bulk. The
calibre book editor can also use regular expressions in its Search and replace feature. Finally, you can use regular
expressions when searching the calibre book list and when searching inside the calibre E-book viewer.
10.4.3 What on earth is a regular expression?
A regular expression is a way to describe sets of strings. A single regular expression can match a number of different
strings. This is what makes regular expression so powerful – they are a concise way of describing a potentially large
number of variations.
Note: Im using string here in the sense it is used in programming languages: a string of one or more characters,
characters including actual characters, numbers, punctuation and so-called whitespace (linebreaks, tabulators etc.).
Please note that generally, uppercase and lowercase characters are not considered the same, thus a being a different
character from A and so forth. In calibre, regular expressions are case insensitive in the Search bar, but not in the
conversion options. Theres a way to make every regular expression case insensitive, but well discuss that later. It gets

complicated because regular expressions allow for variations in the strings it matches, so one expression can match
multiple strings, which is why people bother using them at all. More on that in a bit.
10.4.4 Care to explain?
Well, thats why were here. First, this is the most important concept in regular expressions: A string by itself is a regular
expression that matches itself. That is to say, if I wanted to match the string "Hello, World!" using a regular
expression, the regular expression to use would be Hello, World!. And yes, it really is that simple. Youll notice,
though, that this only matches the exact string "Hello, World!", not e.g. "Hello, wOrld!" or "hello,
world!" or any other such variation.
10.4.5 That doesnt sound too bad. Whats next?
Next is the beginning of the really good stuff. Remember where I said that regular expressions can match multiple
strings? This is where it gets a little more complicated. Say, as a somewhat more practical exercise, the e-book you
wanted to convert had a nasty footer counting the pages, like Page 5 of 423. Obviously the page number would rise
from 1 to 423, thus youd have to match 423 different strings, right? Wrong, actually: regular expressions allow you
to define sets of characters that are matched: To define a set, you put all the characters you want to be in the set into
square brackets. So, for example, the set [abc] would match either the character a, b or c. Sets will always only
match one of the characters in the set. They understand character ranges, that is, if you wanted to match all the lower
case characters, youd use the set [a-z] for lower- and uppercase characters youd use [a-zA-Z] and so on. Got
the idea? So, obviously, using the expression Page [0-9] of 423 youd be able to match the first 9 pages, thus
reducing the expressions needed to three: The second expression Page [0-9][0-9] of 423 would match all
two-digit page numbers, and Im sure you can guess what the third expression would look like. Yes, go ahead. Write it
down.
10.4.6 Hey, neat! This is starting to make sense!
I was hoping youd say that. But brace yourself, now it gets even better! We just saw that using sets, we could match
one of several characters at once. But you can even repeat a character or set, reducing the number of expressions
needed to handle the above page number example to one. Yes, ONE! Excited? You should be! It works like this:
Some so-called special characters, +, ? and *, repeat the single element preceding them. (Element means either a
single character, a character set, an escape sequence or a group (well learn about those last two later)- in short, any
single entity in a regular expression.) These characters are called wildcards or quantifiers. To be more precise, ?
matches 0 or 1 of the preceding element, * matches 0 or more of the preceding element and + matches 1 or more
of the preceding element. A few examples: The expression a? would match either (which is the empty string, not
strictly useful in this case) or a, the expression a* would match , a, aa or any number of as in a row, and, finally, the
expression a+ would match a, aa or any number of as in a row (Note: it wouldnt match the empty string!). Same deal
for sets: The expression [0-9]+ would match every integer number there is! I know what youre thinking, and youre
right: If you use that in the above case of matching page numbers, wouldnt that be the single one expression to match
all the page numbers? Yes, the expression Page [0-9]+ of 423 would match every page number in that book!
Note: A note on these quantifiers: They generally try to match as much text as possible, so be careful when using
them. This is called greedy behaviour- Im sure you get why. It gets problematic when you, say, try to match a
tag. Consider, for example, the string "<p class="calibre2">Title here</p>" and lets say youd want to
match the opening tag (the part between the first pair of angle brackets, a little more on tags later). Youd think that the
expression <p.*> would match that tag, but actually, it matches the whole string! (The character . is another special
character. It matches anything except linebreaks, so, basically, the expression .* would match any single line you can
think of.) Instead, try using <p.*?> which makes the quantifier "*" non-greedy. That expression would only match
the first opening tag, as intended. Theres actually another way to accomplish this: The expression <p[^>]*> will

match that same opening tag- youll see why after the next section. Just note that there quite frequently is more than
one way to write a regular expression.
10.4.7 Well, these special characters are very neat and all, but what if I wanted to
match a dot or a question mark?
You can of course do that: Just put a backslash in front of any special character and it is interpreted as the literal
character, without any special meaning. This pair of a backslash followed by a single character is called an escape
sequence, and the act of putting a backslash in front of a special character is called escaping that character. An escape
sequence is interpreted as a single element. There are of course escape sequences that do more than just escaping
special characters, for example "\t" means a tabulator. Well get to some of the escape sequences later. Oh, and by
the way, concerning those special characters: Consider any character we discuss in this introduction as having some
function to be special and thus needing to be escaped if you want the literal character.
10.4.8 So, what are the most useful sets?
Knew youd ask. Some useful sets are [0-9] matching a single number, [a-z] matching a single lowercase letter,
[A-Z] matching a single uppercase letter, [a-zA-Z] matching a single letter and [a-zA-Z0-9] matching a single
letter or number. You can also use an escape sequence as shorthand:
\d is equivalent to [0-9]
\w is equivalent to [a-zA-Z0-9_]
\s is equivalent to any whitespace
Note: Whitespace is a term for anything that wont be printed. These characters include space, tabulator, line feed,
form feed and carriage return.
As a last note on sets, you can also define a set as any character but those in the set. You do that by including the
character "^" as the very first character in the set. Thus, [â] would match any character excluding a. Thats
called complementing the set. Those escape sequence shorthands we saw earlier can also be complemented: "\D"
means any non-number character, thus being equivalent to [^0-9]. The other shorthands can be complemented by,
you guessed it, using the respective uppercase letter instead of the lowercase one. So, going back to the example
<p[^>]*> from the previous section, now you can see that the character set its using tries to match any character
except for a closing angle bracket.
10.4.9 But if I had a few varying strings I wanted to match, things get complicated?
Fear not, life still is good and easy. Consider this example: The book youre converting has Title written on every odd
page and Author written on every even page. Looks great in print, right? But in e-books, its annoying. You can group
whole expressions in normal parentheses, and the character "|" will let you match either the expression to its right or
the one to its left. Combine those and youre done. Too fast for you? Okay, first off, we group the expressions for odd
and even pages, thus getting (Title)(Author) as our two needed expressions. Now we make things simpler by
using the vertical bar ("|" is called the vertical bar character): If you use the expression (Title|Author) youll
either get a match for Title (on the odd pages) or youd match Author (on the even pages). Well, wasnt that easy?
You can, of course, use the vertical bar without using grouping parentheses, as well. Remember when I said that
quantifiers repeat the element preceding them? Well, the vertical bar works a little differently: The expression Ti-
tle|Author will also match either the string Title or the string Author, just as the above example using grouping. The
vertical bar selects between the entire expression preceding and following it. So, if you wanted to match the strings
Calibre and calibre and wanted to select only between the upper- and lowercase c, youd have to use the expression

(c|C)alibre, where the grouping ensures that only the c will be selected. If you were to use c|Calibre, youd
get a match on the string c or on the string Calibre, which isnt what we wanted. In short: If in doubt, use grouping
together with the vertical bar.
10.4.10 You missed
wait just a minute, theres one last, really neat thing you can do with groups. If you have a group that you previously
matched, you can use references to that group later in the expression: Groups are numbered starting with 1, and you
reference them by escaping the number of the group you want to reference, thus, the fifth group would be referenced
as \5. So, if you searched for ([^ ]+) \1 in the string Test Test, youd match the whole string!
10.4.11 In the beginning, you said there was a way to make a regular expression
case insensitive?
Yes, I did, thanks for paying attention and reminding me. You can tell calibre how you want certain things handled
by using something called flags. You include flags in your expression by using the special construct (?flags go
here) where, obviously, youd replace flags go here with the specific flags you want. For ignoring case, the flag is
i, thus you include (?i) in your expression. Thus, (?i)test would match Test, tEst, TEst and any case variation
you could think of.
Another useful flag lets the dot match any character at all, including the newline, the flag s. If you want to use multiple
flags in an expression, just put them in the same statement: (?is) would ignore case and make the dot match all. It
doesnt matter which flag you state first, (?si) would be equivalent to the above.
10.4.12 I think Im beginning to understand these regular expressions now how do

I use them in calibre?
Conversions
Lets begin with the conversion settings, which is really neat. In the Search & replace part, you can input a regexp
(short for regular expression) that describes the string that will be replaced during the conversion. The neat part is the
wizard. Click on the wizard staff and you get a preview of what calibre sees during the conversion process. Scroll
down to the string you want to remove, select and copy it, paste it into the regexp field on top of the window. If there
are variable parts, like page numbers or so, use sets and quantifiers to cover those, and while youre at it, remember to
escape special characters, if there are some. Hit the button labeled Test and calibre highlights the parts it would replace
were you to use the regexp. Once youre satisfied, hit OK and convert. Be careful if your conversion source has tags
like this example:
Maybe, but the cops feel like you do, Anita. What's one more dead vampire?
New laws don't change that. </p>
<p class="calibre4"> <b class="calibre2">Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv
<a href="http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html" class="calibre3">erter,
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html</a></b></p>
<p class="calibre4"> It had only been two years since Addison v. Clark.
The court case gave us a revised version of what life was
(shamelessly ripped out of this thread91 ). Youd have to remove some of the tags as well. In this example, Id recom-
mend beginning with the tag <b class="calibre2">, now you have to end with the corresponding closing tag
(opening tags are <tag>, closing tags are </tag>), which is simply the next </b> in this case. (Refer to a good
HTML manual or ask in the forum if you are unclear on this point.) The opening tag can be described using <b.*?>,
the closing tag using </b>, thus we could remove everything between those tags using <b.*?>.*?</b>. But using
91 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75594"

this expression would be a bad idea, because it removes everything enclosed by <b>- tags (which, by the way, render
the enclosed text in bold print), and its a fair bet that well remove portions of the book in this way. Instead, include the
beginning of the enclosed string as well, making the regular expression <b.*?>\s*Generated\s+by\s+ABC\
s+Amber\s+LIT.*?</b> The \s with quantifiers are included here instead of explicitly using the spaces as seen
in the string to catch any variations of the string that might occur. Remember to check what calibre will remove to
make sure you dont remove any portions you want to keep if you test a new expression. If you only check one occur-
rence, you might miss a mismatch somewhere else in the text. Also note that should you accidentally remove more or
fewer tags than you actually wanted to, calibre tries to repair the damaged code after doing the removal.
Adding books
Another thing you can use regular expressions for is to extract metadata from filenames. You can find this fea-
ture in the Adding books part of the settings. Theres a special feature here: You can use field names for metadata
fields, for example (?P<title>) would indicate that calibre uses this part of the string as book title. The allowed
field names are listed in the windows, together with another nice test field. An example: Say you want to import
a whole bunch of files named like Classical Texts: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
mobi. (Obviously, this is already in your library, since we all love classical italian poetry) or Science Fiction
epics: The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.epub. This is obviously a naming scheme that
calibre wont extract any meaningful data out of - its standard expression for extracting metadata is (?P<title>.+)
- (?P<author>[^_]+). A regular expression that works here would be [a-zA-Z]+: (?P<title>.+)
by (?P<author>.+). Please note that, inside the group for the metadata field, you need to use expressions to
describe what the field actually matches. And also note that, when using the test field calibre provides, you need to
add the file extension to your testing filename, otherwise you wont get any matches at all, despite using a working
expression.
Bulk editing metadata
The last part is regular expression Search and replace in metadata fields. You can access this by selecting multiple
books in the library and using bulk metadata edit. Be very careful when using this last feature, as it can do Very Bad
Things to your library! Doublecheck that your expressions do what you want them to using the test fields, and only
mark the books you really want to change! In the regular expression search mode, you can search in one field, replace
the text with something and even write the result into another field. A practical example: Say your library contained
the books of Frank Herberts Dune series, named after the fashion Dune 1 - Dune, Dune 2 - Dune Messiah
and so on. Now you want to get Dune into the series field. You can do that by searching for (.*?) \d+ - .* in
the title field and replacing it with \1 in the series field. See what I did there? Thats a reference to the first group youre
replacing the series field with. Now that you have the series all set, you only need to do another search for .*? - in
the title field and replace it with "" (an empty string), again in the title field, and your metadata is all neat and tidy.
Isnt that great? By the way, instead of replacing the entire field, you can also append or prepend to the field, so, if you
wanted the book title to be prepended with series info, you could do that as well. As you by now have undoubtedly
noticed, theres a checkbox labeled Case sensitive, so you wont have to use flags to select behaviour here.
Well, that just about concludes the very short introduction to regular expressions. Hopefully Ill have shown you enough
to at least get you started and to enable you to continue learning by yourself- a good starting point would be the Python
documentation for regexps92 .
One last word of warning, though: Regexps are powerful, but also really easy to get wrong. calibre provides really
great testing possibilities to see if your expressions behave as you expect them to. Use them. Try not to shoot yourself
in the foot. (God, I love that expression) But should you, despite the warning, injure your foot (or any other body
parts), try to learn from it.

10.4.13 Quick reference
Quick reference for regexp syntax
This checklist summarizes the most commonly used/hard to remember parts of the regexp engine available in most
parts of calibre.
Contents
• Character classes (page 197)

• Shorthand character classes (page 198)
• The quantifiers (page 198)
• Greed (page 198)
• Alternation (page 198)
• Exclusion (page 199)
• Anchors (page 199)
• Groups (page 199)
• Lookarounds (page 200)
• Recursion (page 200)
• Special characters (page 201)
• Meta-characters (page 201)
• Modes (page 201)
Character classes
Character classes are useful to represent different groups of characters, succinctly.

Examples:
Representa- Class
tion
[a-z] Lowercase letters. Does not include characters with accent mark and ligatures
[a-z0-9] Lowercase letters from a to z or numbers from 0 to 9
[A-Za-z-] Uppercase or lowercase letters, or a dash. To include the dash in a class, you must put it at the
beginning or at the end so as not to confuse it with the hyphen that specifies a range of characters
[^0-9] Any character except a digit. The caret (^) placed at the beginning of the class excludes the char-
acters of the class (complemented class)
The lowercase consonants. A class can be included in a class. The characters -- exclude what
[[a-z]--[aeiouy]]
follows them
[\w--[\ All letters (including foreign accented characters). Abbreviated classes can be used inside a class
d_]]
Example:

<[^<>]+> to select an HTML tag
Shorthand character classes
Representa- Class
tion
\d A digit (same as [0-9])
\D Any non-numeric character (same as [^0-9])
\w An alphanumeric character ([a-zA-Z0-9]) including characters with accent mark and ligatures
\W Any non-word character
\s Space, non-breaking space, tab, return line
\S Any non-whitespace character
. Any character except newline. Use the dot all checkbox or the (?s) regexp modifier to include
the newline character.
The quantifiers
Quantifier Number of occurrences of the expression preceding the quantifier

? 0 or 1 occurrence of the expression. Same as {0,1}
+ 1 or more occurrences of the expression. Same as {1,}
* 0, 1 or more occurrences of the expression. Same as {0,}
{n} Exactly n occurrences of the expression
{min,max} Number of occurrences between the minimum and maximum values included
{min,} Number of occurrences between the minimum value included and the infinite
{,max} Number of occurrences between 0 and the maximum value included
Greed
By default, with quantifiers, the regular expression engine is greedy: it extends the selection as much as possible. This
often causes surprises, at first. ? follows a quantifier to make it lazy. Avoid putting two in the same expression, the
result can be unpredictable.
Beware of nesting quantifiers, for example, the pattern (a*)*, as it exponentially increases processing time.
Alternation
The | character in a regular expression is a logical OR. It means that either the preceding or the following expression
can match.

Exclusion
Methodă1
pattern_to_exclude(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|pattern_to_select
Example:
"Blabla"(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|Blabla
selects Blabla, in the strings Blabla or Blabla or Blabla, but not in Blabla.
Methodă2
pattern_to_exclude\K|(pattern_to_select)
"Blabla"\K|(Blabla)
selects Blabla, in the strings Blabla or Blabla or Blabla, but not in Blabla.
Anchors
An anchor is a way to match a logical location in a string, rather than a character. The most useful anchors for text
processing are:
\b Designates a word boundary, i.e. a transition from space to non-space character. For example, you
can use \bsurd to match the surd but not absurd.
^ Matches the start of a line (in multi-line mode, which is the default)
$ Matches the end of a line (in multi-line mode, which is the default)
\K Resets the start position of the selection to its position in the pattern. Some regexp engines (but not
calibre) do not allow lookbehind of variable length, especially with quantifiers. When you can use
\K with these engines, it also allows you to get rid of this limit by writing the equivalent of a positive
lookbehind of variable length.
Groups
(expression) Capturing group, which stores the selection and can be recalled later in the search or
replace patterns with \n, where n is the sequence number of the capturing group (starting at 1 in
reading order)
(?:expression) Group that does not capture the selection
(?>expression) Atomic Group: As soon as the expression is satisfied, the regexp engine passes,
and if the rest of the pattern fails, it will not backtrack to try other combinations with the expression.
Atomic groups do not capture.
(?|expression) Branch reset group: the branches of the alternations included in the expression
share the same group numbers
(?<name>expression) Group named name. The selection can be recalled later in the search pattern
by (?P=name) and in the replace by \g<name>. Two different groups can use the same name.

Lookarounds
Lookaround Meaning
?= Positive lookahead (to be placed after the selection)
?! Negative lookahead (to be placed after the selection)
?<= Positive lookbehind (to be placed before the selection)
?<! Negative lookbehind (to be placed before the selection)
Lookaheads and lookbehinds do not consume characters, they are zero length and do not capture. They are atomic
groups: as soon as the assertion is satisfied, the regexp engine passes, and if the rest of the pattern fails, it will not
backtrack inside the lookaround to try other combinations.
When looking for multiple matches in a string, at the starting position of each match attempt, a lookbehind can inspect
the characters before the current position. Therefore, on the string 123, the pattern (?<=\d)\d (a digit preceded by
a digit) should, in theory, select 2 and 3. On the other hand, \d\K\d can only select 2, because the starting position
after the first selection is immediately before 3, and there are not enough digits for a second match. Similarly, \d(\d)
only captures 2. In calibres regexp engine practice, the positive lookbehind behaves in the same way, and selects only
2, contrary to theory.
Groups can be placed inside lookarounds, but capture is rarely useful. Nevertheless, if it is useful, it will be necessary
to be very careful in the use of a quantifier in a lookbehind: the greed associated with the absence of backtracking can
give a surprising capture. For this reason, use \K rather than a positive lookbehind when you have a quantifier (or
worse, several) in a capturing group of the positive lookbehind.
Example of negative lookahead:
(?![^<>{}]*[>}])
Placed at the end of the pattern prevents to select within a tag or a style embedded in the file.
Whenever possible, it is always better to anchor the lookarounds, to reduce the number of steps necessary to obtain
the result.
Recursion
Representation Meaning
(?R) Recursion of the entire pattern
(?1) Recursion of the only pattern of the numbered capturing group, here group 1
Recursion is calling oneself. This is useful for balanced queries, such as quoted strings, which can contain embedded
quoted strings. Thus, if during the processing of a string between double quotation marks, we encounter the beginning
of a new string between double quotation marks, well we know how to do, and we call ourselves. Then we have a
pattern like:
start-pattern(?>atomic sub-pattern|(?R))*end-pattern
To select a string between double quotation marks without stopping on an embedded string:
((?>[^]+|(?R))*[^]+)
This template can also be used to modify pairs of tags that can be embedded, such as <div> tags.

Special characters
Representation Character
\t tabulation
\n line break
\x20 (breakable) space
\xa0 no-break space
Meta-characters
Meta-characters are those that have a special meaning for the regexp engine. Of these, twelve must be preceded by an
escape character, the backslash (\), to lose their special meaning and become a regular character again:
^ . [ ] $ ( ) * + ? | \
Seven other meta-characters do not need to be preceded by a backslash (but can be without any other consequence):
{ } ! < > = :
Special characters lose their status if they are used inside a class (between brackets []). The closing bracket and
the dash have a special status in a class. Outside the class, the dash is a simple literal, the closing bracket remains a
meta-character.
The slash (/) and the number sign (or hash character) (#) are not meta-characters, they dont need to be escaped.
In some tools, like regex101.com with the Python engine, double quotes have the special status of separator, and must
be escaped, or the options changed. This is not the case in the editor of calibre.
Modes
(?s) Causes the dot (.) to match newline characters as well

(?m) Makes the ^ and $ anchors match the start and end of lines instead of the start and end of the entire
string.
10.4.14 Credits
Thanks for helping with tips, corrections and such:

• ldolse
• kovidgoyal
• chaley
• dwanthny
• kacir
• Starson17
• Orpheu

For more about regexps see The Python User Manual93 . The actual regular expression library used by calibre is:
regex94 which supports several useful enhancements over the Python standard library one.
10.5 Writing your own plugins to extend calibres functionality
calibre has a very modular design. Almost all functionality in calibre comes in the form of plugins. Plugins are used
for conversion, for downloading news (though these are called recipes), for various components of the user interface,
to connect to different devices, to process files when adding them to calibre and so on. You can get a complete list of
all the built-in plugins in calibre by going to Preferences→Advanced→Plugins.
Here, we will teach you how to create your own plugins to add new features to calibre.
Contents
• Anatomy of a calibre plugin (page 203)

• A User Interface plugin (page 204)
– __init__.py (page 204)
– ui.py (page 206)
– main.py (page 207)
– Getting resources from the plugin ZIP file (page 210)
– Enabling user configuration of your plugin (page 210)
• Edit book plugins (page 212)
– main.py (page 212)
• Running User Interface plugins in a separate process (page 215)
• Adding translations to your plugin (page 216)
• The plugin API (page 216)
• Debugging plugins (page 216)
• More plugin examples (page 217)
• Sharing your plugins with others (page 217)
Note: This only applies to calibre releases >= 0.8.60
94 https://bitbucket.org/mrabarnett/mrab-regex/src/hg/

10.5.1 Anatomy of a calibre plugin
A calibre plugin is very simple, its just a ZIP file that contains some Python code and any other resources like image
files needed by the plugin. Without further ado, lets see a basic example.
Suppose you have an installation of calibre that you are using to self publish various e-documents in EPUB and MOBI
formats. You would like all files generated by calibre to have their publisher set as Hello world, heres how to do it.
Create a file named __init__.py (this is a special name and must always be used for the main file of your plugin)
and enter the following Python code into it:
from calibre.customize import FileTypePlugin
class HelloWorld(FileTypePlugin):
name = 'Hello World Plugin' # Name of the plugin

description = 'Set the publisher to Hello World for all new conversions'
supported_platforms = ['windows', 'osx', 'linux'] # Platforms this plugin will
,→run on
author = 'Acme Inc.' # The author of this plugin

version = (1, 0, 0) # The version number of this plugin
file_types = set(['epub', 'mobi']) # The file types that this plugin
,→will be applied to
on_postprocess = True # Run this plugin after conversion is complete

minimum_calibre_version = (0, 7, 53)
def run(self, path_to_ebook):

from calibre.ebooks.metadata.meta import get_metadata, set_metadata
with open(path_to_ebook, 'r+b') as file:
ext = os.path.splitext(path_to_ebook)[-1][1:].lower()
mi = get_metadata(file, ext)
mi.publisher = 'Hello World'
set_metadata(file, mi, ext)
return path_to_ebook
Thats all. To add this code to calibre as a plugin, simply run the following in the folder in which you created
__init__.py:
calibre-customize -b .
You can download the Hello World plugin from helloworld_plugin.zip95 .

Every time you use calibre to convert a book, the plugins run() method will be called and the converted book will
have its publisher set to Hello World. This is a trivial plugin, lets move on to a more complex example that actually
adds a component to the user interface.
95 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/helloworld_plugin.zip
10.5. Writing your own plugins to extend calibres functionality 203

10.5.2 A User Interface plugin
This plugin will be spread over a few files (to keep the code clean). It will show you how to get resources (images
or data files) from the plugin ZIP file, allow users to configure your plugin, how to create elements in the calibre user
interface and how to access and query the books database in calibre.
You can download this plugin from interface_demo_plugin.zip96
The first thing to note is that this ZIP file has a lot more files in it, explained below, pay particular attention to
plugin-import-name-interface_demo.txt.
plugin-import-name-interface_demo.txt An empty text file used to enable the multi-file plugin magic.
This file must be present in all plugins that use more than one .py file. It should be empty and its
filename must be of the form: plugin-import-name-**some_name**.txt. The presence
of this file allows you to import code from the .py files present inside the ZIP file, using a statement
like:
from calibre_plugins.some_name.some_module import some_object
The prefix calibre_plugins must always be present. some_name comes from the filename
of the empty text file. some_module refers to some_module.py file inside the ZIP file. Note
that this importing is just as powerful as regular Python imports. You can create packages and
subpackages of .py modules inside the ZIP file, just like you would normally (by defining __init__.py
in each sub-folder), and everything should just work.
The name you use for some_name enters a global namespace shared by all plugins, so make it as
unique as possible. But remember that it must be a valid Python identifier (only alphabets, numbers
and the underscore).
__init__.py As before, the file that defines the plugin class
main.py This file contains the actual code that does something useful
ui.py This file defines the interface part of the plugin
images/icon.png The icon for this plugin
about.txt A text file with information about the plugin
translations A folder containing .mo files with the translations of the user interface of your plugin into
different languages. See below for details.
Now lets look at the code.
__init__.py
First, the obligatory __init__.py to define the plugin metadata:
from calibre.customize import InterfaceActionBase
class InterfacePluginDemo(InterfaceActionBase):
'''
This class is a simple wrapper that provides information about the actual
plugin class. The actual interface plugin class is called InterfacePlugin
and is defined in the ui.py file, as specified in the actual_plugin field
below.
The reason for having two classes is that it allows the command line
96 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/interface_demo_plugin.zip


calibre utilities to run without needing to load the GUI libraries.
'''
name = 'Interface Plugin Demo'
description = 'An advanced plugin demo'
supported_platforms = ['windows', 'osx', 'linux']
author = 'Kovid Goyal'
version = (1, 0, 0)
#: This field defines the GUI plugin class that contains all the code
#: that actually does something. Its format is module_path:class_name
#: The specified class must be defined in the specified module.
actual_plugin = 'calibre_plugins.interface_demo.ui:InterfacePlugin'
def is_customizable(self):
'''
This method must return True to enable customization via
Preferences->Plugins
'''
return True
def config_widget(self):
'''
Implement this method and :meth:`save_settings` in your plugin to
use a custom configuration dialog.
This method, if implemented, must return a QWidget. The widget can have
an optional method validate() that takes no arguments and is called
immediately after the user clicks OK. Changes are applied if and only
if the method returns True.
If for some reason you cannot perform the configuration at this time,
return a tuple of two strings (message, details), these will be
displayed as a warning dialog to the user and the process will be
aborted.
The base class implementation of this method raises NotImplementedError

so by default no user configuration is possible.
'''
# It is important to put this import statement here rather than at the
# top of the module as importing the config class will also cause the
# GUI libraries to be loaded, which we do not want when using calibre
# from the command line
from calibre_plugins.interface_demo.config import ConfigWidget
return ConfigWidget()
def save_settings(self, config_widget):

'''
Save the settings specified by the user with config_widget.
:param config_widget: The widget returned by :meth:`config_widget`.

'''
config_widget.save_settings()
# Apply the changes

ac = self.actual_plugin_
if ac is not None:


ac.apply_settings()
The only noteworthy feature is the field actual_plugin. Since calibre has both command line and GUI interfaces,
GUI plugins like this one should not load any GUI libraries in __init__.py. The actual_plugin field does this for you,
by telling calibre that the actual plugin is to be found in another file inside your ZIP archive, which will only be loaded
in a GUI context.
Remember that for this to work, you must have a plugin-import-name-some_name.txt file in your plugin ZIP file, as
discussed above.
Also there are a couple of methods for enabling user configuration of the plugin. These are discussed below.
ui.py
Now lets look at ui.py which defines the actual GUI plugin. The source code is heavily commented and should be self
explanatory:
from calibre.gui2.actions import InterfaceAction
from calibre_plugins.interface_demo.main import DemoDialog
class InterfacePlugin(InterfaceAction):
name = 'Interface Plugin Demo'
# Declare the main action associated with this plugin

# The keyboard shortcut can be None if you dont want to use a keyboard
# shortcut. Remember that currently calibre has no central management for
# keyboard shortcuts, so try to use an unusual/unused shortcut.
action_spec = ('Interface Plugin Demo', None,
'Run the Interface Plugin Demo', 'Ctrl+Shift+F1')
def genesis(self):
# This method is called once per plugin, do initial setup here
# Set the icon for this interface action

# The get_icons function is a builtin function defined for all your
# plugin code. It loads icons from the plugin zip file. It returns
# QIcon objects, if you want the actual data, use the analogous
# get_resources builtin function.
#
# Note that if you are loading more than one icon, for performance, you
# should pass a list of names to get_icons. In this case, get_icons
# will return a dictionary mapping names to QIcons. Names that
# are not found in the zip file will result in null QIcons.
icon = get_icons('images/icon.png')
# The qaction is automatically created from the action_spec defined

# above
self.qaction.setIcon(icon)
self.qaction.triggered.connect(self.show_dialog)
def show_dialog(self):
# The base plugin object defined in __init__.py
base_plugin_object = self.interface_action_base_plugin


# Show the config dialog
# The config dialog can also be shown from within
# Preferences->Plugins, which is why the do_user_config
# method is defined on the base plugin class
do_user_config = base_plugin_object.do_user_config
# self.gui is the main calibre GUI. It acts as the gateway to access

# all the elements of the calibre user interface, it should also be the
# parent of the dialog
d = DemoDialog(self.gui, self.qaction.icon(), do_user_config)
d.show()
def apply_settings(self):
from calibre_plugins.interface_demo.config import prefs
# In an actual non trivial plugin, you would probably need to
# do something based on the settings in prefs
prefs
main.py
The actual logic to implement the Interface Plugin Demo dialog.
class DemoDialog(QDialog):
def __init__(self, gui, icon, do_user_config):

QDialog.__init__(self, gui)
self.gui = gui
self.do_user_config = do_user_config
# The current database shown in the GUI

# db is an instance of the class LibraryDatabase from db/legacy.py
# This class has many, many methods that allow you to do a lot of
# things. For most purposes you should use db.new_api, which has
# a much nicer interface from db/cache.py
self.db = gui.current_db
self.l = QVBoxLayout()
self.setLayout(self.l)
self.label = QLabel(prefs['hello_world_msg'])
self.l.addWidget(self.label)
self.setWindowTitle('Interface Plugin Demo')

self.setWindowIcon(icon)
self.about_button = QPushButton('About', self)

self.about_button.clicked.connect(self.about)
self.l.addWidget(self.about_button)
self.marked_button = QPushButton(


'Show books with only one format in the calibre GUI', self)
self.marked_button.clicked.connect(self.marked)
self.l.addWidget(self.marked_button)
self.view_button = QPushButton(
'View the most recently added book', self)
self.view_button.clicked.connect(self.view)
self.l.addWidget(self.view_button)
self.update_metadata_button = QPushButton(
'Update metadata in a book\'s files', self)
self.update_metadata_button.clicked.connect(self.update_metadata)
self.l.addWidget(self.update_metadata_button)
self.conf_button = QPushButton(
'Configure this plugin', self)
self.conf_button.clicked.connect(self.config)
self.l.addWidget(self.conf_button)
self.resize(self.sizeHint())
def about(self):
# Get the about text from a file inside the plugin zip file
# The get_resources function is a builtin function defined for all your
# plugin code. It loads files from the plugin zip file. It returns
# the bytes from the specified file.
#
# Note that if you are loading more than one file, for performance, you
# should pass a list of names to get_resources. In this case,
# get_resources will return a dictionary mapping names to bytes. Names that
# are not found in the zip file will not be in the returned dictionary.
text = get_resources('about.txt')
QMessageBox.about(self, 'About the Interface Plugin Demo',
text.decode('utf-8'))
def marked(self):
''' Show books with only one format '''
db = self.db.new_api
matched_ids = {book_id for book_id in db.all_book_ids() if len(db.
,→formats(book_id)) == 1}
# Mark the records with the matching ids

# new_api does not know anything about marked books, so we use the full
# db object
self.db.set_marked_ids(matched_ids)
# Tell the GUI to search for all marked records

self.gui.search.setEditText('marked:true')
self.gui.search.do_search()
def view(self):
''' View the most recently added book '''
most_recent = most_recent_id = None
for book_id, timestamp in db.all_field_for('timestamp', db.all_book_ids()).
,→items():
if most_recent is None or timestamp > most_recent:

most_recent = timestamp


most_recent_id = book_id
if most_recent_id is not None:

# Get a reference to the View plugin
view_plugin = self.gui.iactions['View']
# Ask the view plugin to launch the viewer for row_number
view_plugin._view_calibre_books([most_recent_id])
def update_metadata(self):
'''
Set the metadata in the files in the selected book's record to
match the current metadata in the database.
'''
from calibre.ebooks.metadata.meta import set_metadata
from calibre.gui2 import error_dialog, info_dialog
# Get currently selected books

rows = self.gui.library_view.selectionModel().selectedRows()
if not rows or len(rows) == 0:
return error_dialog(self.gui, 'Cannot update metadata',
'No books selected', show=True)
# Map the rows to book ids
ids = list(map(self.gui.library_view.model().id, rows))
for book_id in ids:
# Get the current metadata for this book from the db
mi = db.get_metadata(book_id, get_cover=True, cover_as_data=True)
fmts = db.formats(book_id)
if not fmts:
continue
for fmt in fmts:
fmt = fmt.lower()
# Get a python file object for the format. This will be either
# an in memory file or a temporary on disk file
ffile = db.format(book_id, fmt, as_file=True)
ffile.seek(0)
# Set metadata in the format
set_metadata(ffile, mi, fmt)
ffile.seek(0)
# Now replace the file in the calibre library with the updated
# file. We dont use add_format_with_hooks as the hooks were
# already run when the file was first added to calibre.
db.add_format(book_id, fmt, ffile, run_hooks=False)
info_dialog(self, 'Updated files',

'Updated the metadata in the files of %d book(s)'%len(ids),
show=True)
def config(self):
self.do_user_config(parent=self)
# Apply the changes
self.label.setText(prefs['hello_world_msg'])

Getting resources from the plugin ZIP file
calibres plugin loading system defines a couple of built-in functions that allow you to conveniently get files from the
plugin ZIP file.
get_resources(name_or_list_of_names) This function should be called with a list of paths to files inside
the ZIP file. For example to access the file icon.png in the folder images in the ZIP file, you would
use: images/icon.png. Always use a forward slash as the path separator, even on Windows.
When you pass in a single name, the function will return the raw bytes of that file or None if the
name was not found in the ZIP file. If you pass in more than one name then it returns a dict mapping
the names to bytes. If a name is not found, it will not be present in the returned dict.
get_icons(name_or_list_of_names) A convenience wrapper for get_resources() that creates QIcon ob-
jects from the raw bytes returned by get_resources. If a name is not found in the ZIP file the
corresponding QIcon will be null.
Enabling user configuration of your plugin
To allow users to configure your plugin, you must define three methods in your base plugin class, is_customizable,
config_widget and save_settings as shown below:
def is_customizable(self):
'''
This method must return True to enable customization via
Preferences->Plugins
'''
return True
def config_widget(self):
'''
Implement this method and :meth:`save_settings` in your plugin to
use a custom configuration dialog.
This method, if implemented, must return a QWidget. The widget can have
an optional method validate() that takes no arguments and is called
immediately after the user clicks OK. Changes are applied if and only
If for some reason you cannot perform the configuration at this time,
return a tuple of two strings (message, details), these will be
displayed as a warning dialog to the user and the process will be
aborted.
The base class implementation of this method raises NotImplementedError

so by default no user configuration is possible.
'''
# It is important to put this import statement here rather than at the
# top of the module as importing the config class will also cause the
# GUI libraries to be loaded, which we do not want when using calibre
# from the command line
from calibre_plugins.interface_demo.config import ConfigWidget
return ConfigWidget()
def save_settings(self, config_widget):

'''
Save the settings specified by the user with config_widget.

:param config_widget: The widget returned by :meth:`config_widget`.

'''
config_widget.save_settings()
# Apply the changes

ac = self.actual_plugin_
if ac is not None:
ac.apply_settings()
calibre has many different ways to store configuration data (a legacy of its long history). The recommended way is to
use the JSONConfig class, which stores your configuration information in a .json file.
The code to manage configuration data in the demo plugin is in config.py:
from calibre.utils.config import JSONConfig
# This is where all preferences for this plugin will be stored

# Remember that this name (i.e. plugins/interface_demo) is also
# in a global namespace, so make it as unique as possible.
# You should always prefix your config file name with plugins/,
# so as to ensure you dont accidentally clobber a calibre config file
prefs = JSONConfig('plugins/interface_demo')
# Set defaults
prefs.defaults['hello_world_msg'] = 'Hello, World!'
class ConfigWidget(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
QWidget.__init__(self)
self.l = QHBoxLayout()
self.setLayout(self.l)
self.label = QLabel('Hello world &message:')

self.l.addWidget(self.label)
self.msg = QLineEdit(self)
self.msg.setText(prefs['hello_world_msg'])
self.l.addWidget(self.msg)
self.label.setBuddy(self.msg)
def save_settings(self):
prefs['hello_world_msg'] = self.msg.text()
The prefs object is now available throughout the plugin code by a simple:
You can see the prefs object being used in main.py:
def config(self):
self.do_user_config(parent=self)
# Apply the changes
self.label.setText(prefs['hello_world_msg'])

10.5.3 Edit book plugins
Now lets change gears for a bit and look at creating a plugin to add tools to the calibre book editor. The plugin is
available here: editor_demo_plugin.zip97 .
The first step, as for all plugins is to create the import name empty txt file, as described above (page 204). We shall
name the file plugin-import-name-editor_plugin_demo.txt.
Now we create the mandatory __init__.py file that contains metadata about the plugin – its name, author, version,
etc.
from calibre.customize import EditBookToolPlugin
class DemoPlugin(EditBookToolPlugin):
name = 'Edit Book plugin demo'

version = (1, 0, 0)
supported_platforms = ['windows', 'osx', 'linux']
description = 'A demonstration of the plugin interface for the ebook editor'
A single editor plugin can provide multiple tools each tool corresponds to a single button in the toolbar and entry in
the Plugins menu in the editor. These can have sub-menus in case the tool has multiple related actions.
The tools must all be defined in the file main.py in your plugin. Every tool is a class that inherits from the
calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool (page 348) class. Lets look at main.py from the demo plugin,
the source code is heavily commented and should be self-explanatory. Read the API documents of the calibre.
gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool (page 348) class for more details.
main.py
Here we will see the definition of a single tool that will multiply all font sizes in the book by a number provided by
the user. This tool demonstrates various important concepts that you will need in developing your own plugins, so you
should read the (heavily commented) source code carefully.
import re
from qt.core import QAction, QInputDialog
from css_parser.css import CSSRule
# The base class that all tools must inherit from

from calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin import Tool
from calibre import force_unicode

from calibre.gui2 import error_dialog
from calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container import OEB_DOCS, OEB_STYLES, serialize
class DemoTool(Tool):
#: Set this to a unique name it will be used as a key

name = 'demo-tool'
#: If True the user can choose to place this tool in the plugins toolbar
97 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/editor_demo_plugin.zip


allowed_in_toolbar = True
#: If True the user can choose to place this tool in the plugins menu
allowed_in_menu = True
def create_action(self, for_toolbar=True):

# Create an action, this will be added to the plugins toolbar and
# the plugins menu
ac = QAction(get_icons('images/icon.png'), 'Magnify fonts', self.gui) # noqa
if not for_toolbar:
# Register a keyboard shortcut for this toolbar action. We only
# register it for the action created for the menu, not the toolbar,
# to avoid a double trigger
self.register_shortcut(ac, 'magnify-fonts-tool', default_keys=(
,→'Ctrl+Shift+Alt+D',))
ac.triggered.connect(self.ask_user)
return ac
def ask_user(self):
# Ask the user for a factor by which to multiply all font sizes
factor, ok = QInputDialog.getDouble(
self.gui, 'Enter a magnification factor', 'Allow font sizes in the book
,→will be multiplied by the specified factor',
value=2, min=0.1, max=4

)
if ok:
# Ensure any in progress editing the user is doing is present in the
,→container
self.boss.commit_all_editors_to_container()
try:
self.magnify_fonts(factor)
except Exception:
# Something bad happened report the error to the user
import traceback
error_dialog(self.gui, _('Failed to magnify fonts'), _(
'Failed to magnify fonts, click "Show details" for more info'),
det_msg=traceback.format_exc(), show=True)
# Revert to the saved restore point
self.boss.revert_requested(self.boss.global_undo.previous_container)
else:
# Show the user what changes we have made, allowing her to
# revert them if necessary
self.boss.show_current_diff()
# Update the editor UI to take into account all the changes we
# have made
self.boss.apply_container_update_to_gui()
def magnify_fonts(self, factor):

# Magnify all font sizes defined in the book by the specified factor
# First we create a restore point so that the user can undo all changes
# we make.
self.boss.add_savepoint('Before: Magnify fonts')
container = self.current_container # The book being edited as a container

,→ object
# Iterate over all style declarations in the book, this means css


# stylesheets, <style> tags and style="" attributes
for name, media_type in container.mime_map.items():
if media_type in OEB_STYLES:
# A stylesheet. Parsed stylesheets are css_parser CSSStylesheet
# objects.
self.magnify_stylesheet(container.parsed(name), factor)
container.dirty(name) # Tell the container that we have changed the
,→stylesheet
elif media_type in OEB_DOCS:

# A HTML file. Parsed HTML files are lxml elements
for style_tag in container.parsed(name).xpath('//*[local-name="style"]

,→ '):
if style_tag.text and style_tag.get('type', None) in {None, 'text/
,→ css'}:
# We have an inline CSS <style> tag, parse it into a
# stylesheet object
sheet = container.parse_css(style_tag.text)
self.magnify_stylesheet(sheet, factor)
style_tag.text = serialize(sheet, 'text/css', pretty_
,→ print=True)
container.dirty(name) # Tell the container that we have
,→changed the stylesheet
for elem in container.parsed(name).xpath('//*[@style]'):
# Process inline style attributes
block = container.parse_css(elem.get('style'), is_
,→declaration=True)
self.magnify_declaration(block, factor)
elem.set('style', force_unicode(block.getCssText(separator=' '),
,→'utf-8'))
def magnify_stylesheet(self, sheet, factor):

# Magnify all fonts in the specified stylesheet by the specified
# factor.
for rule in sheet.cssRules.rulesOfType(CSSRule.STYLE_RULE):
self.magnify_declaration(rule.style, factor)
def magnify_declaration(self, style, factor):

# Magnify all fonts in the specified style declaration by the specified
# factor
val = style.getPropertyValue('font-size')
if not val:
return
# see if the font-size contains a number
num = re.search(r'[0-9.]+', val)
if num is not None:
num = num.group()
val = val.replace(num, '%f' % (float(num) * factor))
style.setProperty('font-size', val)
# We should also be dealing with the font shorthand property and
# font sizes specified as non numbers, but those are left as exercises
# for the reader
Lets break down main.py. We see that it defines a single tool, named Magnify fonts. This tool will ask the user for
a number and multiply all font sizes in the book by that number.
The first important thing is the tool name which you must set to some relatively unique string as it will be used as the

key for this tool.

The next important entry point is the calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool.create_action()
(page 349). This method creates the QAction objects that appear in the plugins toolbar and plugin menu. It also,
optionally, assigns a keyboard shortcut that the user can customize. The triggered signal from the QAction is con-
nected to the ask_user() method that asks the user for the font size multiplier, and then runs the magnification code.
The magnification code is well commented and fairly simple. The main things to note are that you get a reference to the
editor window as self.gui and the editor Boss as self.boss. The Boss is the object that controls the editor user
interface. It has many useful methods, that are documented in the calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
(page 350) class.
Finally, there is self.current_container which is a reference to the book being edited as a calibre.
ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container (page 341) object. This represents the book as a collection
of its constituent HTML/CSS/image files and has convenience methods for doing many useful things. The container
object and various useful utility functions that can be reused in your plugin code are documented in API documentation
for the e-book editing tools (page 341).
10.5.4 Running User Interface plugins in a separate process
If you are writing a user interface plugin that needs to make use of Qt WebEngine, it cannot be run in the main calibre
process as it is not possible to use WebEngine there. Instead you can copy the data your plugin needs to a temporary
folder and run the plugin with that data in a separate process. A simple example plugin follows that shows how to do
this.
You can download the plugin from webengine_demo_plugin.zip98 .
The important part of the plugin is in two functions:
def show_dialog(self):
# Ask the user for a URL
url, ok = QInputDialog.getText(self.gui, 'Enter a URL', 'Enter a URL to
,→browse below', text='https://calibre-ebook.com')
if not ok or not url:

return
# Launch a separate process to view the URL in WebEngine
self.gui.job_manager.launch_gui_app('webengine-dialog', kwargs={
'module':'calibre_plugins.webengine_demo.main', 'url':url})
def main(url):
# This function is run in a separate process and can do anything it likes,
# including use QWebEngine. Here it simply opens the passed in URL
# in a QWebEngineView
app = Application([])
w = QWebEngineView()
w.setUrl(QUrl(url))
w.show()
w.raise_()
app.exec_()
The show_demo() function asks the user for a URL and then runs the main() function passing it that URL. The
main() function displays the URL in a QWebEngineView.
98 https://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/webengine_demo_plugin.zip

10.5.5 Adding translations to your plugin
You can have all the user interface strings in your plugin translated and displayed in whatever language is set for the
main calibre user interface.
The first step is to go through your plugins source code and mark all user visible strings as translatable, by surrounding
them in _(). For example:
action_spec = (_('My plugin'), None, _('My plugin is cool'), None)
Then use some program to generate .po files from your plugin source code. There should be one .po file for every
language you want to translate into. For example: de.po for German, fr.po for French and so on. You can use the
Poedit99 program for this.
Send these .po files to your translators. Once you get them back, compile them into .mo files. You can again use Poedit
for that, or just do:
calibre-debug -c "from calibre.translations.msgfmt import main; main()" filename.po
Put the .mo files into the translations folder in your plugin.
The last step is to simply call the function load_translations() at the top of your plugins .py files. For performance
reasons you should only call this function in those .py files that actually have translatable strings. So in a typical User
Interface plugin you would call it at the top of ui.py but not __init__.py.
You can test the translations of your plugins by changing the user interface language in calibre under
Preferences→Interface→Look & feel or by running calibre like this:
CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_LANG=de calibre
Replace de with the language code of the language you want to test.
10.5.6 The plugin API
As you may have noticed above, a plugin in calibre is a class. There are different classes for the different types of
plugins in calibre. Details on each class, including the base class of all plugins can be found in API documentation for
plugins (page 233).
Your plugin is almost certainly going to use code from calibre. To learn how to find various bits of functionality in the
calibre code base, read the section on the calibre Code layout (page 328).
10.5.7 Debugging plugins
The first, most important step is to run calibre in debug mode. You can do this from the command line with:
calibre-debug -g
Or from within calibre by right-clicking the Preferences button or using the Ctrl+Shift+R keyboard shortcut.
When running from the command line, debug output will be printed to the console, when running from within calibre
the output will go to a txt file.
You can insert print statements anywhere in your plugin code, they will be output in debug mode. Remember, this is
Python, you really shouldnt need anything more than print statements to debug ;) I developed all of calibre using just
this debugging technique.
99 https://poedit.net/

You can quickly test changes to your plugin by using the following command line:
calibre-debug -s; calibre-customize -b /path/to/your/plugin/folder; calibre
This will shutdown a running calibre, wait for the shutdown to complete, then update your plugin in calibre and
relaunch calibre.
10.5.8 More plugin examples
You can find a list of many, sophisticated calibre plugins here100 .
10.5.9 Sharing your plugins with others
If you would like to share the plugins you have created with other users of calibre, post your plugin in a new thread in
the calibre plugins forum101 .
10.6 Typesetting Math in e-books
The calibre E-book viewer has the ability to display math embedded in e-books (EPUB and HTML files). You can
typeset the math directly with TeX or MathML or AsciiMath. The calibre E-book viewer uses the excellent MathJax102
library to do this. This is a brief tutorial on creating e-books with math in them that work well with the calibre E-book
viewer.
10.6.1 A simple HTML file with mathematics
You can write mathematics inline inside a simple HTML file and the calibre E-book viewer will render it into properly
typeset mathematics. In the example below, we use TeX notation for mathematics. You will see that you can use
normal TeX commands, with the small caveat that ampersands and less than and greater than signs have to be written
as & < and > respectively.
The first step is to tell calibre that this will contains maths. You do this by adding the following snippet of code to the
<head> section of the HTML file:
<script type="text/x-mathjax-config"></script>
Thats it, now you can type mathematics just as you would in a .tex file. For example, here are Lorentzs equations:
<h2>The Lorenz Equations</h2>
<p>
\begin{align}
\dot{x} & = \sigma(y-x) \\
\dot{y} & = \rho x - y - xz \\
\dot{z} & = -\beta z + xy
\end{align}
</p>
This snippet looks like the following screen shot in the calibre E-book viewer.
102 https://www.mathjax.org
10.6. Typesetting Math in e-books 217

Fig. 1: The Lorenz Equations
The complete HTML file, with more equations and inline mathematics is reproduced below. You can convert this
HTML file to EPUB in calibre to end up with an e-book you can distribute easily to other people.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
<title>Math Test Page</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />

<script type="text/x-mathjax-config">
// This line adds numbers to all equations automatically, unless explicitly
,→suppressed.
MathJax.tex = {tags: 'all'};

</script>
<style>
h1 {text-align:center}
h2 {
font-weight: bold;
background-color: #DDDDDD;
padding: .2em .5em;
margin-top: 1.5em;
border-top: 3px solid #666666;
border-bottom: 2px solid #999999;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Sample Equations</h1>
<h2>The Lorenz Equations</h2>
<p>
\begin{align}
\dot{x} & = \sigma(y-x) \label{lorenz}\\
\dot{y} & = \rho x - y - xz \\
\dot{z} & = -\beta z + xy
\end{align}
</p>


<h2>The Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality</h2>
<p>\[
\left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k b_k \right)^{\!\!2} \leq
\left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k^2 \right) \left( \sum_{k=1}^n b_k^2 \right)
\]</p>
<h2>A Cross Product Formula</h2>
<p>\[
\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 =
\begin{vmatrix}
\mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0 \\
\end{vmatrix}
\]</p>
<h2>The probability of getting $k$ heads when flipping $n$ coins is:</h2>
<p>\[P(E) = {n \choose k} p^k (1-p)^{ n-k} \]</p>
<h2>An Identity of Ramanujan</h2>
<p>\[
\frac{1}{(\sqrt{\phi \sqrt{5}}-\phi) e^{\frac25 \pi}} =
1+\frac{e^{-2\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-4\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-6\pi}}
{1+\frac{e^{-8\pi}} {1+\ldots} } } }
\]</p>
<h2>A Rogers-Ramanujan Identity</h2>
<p>\[
1 + \frac{q^2}{(1-q)}+\frac{q^6}{(1-q)(1-q^2)}+\cdots =
\prod_{j=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{(1-q^{5j+2})(1-q^{5j+3})},
\quad\quad \text{for $|q|<1$}.
\]</p>
<h2>Maxwell's Equations</h2>
<p>
\begin{align}
\nabla \times \vec{\mathbf{B}} -\, \frac1c\, \frac{\partial\vec{\mathbf{E}}}{\
,→partial t} & = \frac{4\pi}{c}\vec{\mathbf{j}} \\
\nabla \cdot \vec{\mathbf{E}} & = 4 \pi \rho \\

\nabla \times \vec{\mathbf{E}}\, +\, \frac1c\, \frac{\partial\vec{\mathbf{B}}}{\
,→partial t} & = \vec{\mathbf{0}} \\
\nabla \cdot \vec{\mathbf{B}} & = 0

\end{align}
</p>
<h2>In-line Mathematics</h2>
<p>While display equations look good for a page of samples, the

ability to mix math and text in a paragraph is also important. This
expression $\sqrt{3x-1}+(1+x)^2$ is an example of an inline equation. As
you see, equations can be used this way as well, without unduly
10.6. Typesetting Math in e-books 219


disturbing the spacing between lines.</p>
<h2>References to equations</h2>
<p>Here is a reference to the Lorenz Equations (\ref{lorenz}). Clicking on the

,→equation number will take you back to the equation.</p>
</body>
</html>
10.6.2 More information
Since the calibre E-book viewer uses the MathJax library to render mathematics, the best place to find out more about
math in e-books and get help is the MathJax website103 .
10.7 Creating AZW3 EPUB MOBI catalogs
calibres Create catalog feature enables you to create a catalog of your library in a variety of formats. This help file
describes cataloging options when generating a catalog in AZW3, EPUB and MOBI formats.
• Selecting books to catalog (page 220)

• Included sections (page 221)
• Prefixes (page 222)
• Excluded books (page 222)
• Excluded genres (page 223)
• Other options (page 223)
• Custom catalog covers (page 224)
• Additional help resources (page 225)
10.7.1 Selecting books to catalog
If you want all of your library cataloged, remove any search or filtering criteria in the main window. With a single
book selected, all books in your library will be candidates for inclusion in the generated catalog. Individual books may
be excluded by various criteria; see the Excluded genres (page 223) section below for more information.
If you want only some of your library cataloged, you have two options:
• Create a multiple selection of the books you want cataloged. With more than one book selected in calibres main
window, only the selected books will be cataloged.
• Use the Search field or the Tag browser to filter the displayed books. Only the displayed books will be cataloged.
To begin catalog generation, select the menu item Convert books > Create a catalog of the books in your calibre
library. You may also add a Create catalog button to a toolbar in Preferences > Interface > Toolbars & menus for
easier access to the Generate catalog dialog.
103 https://www.mathjax.org

In Catalog options, select AZW3, EPUB or MOBI as the Catalog format. In the Catalog title field, provide a name
that will be used for the generated catalog. If a catalog of the same name and format already exists, it will be replaced
with the newly-generated catalog.
Enabling Send catalog to device automatically will download the generated catalog to a connected device upon com-
pletion.
10.7.2 Included sections
Sections enabled by a checkmark will be included in the generated catalog:

• Authors - all books, sorted by author, presented in a list format. Non-series books are listed before series books.
• Titles - all books, sorted by title, presented in a list format.
• Series - all books that are part of a series, sorted by series, presented in a list format.
• Genres - individual genres presented in a list, sorted by Author and Series.
• Recently Added - all books, sorted in reverse chronological order. List includes books added in the last 30 days,
then a month-by-month listing of added books.
• Descriptions - detailed description page for each book, including a cover thumbnail and comments. Sorted by
author, with non-series books listed before series books.
10.7. Creating AZW3 EPUB MOBI catalogs 221

10.7.3 Prefixes
Prefix rules allow you to add a prefix to book listings when certain criteria are met. For example, you might want to
mark books youve read with a checkmark, or books on your wishlist with an X.
The checkbox in the first column enables the rule. Name is a rule name that you provide. Field is either Tags or a
custom column from your library. Value is the content of Field to match. When a prefix rule is satisfied, the book will
be marked with the selected Prefix.
Three prefix rules have been specified in the example above:
1. Read book specifies that a book with any date in a custom column named Last read will be prefixed with a
checkmark symbol.
2. Wishlist item specifies that any book with a Wishlist tag will be prefixed with an X symbol.
3. Library books specifies that any book with a value of True (or Yes) in a custom column Available in Library
will be prefixed with a double arrow symbol.
The first matching rule supplies the prefix. Disabled or incomplete rules are ignored.
10.7.4 Excluded books
Exclusion rules allow you to specify books that will not be cataloged.
The checkbox in the first column enables the rule. Name is a rule name that you provide. Field is either Tags or a
custom column in your library. Value is the content of Field to match. When an exclusion rule is satisfied, the book
will be excluded from the generated catalog.
Two exclusion rules have been specified in the example above:
1. The Catalogs rule specifies that any book with a Catalog tag will be excluded from the generated catalog.

2. The Archived Books rule specifies that any book with a value of Archived in the custom column Status will be
excluded from the generated catalog.
All rules are evaluated for every book. Disabled or incomplete rules are ignored.
10.7.5 Excluded genres
When the catalog is generated, tags in your database are used as genres. For example, you may use the tags Fiction
and Nonfiction. These tags become genres in the generated catalog, with books listed under their respective genre
lists based on their assigned tags. A book will be listed in every genre section for which it has a corresponding tag.
You may be using certain tags for other purposes, perhaps a + to indicate a read book, or a bracketed tag like [Amazon
Freebie] to indicate a books source. The Excluded genres regex allows you to specify tags that you dont want used
as genres in the generated catalog. The default exclusion regex pattern \[.+\]\+ excludes any tags of the form
[tag], as well as excluding +, the default tag for read books, from being used as genres in the generated catalog.
You can also use an exact tag name in a regex. For example, [Amazon Freebie] or [Project Gutenberg].
If you want to list multiple exact tags for exclusion, put a pipe (vertical bar) character between them: [Amazon
Freebie]|[Project Gutenberg].
Results of regex shows you which tags will be excluded when the catalog is built, based on the tags in your database
and the regex pattern you enter. The results are updated as you modify the regex pattern.
10.7.6 Other options
Catalog cover specifies whether to generate a new cover or use an existing cover. It is possible to create a custom
cover for your catalogs - see Custom catalog covers (page 224) for more information. If you have created a custom
cover that you want to reuse, select Use existing cover. Otherwise, select Generate new cover.
Extra Description note specifies a custom columns contents to be inserted into the Description page, next to the cover
thumbnail. For example, you might want to display the date you last read a book using a Last Read custom column.
For advanced use of the Description note feature, see this post in the calibre forum104 .
Thumb width specifies a width preference for cover thumbnails included with Descriptions pages. Thumbnails are
cached to improve performance. To experiment with different widths, try generating a catalog with just a few books
until youve determined your preferred width, then generate your full catalog. The first time a catalog is generated with
104 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1335767&postcount=395
10.7. Creating AZW3 EPUB MOBI catalogs 223

a new thumbnail width, performance will be slower, but subsequent builds of the catalog will take advantage of the
thumbnail cache.
Merge with comments specifies a custom column whose content will be non-destructively merged with the comments
metadata during catalog generation. For example, you might have a custom column Author bio that youd like to
append to the comments metadata. You can choose to insert the custom column contents before or after the comments
section, and optionally separate the appended content with a horizontal rule separator. Eligible custom column types
include text, comments, and composite.
10.7.7 Custom catalog covers
With the Generate Cover plugin105 installed, you can create cus-
tom covers for your catalog. To install the plugin, go to Preferences > Advanced > Plugins > Get new plugins.

10.7.8 Additional help resources
For more information on calibres Catalog feature, see the MobileRead forum sticky Creating Catalogs - Start here106 ,
where you can find information on how to customize the catalog templates, and how to submit a bug report.
To ask questions or discuss calibres Catalog feature with other users, visit the MobileRead forum Calibre Catalogs107 .
10.8 Virtual libraries
In calibre, a Virtual library is a way to tell calibre to open only a subset of a normal library. For example, you might
want to only work with books by a certain author, or books having only a certain tag. Using Virtual libraries is the
preferred way of partitioning your large book collection into smaller sub collections. It is superior to splitting up your
library into multiple smaller libraries as, when you want to search through your entire collection, you can simply go
back to the full library. There is no way to search through multiple separate libraries simultaneously in calibre.
A Virtual library is different from a simple search. A search will only restrict the list of books shown in the book list.
A Virtual library does that, and in addition it also restricts the entries shown in the Tag browser to the left. The Tag
browser will only show tags, authors, series, publishers, etc. that come from the books in the Virtual library. A Virtual
library thus behaves as though the actual library contains only the restricted set of books.
10.8.1 Creating Virtual libraries
To use a Virtual library click the Virtual library button located to the left of the Search
bar and select the Create Virtual library option. As a first example, lets create a Virtual library that shows us only the
books by a particular author. Click the Authors link as shown in the image below and choose the author you want to
use and click OK.
The Create Virtual library dialog has been filled in for you. Click OK and you will see that a new Virtual library has
been created, and automatically switched to, that displays only the books by the selected author. As far as calibre is
concerned, it is as if your library contains only the books by the selected author.
10.8. Virtual libraries 225

You can switch back to the full library at any time by once again clicking the Virtual library and selecting the entry
named <None>.
Virtual libraries are based on searches. You can use any search as the basis of a Virtual library. The Virtual library
will contain only the books matched by that search. First, type in the search you want to use in the Search bar or
build a search using the Tag browser. When you are happy with the returned results, click the Virtual library button,
choose Create library and enter a name for the new Virtual library. The Virtual library will then be created based on
the search you just typed in. Searches are very powerful, for examples of the kinds of things you can do with them,
see The search interface (page 12).
Examples of useful Virtual libraries
• Books added to calibre in the last day:: date:>1daysago

• Books added to calibre in the last month:: date:>30daysago
• Books with a rating of 5 stars:: rating:5
• Books with a rating of at least 4 stars:: rating:>=4
• Books with no rating:: rating:false
• Periodicals downloaded by the Fetch News function in calibre:: tags:=News and author:=calibre
• Books with no tags:: tags:false
• Books with no covers:: cover:false
10.8.2 Working with Virtual libraries
You can edit a previously created Virtual library or remove it, by clicking the Virtual library and choosing the appro-
priate action.
You can tell calibre that you always want to apply a particular Virtual library when the current library is opened, by
going to Preferences→Interface→Behavior.
You can quickly use the current search as a temporary Virtual library by clicking the Virtual library button and choosing
the *current search entry.
You can display all available Virtual libraries as tabs above the book list. This is particularly handy if you like
switching between Virtual libraries very often. Click the Virtual library button and select Show Virtual libraries as
tabs. You can re-arrange the tabs by drag and drop and close ones you do not want to see. Closed tabs can be restored
by right-clicking on the tab bar.
10.8.3 Using Virtual libraries in searches
You can search for books that are in a Virtual library using the vl: prefix. For example, vl:Read will find all the
books in the Read Virtual library. The search vl:Read and vl:"Science Fiction" will find all the books
that are in both the Read and Science Fiction Virtual libraries.
The value following vl: must be the name of a Virtual library. If the Virtual library name contains spaces then
surround it with quotes.
One use for a Virtual library search is in the content server. In Preferences→Sharing over the net→Require username
and password you can limit the calibre libraries visible to a user. For each visible library you can specify a search
expression to further limit which books are seen. Use vl:"Virtual library name" to limit the books to those
in a Virtual library.

10.8.4 Using additional restrictions
You can further restrict the books shown in a Virtual library by using Additional restrictions. An additional restriction
is saved search you previously created that can be applied to the current Virtual library to further restrict the books
shown in a Virtual library. For example, say you have a Virtual library for books tagged as Historical Fiction and
a saved search that shows you unread books, you can click the Virtual Library button and choose the Additional
restriction option to show only unread Historical Fiction books. To learn about saved searches, see Saving searches
(page 15).
10.8. Virtual libraries 227


CHAPTER
ELEVEN
THE CALIBRE:// URL SCHEME
calibre registers itself as the handler program for calibre:// URLs. So you can use these to perform actions like opening
books, searching for books, etc from other programs/documents or via the command line. For example, running the
following at the command line:
calibre calibre://switch-library/Some_Library
Will open calibre with the library named Some Library. Library names are the folder name of the library folder
with spaces replaced by underscores. The special value _ means the current library. The various types of URLs are
documented below.
You can even place these links inside HTML files or Word documents or similar and the operating system will auto-
matically run calibre to perform the specified action.
• Switch to a specific library (page 229)

• Show a specific book in calibre (page 230)
• Open a specific book in the E-book viewer at a specific position (page 230)
• Searching for books (page 230)
• Hex encoding of URL parameters (page 231)
11.1 Switch to a specific library
The URL syntax is:
calibre://switch-library/Library_Name
Library names are the folder name of the library with spaces replaced by underscores. The special value _ means
the current library. You can also use hex encoding (page 231) for the library names, useful if the library names have
special characters that would otherwise require URL encoding. Hex encoded library names look like:
_hex_-AD23F4BC
Where the part after the _hex_- prefix is the library name encoded as UTF-8 and every byte represented by two
hexadecimal characters.
229
11.2 Show a specific book in calibre
The URL syntax is:
calibre://show-book/Library_Name/book_id
This will show the book with book_id (a number) in calibre. The ids for books can be seen in the calibre interface
by hovering over the Click to open link in the Book details panel, it is the number in brackets at the end of the path to
the book folder.
You can copy a link to the current book displayed in calibre by right clicking the Book details panel and choosing
Copy link to book.
11.3 Open a specific book in the E-book viewer at a specific position
The URL syntax is:
calibre://view-book/Library_Name/book_id/book_format?open_at=location
Here, book_format is the format of the book, for example, EPUB or MOBI and the location is an optional
location inside the book. The easiest way to get these links is to open a book in the viewer, then in the viewer controls
select Go to→Location and there such a link will be given that you can copy/paste elsewhere.
11.4 Searching for books
The URL syntax is:
calibre://search/Library_Name?q=query
calibre://search/Library_Name?eq=hex_encoded_query
Here query is any valid search expression (page 12). If the search expression is complicated, encode it as a hex string
(page 231) and use eq instead. Leaving out the query will cause the current search to be cleared.
By default, if a Virtual library is selected, calibre will clear it before doing the search to ensure all books are found. If
you want to preserve the Virtual library, use:
calibre://search/Library_Name?q=query&virtual_library=_
If you want to switch to a particular Virtual library, use:
calibre://search/Library_Name?virtual_library=Library%20Name
or
calibre://search/Library_Name?encoded_virtual_library=hex_encoded_virtual_library_name
replacing spaces in the Virtual library name by %20.

If you perform a search in calibre and want to generate a link for it you can do so by right clicking the search bar and
choosing Copy search as URL.
230 Chapter 11. The calibre:// URL scheme

11.5 Hex encoding of URL parameters
Hex encoding of URL parameters is done by first encoding the parameter as UTF-8 bytes, and then replacing each
byte by two hexadecimal characters representing the byte. For example, the string abc is the bytes 0x61 0x62
and 0x63 in UTF-8, so the encoded version is the string: 616263.
11.5. Hex encoding of URL parameters 231

232 Chapter 11. The calibre:// URL scheme

CHAPTER
TWELVE
CUSTOMIZING CALIBRE
calibre has a highly modular design. Various parts of it can be customized. You can learn how to create recipes to add
new sources of online content to calibre in the Section Adding your favorite news website (page 25). Here, you will
learn, first, how to use environment variables and tweaks to customize calibres behavior, and then how to specify your
own static resources like icons and templates to override the defaults and finally how to use plugins to add functionality
to calibre.
• Environment variables (page 260)

• Tweaks (page 261)
• Overriding icons, templates, et cetera (page 272)
• Creating your own icon theme for calibre (page 272)
• Customizing calibre with plugins (page 272)
12.1 API documentation for plugins
Defines various abstract base classes that can be subclassed to create powerful plugins. The useful classes are:
• Plugin (page 234)

• FileTypePlugin (page 236)
• Metadata plugins (page 237)
• Catalog plugins (page 237)
• Metadata download plugins (page 238)
• Conversion plugins (page 241)
• Device drivers (page 244)
• User interface actions (page 256)
• Preferences plugins (page 258)
233
12.1.1 Plugin
class calibre.customize.Plugin(plugin_path)
A calibre plugin. Useful members include:
• self.plugin_path: Stores path to the ZIP file that contains this plugin or None if it is a builtin
plugin
• self.site_customization: Stores a customization string entered by the user.
Methods that should be overridden in sub classes:
• initialize() (page 234)
• customization_help() (page 235)
Useful methods:
• temporary_file() (page 235)
• __enter__()
• load_resources() (page 235)
supported_platforms = []
List of platforms this plugin works on. For example: ['windows', 'osx', 'linux']
name = 'Trivial Plugin'
The name of this plugin. You must set it something other than Trivial Plugin for it to work.
version = (1, 0, 0)
The version of this plugin as a 3-tuple (major, minor, revision)
description = 'Does absolutely nothing'
A short string describing what this plugin does
author = 'Unknown'
The author of this plugin
priority = 1
When more than one plugin exists for a filetype, the plugins are run in order of decreasing priority. Plugins
with higher priority will be run first. The highest possible priority is sys.maxsize. Default priority is
1.
The earliest version of calibre this plugin requires
can_be_disabled = True
If False, the user will not be able to disable this plugin. Use with care.
type = 'Base'
The type of this plugin. Used for categorizing plugins in the GUI
initialize()
Called once when calibre plugins are initialized. Plugins are re-initialized every time a new plugin is
added. Also note that if the plugin is run in a worker process, such as for adding books, then the plugin
will be initialized for every new worker process.
Perform any plugin specific initialization here, such as extracting resources from the plugin ZIP file. The
path to the ZIP file is available as self.plugin_path.
Note that self.site_customization is not available at this point.
234 Chapter 12. Customizing calibre

config_widget()
Implement this method and save_settings() (page 235) in your plugin to use a custom configuration
dialog, rather then relying on the simple string based default customization.
This method, if implemented, must return a QWidget. The widget can have an optional method validate()
that takes no arguments and is called immediately after the user clicks OK. Changes are applied if and only
If for some reason you cannot perform the configuration at this time, return a tuple of two strings (message,
details), these will be displayed as a warning dialog to the user and the process will be aborted.
save_settings(config_widget)
Save the settings specified by the user with config_widget.
Parameters config_widget – The widget returned by config_widget() (page 234).
do_user_config(parent=None)
This method shows a configuration dialog for this plugin. It returns True if the user clicks OK, False
otherwise. The changes are automatically applied.
load_resources(names)
If this plugin comes in a ZIP file (user added plugin), this method will allow you to load resources from
the ZIP file.
For example to load an image:
pixmap = QPixmap()
pixmap.loadFromData(self.load_resources(['images/icon.png'])['images/icon.png
,→'])
icon = QIcon(pixmap)
Parameters names – List of paths to resources in the ZIP file using / as separator
Returns A dictionary of the form {name: file_contents}. Any names that were not
found in the ZIP file will not be present in the dictionary.
customization_help(gui=False)
Return a string giving help on how to customize this plugin. By default raise a
NotImplementedError, which indicates that the plugin does not require customization.
If you re-implement this method in your subclass, the user will be asked to enter a string as customization
for this plugin. The customization string will be available as self.site_customization.
Site customization could be anything, for example, the path to a needed binary on the users computer.
Parameters gui – If True return HTML help, otherwise return plain text help.
temporary_file(suffix)
Return a file-like object that is a temporary file on the file system. This file will remain available even after
being closed and will only be removed on interpreter shutdown. Use the name member of the returned
object to access the full path to the created temporary file.
Parameters suffix – The suffix that the temporary file will have.
cli_main(args)
This method is the main entry point for your plugins command line interface. It is called when the user
does: calibre-debug -r Plugin Name. Any arguments passed are present in the args variable.
12.1. API documentation for plugins 235

12.1.2 FileTypePlugin
class calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin(plugin_path)
Bases: calibre.customize.Plugin (page 234)
A plugin that is associated with a particular set of file types.
file_types = {}
Set of file types for which this plugin should be run. Use * for all file types. For example: {'lit',
'mobi', 'prc'}
on_import = False
If True, this plugin is run when books are added to the database
on_postimport = False
If True, this plugin is run after books are added to the database. In this case the postimport and postadd
methods of the plugin are called.
on_preprocess = False
If True, this plugin is run just before a conversion
on_postprocess = False
If True, this plugin is run after conversion on the final file produced by the conversion output plugin.
run(path_to_ebook)
Run the plugin. Must be implemented in subclasses. It should perform whatever modifications are required
on the e-book and return the absolute path to the modified e-book. If no modifications are needed, it should
return the path to the original e-book. If an error is encountered it should raise an Exception. The default
implementation simply return the path to the original e-book. Note that the path to the original file (before
any file type plugins are run, is available as self.original_path_to_file).
The modified e-book file should be created with the temporary_file() method.
Parameters path_to_ebook – Absolute path to the e-book.
Returns Absolute path to the modified e-book.
postimport(book_id, book_format, db)
Called post import, i.e., after the book file has been added to the database. Note that this is different from
postadd() (page 236) which is called when the book record is created for the first time. This method is
called whenever a new file is added to a book record. It is useful for modifying the book record based on
the contents of the newly added file.
Parameters
• book_id – Database id of the added book.
• book_format – The file type of the book that was added.
• db – Library database.
postadd(book_id, fmt_map, db)
Called post add, i.e. after a book has been added to the db. Note that this is different from postimport()
(page 236), which is called after a single book file has been added to a book. postadd() is called only when
an entire book record with possibly more than one book file has been created for the first time. This is
useful if you wish to modify the book record in the database when the book is first added to calibre.
Parameters
• book_id – Database id of the added book.

• fmt_map – Map of file format to path from which the file format was added. Note that
this might or might not point to an actual existing file, as sometimes files are added as
streams. In which case it might be a dummy value or a non-existent path.
• db – Library database
12.1.3 Metadata plugins
class calibre.customize.MetadataReaderPlugin(*args, **kwargs)

A plugin that implements reading metadata from a set of file types.
file_types = {}
Set of file types for which this plugin should be run. For example: set(['lit', 'mobi', 'prc'])
get_metadata(stream, type)
Return metadata for the file represented by stream (a file like object that supports reading). Raise an
exception when there is an error with the input data.
Parameters type – The type of file. Guaranteed to be one of the entries in file_types
(page 237).
Returns A calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.Metadata object
class calibre.customize.MetadataWriterPlugin(*args, **kwargs)
A plugin that implements reading metadata from a set of file types.
file_types = {}
Set of file types for which this plugin should be run. For example: set(['lit', 'mobi', 'prc'])
set_metadata(stream, mi, type)
Set metadata for the file represented by stream (a file like object that supports reading). Raise an exception
when there is an error with the input data.
Parameters
• type – The type of file. Guaranteed to be one of the entries in file_types (page 237).
• mi – A calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.Metadata object
12.1.4 Catalog plugins
class calibre.customize.CatalogPlugin(plugin_path)
A plugin that implements a catalog generator.
file_types = {}
Output file type for which this plugin should be run. For example: epub or xml
cli_options = []
CLI parser options specific to this plugin, declared as namedtuple Option:
from collections import namedtuple Option = namedtuple(Option, option, default, dest, help) cli_options
= [Option(–catalog-title, default = My Catalog, dest = catalog_title, help = (_(Title of generated catalog.
nDefault:) + + %default + ))] cli_options parsed in calibre.db.cli.cmd_catalog:option_parser()

initialize()
If plugin is not a built-in, copy the plugins .ui and .py files from the ZIP file to $TMPDIR. Tab will be
dynamically generated and added to the Catalog Options dialog in calibre.gui2.dialogs.catalog.py:Catalog
run(path_to_output, opts, db, ids, notification=None)
Run the plugin. Must be implemented in subclasses. It should generate the catalog in the format specified
in file_types, returning the absolute path to the generated catalog file. If an error is encountered it should
raise an Exception.
The generated catalog file should be created with the temporary_file() method.
Parameters
• path_to_output – Absolute path to the generated catalog file.
• opts – A dictionary of keyword arguments
• db – A LibraryDatabase2 object
12.1.5 Metadata download plugins
class calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source(*args, **kwargs)

capabilities = frozenset({})
Set of capabilities supported by this plugin. Useful capabilities are: identify, cover
touched_fields = frozenset({})
List of metadata fields that can potentially be download by this plugin during the identify phase
has_html_comments = False
Set this to True if your plugin returns HTML formatted comments
supports_gzip_transfer_encoding = False
Setting this to True means that the browser object will indicate that it supports gzip transfer encoding. This
can speedup downloads but make sure that the source actually supports gzip transfer encoding correctly
first
ignore_ssl_errors = False
Set this to True to ignore HTTPS certificate errors when connecting to this source.
cached_cover_url_is_reliable = True
Cached cover URLs can sometimes be unreliable (i.e. the download could fail or the returned image could
be bogus. If that is often the case with this source set to False
options = ()
A list of Option objects. They will be used to automatically construct the configuration widget for this
plugin
config_help_message = None
A string that is displayed at the top of the config widget for this plugin
can_get_multiple_covers = False
If True this source can return multiple covers for a given query
auto_trim_covers = False
If set to True covers downloaded by this plugin are automatically trimmed.
prefer_results_with_isbn = True
If set to True, and this source returns multiple results for a query, some of which have ISBNs and some of
which do not, the results without ISBNs will be ignored

is_configured()
Return False if your plugin needs to be configured before it can be used. For example, it might need a
username/password/API key.
customization_help()
Return a string giving help on how to customize this plugin. By default raise a
NotImplementedError, which indicates that the plugin does not require customization.
If you re-implement this method in your subclass, the user will be asked to enter a string as customization
for this plugin. The customization string will be available as self.site_customization.
Site customization could be anything, for example, the path to a needed binary on the users computer.
Parameters gui – If True return HTML help, otherwise return plain text help.
config_widget()
Implement this method and save_settings() (page 239) in your plugin to use a custom configuration
dialog, rather then relying on the simple string based default customization.
This method, if implemented, must return a QWidget. The widget can have an optional method validate()
that takes no arguments and is called immediately after the user clicks OK. Changes are applied if and only
If for some reason you cannot perform the configuration at this time, return a tuple of two strings (message,
details), these will be displayed as a warning dialog to the user and the process will be aborted.
save_settings(config_widget)
Save the settings specified by the user with config_widget.
Parameters config_widget – The widget returned by config_widget() (page 239).
get_author_tokens(authors, only_first_author=True)
Take a list of authors and return a list of tokens useful for an AND search query. This function tries to
return tokens in first name middle names last name order, by assuming that if a comma is in the author
name, the name is in lastname, other names form.
get_title_tokens(title, strip_joiners=True, strip_subtitle=False)
Take a title and return a list of tokens useful for an AND search query. Excludes connectives(optionally)
and punctuation.
split_jobs(jobs, num)
Split a list of jobs into at most num groups, as evenly as possible
test_fields(mi)
Return the first field from self.touched_fields that is null on the mi object
clean_downloaded_metadata(mi)
Call this method in your plugins identify method to normalize metadata before putting the Metadata object
into result_queue. You can of course, use a custom algorithm suited to your metadata source.
get_book_url(identifiers)
Return a 3-tuple or None. The 3-tuple is of the form: (identifier_type, identifier_value, URL). The URL
is the URL for the book identified by identifiers at this source. identifier_type, identifier_value specify the
identifier corresponding to the URL. This URL must be browseable to by a human using a browser. It is
meant to provide a clickable link for the user to easily visit the books page at this source. If no URL is
found, return None. This method must be quick, and consistent, so only implement it if it is possible to
construct the URL from a known scheme given identifiers.
get_book_url_name(idtype, idval, url)
Return a human readable name from the return value of get_book_url().

get_book_urls(identifiers)
Override this method if you would like to return multiple urls for this book. Return a list of 3-tuples. By
default this method simply calls get_book_url() (page 239).
get_cached_cover_url(identifiers)
Return cached cover URL for the book identified by the identifiers dict or None if no such URL exists.
Note that this method must only return validated URLs, i.e. not URLS that could result in a generic cover
image or a not found error.
id_from_url(url)
Parse a URL and return a tuple of the form: (identifier_type, identifier_value). If the URL does not match
the pattern for the metadata source, return None.
identify_results_keygen(title=None, authors=None, identifiers={})
Return a function that is used to generate a key that can sort Metadata objects by their relevance given a
search query (title, authors, identifiers).
These keys are used to sort the results of a call to identify() (page 240).
For details on the default algorithm see InternalMetadataCompareKeyGen (page 241). Re-
implement this function in your plugin if the default algorithm is not suitable.
identify(log, result_queue, abort, title=None, authors=None, identifiers={}, timeout=30)
Identify a book by its Title/Author/ISBN/etc.
If identifiers(s) are specified and no match is found and this metadata source does not store all related
identifiers (for example, all ISBNs of a book), this method should retry with just the title and author
(assuming they were specified).
If this metadata source also provides covers, the URL to the cover should be cached so that a subsequent
call to the get covers API with the same ISBN/special identifier does not need to get the cover URL again.
Use the caching API for this.
Every Metadata object put into result_queue by this method must have a source_relevance attribute that
is an integer indicating the order in which the results were returned by the metadata source for this query.
This integer will be used by compare_identify_results(). If the order is unimportant, set it to
zero for every result.
Make sure that any cover/ISBN mapping information is cached before the Metadata object is put into
result_queue.
Parameters
• log – A log object, use it to output debugging information/errors
• result_queue – A result Queue, results should be put into it. Each result is a Metadata
object
• abort – If abort.is_set() returns True, abort further processing and return as soon as
possible
• title – The title of the book, can be None
• authors – A list of authors of the book, can be None
• identifiers – A dictionary of other identifiers, most commonly {isbn:1234}
• timeout – Timeout in seconds, no network request should hang for longer than timeout.
Returns None if no errors occurred, otherwise a unicode representation of the error suitable for
showing to the user

download_cover(log, result_queue, abort, title=None, authors=None, identifiers={}, timeout=30,

get_best_cover=False)
Download a cover and put it into result_queue. The parameters all have the same meaning as for
identify() (page 240). Put (self, cover_data) into result_queue.
This method should use cached cover URLs for efficiency whenever possible. When cached data is not
present, most plugins simply call identify and use its results.
If the parameter get_best_cover is True and this plugin can get multiple covers, it should only get the best
one.
class calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.InternalMetadataCompareKeyGen(mi,
source_plugin,
ti-
tle,
au-
thors,
iden-
ti-
fiers)
Generate a sort key for comparison of the relevance of Metadata objects, given a search query. This is used only
to compare results from the same metadata source, not across different sources.
The sort key ensures that an ascending order sort is a sort by order of decreasing relevance.
The algorithm is:
• Prefer results that have at least one identifier the same as for the query
• Prefer results with a cached cover URL
• Prefer results with all available fields filled in
• Prefer results with the same language as the current user interface language
• Prefer results that are an exact title match to the query
• Prefer results with longer comments (greater than 10% longer)
• Use the relevance of the result as reported by the metadata sources search engine
12.1.6 Conversion plugins
class calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin(*args)
InputFormatPlugins are responsible for converting a document into HTML+OPF+CSS+etc. The results of the
conversion must be encoded in UTF-8. The main action happens in convert() (page 242).
file_types = {}
Set of file types for which this plugin should be run For example: set(['azw', 'mobi', 'prc'])
is_image_collection = False
If True, this input plugin generates a collection of images, one per HTML file. This can be set dynamically,
in the convert method if the input files can be both image collections and non-image collections. If you set
this to True, you must implement the get_images() method that returns a list of images.
core_usage = 1
Number of CPU cores used by this plugin. A value of -1 means that it uses all available cores
for_viewer = False
If set to True, the input plugin will perform special processing to make its output suitable for viewing

output_encoding = 'utf-8'
The encoding that this input plugin creates files in. A value of None means that the encoding is undefined
and must be detected individually
common_options = {<calibre.customize.conversion.OptionRecommendation object>}
Options shared by all Input format plugins. Do not override in sub-classes. Use options (page 242)
instead. Every option must be an instance of OptionRecommendation.
options = {}
Options to customize the behavior of this plugin. Every option must be an instance of
OptionRecommendation.
recommendations = {}
A set of 3-tuples of the form (option_name, recommended_value, recommendation_level)
get_images()
Return a list of absolute paths to the images, if this input plugin represents an image collection. The list of
images is in the same order as the spine and the TOC.
convert(stream, options, file_ext, log, accelerators)
This method must be implemented in sub-classes. It must return the path to the created OPF file or an
OEBBook instance. All output should be contained in the current folder. If this plugin creates files outside
the current folder they must be deleted/marked for deletion before this method returns.
Parameters
• stream – A file like object that contains the input file.
• options – Options to customize the conversion process. Guaranteed to have attributes
corresponding to all the options declared by this plugin. In addition, it will have a verbose
attribute that takes integral values from zero upwards. Higher numbers mean be more
verbose. Another useful attribute is input_profile that is an instance of calibre.
customize.profiles.InputProfile.
• file_ext – The extension (without the .) of the input file. It is guaranteed to be one of
the file_types supported by this plugin.
• log – A calibre.utils.logging.Log object. All output should use this object.
• accelarators – A dictionary of various information that the input plugin can get easily
that would speed up the subsequent stages of the conversion.
postprocess_book(oeb, opts, log)
Called to allow the input plugin to perform postprocessing after the book has been parsed.
specialize(oeb, opts, log, output_fmt)
Called to allow the input plugin to specialize the parsed book for a particular output format. Called after
postprocess_book and before any transforms are performed on the parsed book.
gui_configuration_widget(parent, get_option_by_name, get_option_help, db, book_id=None)
Called to create the widget used for configuring this plugin in the calibre GUI. The widget must be an
instance of the PluginWidget class. See the builtin input plugins for examples.
class calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin(*args)
OutputFormatPlugins are responsible for converting an OEB document (OPF+HTML) into an output e-book.
The OEB document can be assumed to be encoded in UTF-8. The main action happens in convert()
(page 243).
file_type = None
The file type (extension without leading period) that this plugin outputs

common_options = {<calibre.customize.conversion.OptionRecommendation object>}

Options shared by all Input format plugins. Do not override in sub-classes. Use options (page 243)
instead. Every option must be an instance of OptionRecommendation.
options = {}
Options to customize the behavior of this plugin. Every option must be an instance of
OptionRecommendation.
recommendations = {}
A set of 3-tuples of the form (option_name, recommended_value, recommendation_level)
property description
str(object=) -> str str(bytes_or_buffer[, encoding[, errors]]) -> str
Create a new string object from the given object. If encoding or errors is specified, then the object must
expose a data buffer that will be decoded using the given encoding and error handler. Otherwise, returns
the result of object.__str__() (if defined) or repr(object). encoding defaults to sys.getdefaultencoding().
errors defaults to strict.
convert(oeb_book, output, input_plugin, opts, log)
Render the contents of oeb_book (which is an instance of calibre.ebooks.oeb.OEBBook) to the
file specified by output.
Parameters
• output – Either a file like object or a string. If it is a string it is the path to a folder that
may or may not exist. The output plugin should write its output into that folder. If it is a
file like object, the output plugin should write its output into the file.
• input_plugin – The input plugin that was used at the beginning of the conversion
pipeline.
• opts – Conversion options. Guaranteed to have attributes corresponding to the Option-
Recommendations of this plugin.
• log – The logger. Print debug/info messages etc. using this.
specialize_options(log, opts, input_fmt)
Can be used to change the values of conversion options, as used by the conversion pipeline.
specialize_css_for_output(log, opts, item, stylizer)
Can be used to make changes to the css during the CSS flattening process.
Parameters
• item – The item (HTML file) being processed
• stylizer – A Stylizer object containing the flattened styles for item. You can get the
style for any element by stylizer.style(element).
gui_configuration_widget(parent, get_option_by_name, get_option_help, db, book_id=None)
Called to create the widget used for configuring this plugin in the calibre GUI. The widget must be an
instance of the PluginWidget class. See the builtin output plugins for examples.

12.1.7 Device drivers
The base class for all device drivers is DevicePlugin (page 244). However, if your device exposes itself as a
USBMS drive to the operating system, you should use the USBMS class instead as it implements all the logic needed
to support these kinds of devices.
class calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin(plugin_path)
Defines the interface that should be implemented by backends that communicate with an e-book reader.
FORMATS = ['lrf', 'rtf', 'pdf', 'txt']
Ordered list of supported formats
VENDOR_ID = 0
VENDOR_ID can be either an integer, a list of integers or a dictionary If it is a dictionary, it must be a
dictionary of dictionaries, of the form:
{
integer_vendor_id : { product_id : [list of BCDs], ... },
...
}
PRODUCT_ID = 0
An integer or a list of integers
BCD = None
BCD can be either None to not distinguish between devices based on BCD, or it can be a list of the BCD
numbers of all devices supported by this driver.
THUMBNAIL_HEIGHT = 68
Height for thumbnails on the device
THUMBNAIL_COMPRESSION_QUALITY = 75
Compression quality for thumbnails. Set this closer to 100 to have better quality thumbnails with fewer
compression artifacts. Of course, the thumbnails get larger as well.
WANTS_UPDATED_THUMBNAILS = False
Set this to True if the device supports updating cover thumbnails during sync_booklists. Setting it to true
will ask device.py to refresh the cover thumbnails during book matching
CAN_SET_METADATA = ['title', 'authors', 'collections']
Whether the metadata on books can be set via the GUI.
CAN_DO_DEVICE_DB_PLUGBOARD = False
Whether the device can handle device_db metadata plugboards
path_sep = '/'
Path separator for paths to books on device
icon = '/home/kovid/work/calibre/resources/images/reader.png'
Icon for this device
UserAnnotation
alias of calibre.devices.interface.Annotation
OPEN_FEEDBACK_MESSAGE = None
GUI displays this as a message if not None. Useful if opening can take a long time
VIRTUAL_BOOK_EXTENSIONS = frozenset({})
Set of extensions that are virtual books on the device and therefore cannot be viewed/saved/added to library.
For example: frozenset(['kobo'])

VIRTUAL_BOOK_EXTENSION_MESSAGE = None
Message to display to user for virtual book extensions.
NUKE_COMMENTS = None
Whether to nuke comments in the copy of the book sent to the device. If not None this should be short
string that the comments will be replaced by.
MANAGES_DEVICE_PRESENCE = False
If True indicates that this driver completely manages device detection, ejecting and so forth. If you set this
to True, you must implement the detect_managed_devices and debug_managed_device_detection meth-
ods. A driver with this set to true is responsible for detection of devices, managing a blacklist of devices,
a list of ejected devices and so forth. calibre will periodically call the detect_managed_devices() method
and if it returns a detected device, calibre will call open(). open() will be called every time a device is
returned even if previous calls to open() failed, therefore the driver must maintain its own blacklist of
failed devices. Similarly, when ejecting, calibre will call eject() and then assuming the next call to de-
tect_managed_devices() returns None, it will call post_yank_cleanup().
SLOW_DRIVEINFO = False
If set the True, calibre will call the get_driveinfo() (page 247) method after the books lists have
been loaded to get the driveinfo.
ASK_TO_ALLOW_CONNECT = False
If set to True, calibre will ask the user if they want to manage the device with calibre, the first
time it is detected. If you set this to True you must implement get_device_uid() (page 249)
and ignore_connected_device() (page 249) and get_user_blacklisted_devices()
(page 249) and set_user_blacklisted_devices() (page 249)
user_feedback_after_callback = None
Set this to a dictionary of the form {title:title, msg:msg, det_msg:detailed_msg} to have calibre popup a
message to the user after some callbacks are run (currently only upload_books). Be careful to not spam
the user with too many messages. This variable is checked after every callback, so only set it when you
really need to.
is_usb_connected(devices_on_system, debug=False, only_presence=False)
Return True, device_info if a device handled by this plugin is currently connected.
Parameters devices_on_system – List of devices currently connected
detect_managed_devices(devices_on_system, force_refresh=False)
Called only if MANAGES_DEVICE_PRESENCE is True.
Scan for devices that this driver can handle. Should return a device object if a device is found. This object
will be passed to the open() method as the connected_device. If no device is found, return None. The
returned object can be anything, calibre does not use it, it is only passed to open().
This method is called periodically by the GUI, so make sure it is not too resource intensive. Use a cache
to avoid repeatedly scanning the system.
Parameters
• devices_on_system – Set of USB devices found on the system.
• force_refresh – If True and the driver uses a cache to prevent repeated scanning, the
cache must be flushed.
debug_managed_device_detection(devices_on_system, output)
Called only if MANAGES_DEVICE_PRESENCE is True.
Should write information about the devices detected on the system to output, which is a file like object.
Should return True if a device was detected and successfully opened, otherwise False.

reset(key='-1', log_packets=False, report_progress=None, detected_device=None)

Parameters
• key – The key to unlock the device
• log_packets – If true the packet stream to/from the device is logged
• report_progress – Function that is called with a % progress (number between 0 and
100) for various tasks If it is called with -1 that means that the task does not have any
progress information
• detected_device – Device information from the device scanner
can_handle_windows(usbdevice, debug=False)
Optional method to perform further checks on a device to see if this driver is capable of handling it. If
it is not it should return False. This method is only called after the vendor, product ids and the bcd have
matched, so it can do some relatively time intensive checks. The default implementation returns True. This
method is called only on Windows. See also can_handle() (page 246).
Note that for devices based on USBMS this method by default delegates to can_handle() (page 246).
So you only need to override can_handle() (page 246) in your subclass of USBMS.
Parameters usbdevice – A usbdevice as returned by calibre.devices.winusb.
scan_usb_devices()
can_handle(device_info, debug=False)
Unix version of can_handle_windows() (page 246).
Parameters device_info – Is a tuple of (vid, pid, bcd, manufacturer, product, serial number)
open(connected_device, library_uuid)
Perform any device specific initialization. Called after the device is detected but before any other func-
tions that communicate with the device. For example: For devices that present themselves as USB Mass
storage devices, this method would be responsible for mounting the device or if the device has been au-
tomounted, for finding out where it has been mounted. The method calibre.devices.usbms.
device.Device.open() (page 253) has an implementation of this function that should serve as a
good example for USB Mass storage devices.
This method can raise an OpenFeedback exception to display a message to the user.
Parameters
• connected_device – The device that we are trying to open. It is a tuple of (vendor
id, product id, bcd, manufacturer name, product name, device serial number). However,
some devices have no serial number and on Windows only the first three fields are present,
the rest are None.
• library_uuid – The UUID of the current calibre library. Can be None if there is no
library (for example when used from the command line).
eject()
Un-mount / eject the device from the OS. This does not check if there are pending GUI jobs that need to
communicate with the device.
NOTE: That this method may not be called on the same thread as the rest of the device methods.
post_yank_cleanup()
Called if the user yanks the device without ejecting it first.
set_progress_reporter(report_progress)
Set a function to report progress information.

Parameters report_progress – Function that is called with a % progress (number between

0 and 100) for various tasks If it is called with -1 that means that the task does not have any
get_device_information(end_session=True)
Ask device for device information. See L{DeviceInfoQuery}.
Returns (device name, device version, software version on device, MIME type) The tuple can
optionally have a fifth element, which is a drive information dictionary. See usbms.driver for
an example.
get_driveinfo()
Return the driveinfo dictionary. Usually called from get_device_information(), but if loading the driveinfo
is slow for this driver, then it should set SLOW_DRIVEINFO. In this case, this method will be called by
calibre after the book lists have been loaded. Note that it is not called on the device thread, so the driver
should cache the drive info in the books() method and this function should return the cached data.
card_prefix(end_session=True)
Return a 2 element list of the prefix to paths on the cards. If no card is present None is set for the cards
prefix. E.G. (/place, /place2) (None, place2) (place, None) (None, None)
total_space(end_session=True)
Get total space available on the mountpoints:
1. Main memory
2. Memory Card A
3. Memory Card B
Returns A 3 element list with total space in bytes of (1, 2, 3). If a particular device doesnt have
any of these locations it should return 0.
free_space(end_session=True)
Get free space available on the mountpoints:
1. Main memory
2. Card A
3. Card B
Returns A 3 element list with free space in bytes of (1, 2, 3). If a particular device doesnt have
any of these locations it should return -1.
books(oncard=None, end_session=True)
Return a list of e-books on the device.
Parameters oncard – If carda or cardb return a list of e-books on the specific storage card,
otherwise return list of e-books in main memory of device. If a card is specified and no
books are on the card return empty list.
Returns A BookList.
upload_books(files, names, on_card=None, end_session=True, metadata=None)
Upload a list of books to the device. If a file already exists on the device, it should be replaced. This
method should raise a FreeSpaceError if there is not enough free space on the device. The text of the
FreeSpaceError must contain the word card if on_card is not None otherwise it must contain the word
memory.

Parameters
• files – A list of paths
• names – A list of file names that the books should have once uploaded to the device.
len(names) == len(files)
• metadata – If not None, it is a list of Metadata objects. The idea is to use the metadata
to determine where on the device to put the book. len(metadata) == len(files). Apart from
the regular cover (path to cover), there may also be a thumbnail attribute, which should be
used in preference. The thumbnail attribute is of the form (width, height, cover_data as
jpeg).
Returns A list of 3-element tuples. The list is meant to be passed to
add_books_to_metadata() (page 248).
classmethod add_books_to_metadata(locations, metadata, booklists)
Add locations to the booklists. This function must not communicate with the device.
Parameters
• locations – Result of a call to L{upload_books}
• metadata – List of Metadata objects, same as for upload_books() (page 247).
• booklists – A tuple containing the result of calls to (books(oncard=None)(),
books(oncard='carda')(), :meth`books(oncard=cardb)`).
delete_books(paths, end_session=True)
Delete books at paths on device.
classmethod remove_books_from_metadata(paths, booklists)
Remove books from the metadata list. This function must not communicate with the device.
Parameters
• paths – paths to books on the device.
sync_booklists(booklists, end_session=True)
Update metadata on device.
Parameters booklists – A tuple containing the result of calls
to (books(oncard=None)(), books(oncard='carda')(),
:meth`books(oncard=cardb)`).
get_file(path, outfile, end_session=True)
Read the file at path on the device and write it to outfile.
Parameters outfile – file object like sys.stdout or the result of an open() (page 246)
call.
classmethod config_widget()
Should return a QWidget. The QWidget contains the settings for the device interface
classmethod save_settings(settings_widget)
Should save settings to disk. Takes the widget created in config_widget() (page 248) and saves all
settings to disk.
classmethod settings()
Should return an opts object. The opts object should have at least one attribute format_map which is an
ordered list of formats for the device.

set_plugboards(plugboards, pb_func)
provide the driver the current set of plugboards and a function to select a specific plugboard. This method
is called immediately before add_books and sync_booklists.
pb_func is a callable with the following signature:: def pb_func(device_name, format, plugboards)
You give it the current device name (either the class name or DEVICE_PLUGBOARD_NAME), the for-
mat you are interested in (a real format or device_db), and the plugboards (you were given those by
set_plugboards, the same place you got this method).
Returns None or a single plugboard instance.
set_driveinfo_name(location_code, name)
Set the device name in the driveinfo file to name. This setting will persist until the file is re-created or the
name is changed again.
Non-disk devices should implement this method based on the location codes returned by the
get_device_information() method.
prepare_addable_books(paths)
Given a list of paths, returns another list of paths. These paths point to addable versions of the books.
If there is an error preparing a book, then instead of a path, the position in the returned list for that book
should be a three tuple: (original_path, the exception instance, traceback)
startup()
Called when calibre is starting the device. Do any initialization required. Note that multiple instances of
the class can be instantiated, and thus __init__ can be called multiple times, but only one instance will
have this method called. This method is called on the device thread, not the GUI thread.
shutdown()
Called when calibre is shutting down, either for good or in preparation to restart. Do any cleanup required.
This method is called on the device thread, not the GUI thread.
get_device_uid()
Must return a unique id for the currently connected device (this is called immediately after a successful
call to open()). You must implement this method if you set ASK_TO_ALLOW_CONNECT = True
ignore_connected_device(uid)
Should ignore the device identified by uid (the result of a call to get_device_uid()) in the future. You must
implement this method if you set ASK_TO_ALLOW_CONNECT = True. Note that this function is called
immediately after open(), so if open() caches some state, the driver should reset that state.
get_user_blacklisted_devices()
Return map of device uid to friendly name for all devices that the user has asked to be ignored.
set_user_blacklisted_devices(devices)
Set the list of device uids that should be ignored by this driver.
specialize_global_preferences(device_prefs)
Implement this method if your device wants to override a particular preference. You must ensure
that all call sites that want a preference that can be overridden use device_prefs[something] instead of
prefs[something]. Your method should call device_prefs.set_overrides(pref=val, pref=val, ). Currently
used for: metadata management (prefs[manage_device_metadata])
set_library_info(library_name, library_uuid, field_metadata)
Implement this method if you want information about the current calibre library. This method is called at
startup and when the calibre library changes while connected.
is_dynamically_controllable()
Called by the device manager when starting plugins. If this method returns a string, then a) it supports the
device managers dynamic control interface, and b) that name is to be used when talking to the plugin.

This method can be called on the GUI thread. A driver that implements this method must be thread safe.
start_plugin()
This method is called to start the plugin. The plugin should begin to accept device connections however it
does that. If the plugin is already accepting connections, then do nothing.
stop_plugin()
This method is called to stop the plugin. The plugin should no longer accept connections, and should
cleanup behind itself. It is likely that this method should call shutdown. If the plugin is already not
accepting connections, then do nothing.
get_option(opt_string, default=None)
Return the value of the option indicated by opt_string. This method can be called when the plugin is not
started. Return None if the option does not exist.
set_option(opt_string, opt_value)
Set the value of the option indicated by opt_string. This method can be called when the plugin is not
started.
is_running()
Return True if the plugin is started, otherwise false
synchronize_with_db(db, book_id, book_metadata, first_call)
Called during book matching when a book on the device is matched with a book in calibres db. The method
is responsible for syncronizing data from the device to calibres db (if needed).
The method must return a two-value tuple. The first value is a set of calibre book ids changed if calibres
database was changed or None if the database was not changed. If the first value is an empty set then the
metadata for the book on the device is updated with calibres metadata and given back to the device, but
no GUI refresh of that book is done. This is useful when the calibre data is correct but must be sent to the
device.
The second value is itself a 2-value tuple. The first value in the tuple specifies whether a book format
should be sent to the device. The intent is to permit verifying that the book on the device is the same as the
book in calibre. This value must be None if no book is to be sent, otherwise return the base file name on
the device (a string like foobar.epub). Be sure to include the extension in the name. The device subsystem
will construct a send_books job for all books with not- None returned values. Note: other than to later
retrieve the extension, the name is ignored in cases where the device uses a template to generate the file
name, which most do. The second value in the returned tuple indicated whether the format is future-dated.
Return True if it is, otherwise return False. calibre will display a dialog to the user listing all future dated
books.
Extremely important: this method is called on the GUI thread. It must be threadsafe with respect to the
device managers thread.
book_id: the calibre id for the book in the database. book_metadata: the Metadata object for the book
coming from the device. first_call: True if this is the first call during a sync, False otherwise
class calibre.devices.interface.BookList(oncard, prefix, settings)
Bases: list
A list of books. Each Book object must have the fields

1. title
2. authors
3. size (file size of the book)
4. datetime (a UTC time tuple)
5. path (path on the device to the book)
6. thumbnail (can be None) thumbnail is either a str/bytes object with the image data or it should have an
attribute image_path that stores an absolute (platform native) path to the image
7. tags (a list of strings, can be empty).
supports_collections()
Return True if the device supports collections for this book list.
add_book(book, replace_metadata)
Add the book to the booklist. Intent is to maintain any device-internal metadata. Return True if booklists
must be synced
remove_book(book)
Remove a book from the booklist. Correct any device metadata at the same time
get_collections(collection_attributes)
Return a dictionary of collections created from collection_attributes. Each entry in the dictionary is of the
form collection name:[list of books]
The list of books is sorted by book title, except for collections created from series, in which case se-
ries_index is used.
Parameters collection_attributes – A list of attributes of the Book object
USB Mass Storage based devices
The base class for such devices is calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS (page 254). This class in turn
inherits some of its functionality from its bases, documented below. A typical basic USBMS based driver looks like
this:
from calibre.devices.usbms.driver import USBMS
class PDNOVEL(USBMS):
name = 'Pandigital Novel device interface'
gui_name = 'PD Novel'
description = _('Communicate with the Pandigital Novel')
supported_platforms = ['windows', 'linux', 'osx']
FORMATS = ['epub', 'pdf']
VENDOR_ID = [0x18d1]
PRODUCT_ID = [0xb004]
BCD = [0x224]
THUMBNAIL_HEIGHT = 144
EBOOK_DIR_MAIN = 'eBooks'
SUPPORTS_SUB_DIRS = False
def upload_cover(self, path, filename, metadata):



coverdata = getattr(metadata, 'thumbnail', None)
if coverdata and coverdata[2]:
with open('%s.jpg' % os.path.join(path, filename), 'wb') as coverfile:
coverfile.write(coverdata[2])
class calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device(plugin_path)
Bases: calibre.devices.usbms.deviceconfig.DeviceConfig, calibre.devices.
interface.DevicePlugin (page 244)
This class provides logic common to all drivers for devices that export themselves as USB Mass Storage devices.
Provides implementations for mounting/ejecting of USBMS devices on all platforms.
WINDOWS_MAIN_MEM = None
String identifying the main memory of the device in the Windows PnP id strings This can be None, string,
list of strings or compiled regex
WINDOWS_CARD_A_MEM = None
String identifying the first card of the device in the Windows PnP id strings This can be None, string, list
of strings or compiled regex
WINDOWS_CARD_B_MEM = None
String identifying the second card of the device in the Windows PnP id strings This can be None, string,
list of strings or compiled regex
OSX_MAIN_MEM_VOL_PAT = None
Used by the new driver detection to disambiguate main memory from storage cards. Should be a regular
expression that matches the main memory mount point assigned by macOS
MAX_PATH_LEN = 250
The maximum length of paths created on the device
NEWS_IN_FOLDER = True
Put news in its own folder
reset(key='-1', log_packets=False, report_progress=None, detected_device=None)
Parameters
• key – The key to unlock the device
• log_packets – If true the packet stream to/from the device is logged
• report_progress – Function that is called with a % progress (number between 0 and
100) for various tasks If it is called with -1 that means that the task does not have any
• detected_device – Device information from the device scanner
set_progress_reporter(report_progress)
Set a function to report progress information.
Parameters report_progress – Function that is called with a % progress (number between
0 and 100) for various tasks If it is called with -1 that means that the task does not have any
card_prefix(end_session=True)
Return a 2 element list of the prefix to paths on the cards. If no card is present None is set for the cards
prefix. E.G. (/place, /place2) (None, place2) (place, None) (None, None)
total_space(end_session=True)
Get total space available on the mountpoints:

1. Main memory
2. Memory Card A
3. Memory Card B
Returns A 3 element list with total space in bytes of (1, 2, 3). If a particular device doesnt have
any of these locations it should return 0.
free_space(end_session=True)
Get free space available on the mountpoints:
1. Main memory
2. Card A
3. Card B
Returns A 3 element list with free space in bytes of (1, 2, 3). If a particular device doesnt have
any of these locations it should return -1.
windows_sort_drives(drives)
Called to disambiguate main memory and storage card for devices that do not distinguish between them
on the basis of WINDOWS_CARD_NAME. For e.g.: The EB600
can_handle_windows(usbdevice, debug=False)
Optional method to perform further checks on a device to see if this driver is capable of handling it. If
it is not it should return False. This method is only called after the vendor, product ids and the bcd have
matched, so it can do some relatively time intensive checks. The default implementation returns True. This
method is called only on Windows. See also can_handle().
Note that for devices based on USBMS this method by default delegates to can_handle(). So you only
need to override can_handle() in your subclass of USBMS.
Parameters usbdevice – A usbdevice as returned by calibre.devices.winusb.
scan_usb_devices()
open(connected_device, library_uuid)
Perform any device specific initialization. Called after the device is detected but before any other func-
tions that communicate with the device. For example: For devices that present themselves as USB Mass
storage devices, this method would be responsible for mounting the device or if the device has been au-
tomounted, for finding out where it has been mounted. The method calibre.devices.usbms.
device.Device.open() (page 253) has an implementation of this function that should serve as a
good example for USB Mass storage devices.
This method can raise an OpenFeedback exception to display a message to the user.
Parameters
• connected_device – The device that we are trying to open. It is a tuple of (vendor
id, product id, bcd, manufacturer name, product name, device serial number). However,
some devices have no serial number and on Windows only the first three fields are present,
the rest are None.
• library_uuid – The UUID of the current calibre library. Can be None if there is no
library (for example when used from the command line).
eject()
Un-mount / eject the device from the OS. This does not check if there are pending GUI jobs that need to
communicate with the device.

NOTE: That this method may not be called on the same thread as the rest of the device methods.
post_yank_cleanup()
Called if the user yanks the device without ejecting it first.
sanitize_callback(path)
Callback to allow individual device drivers to override the path sanitization used by
create_upload_path().
filename_callback(default, mi)
Callback to allow drivers to change the default file name set by create_upload_path().
sanitize_path_components(components)
Perform any device specific sanitization on the path components for files to be uploaded to the device
get_annotations(path_map)
Resolve path_map to annotation_map of files found on the device
add_annotation_to_library(db, db_id, annotation)
Add an annotation to the calibre library
class calibre.devices.usbms.cli.CLI
class calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS(plugin_path)
Bases: calibre.devices.usbms.cli.CLI (page 254), calibre.devices.usbms.device.
Device (page 252)
The base class for all USBMS devices. Implements the logic for sending/getting/updating metadata/caching
metadata/etc.
booklist_class
alias of calibre.devices.usbms.books.BookList
book_class
alias of calibre.devices.usbms.books.Book
get_device_information(end_session=True)
Ask device for device information. See L{DeviceInfoQuery}.
Returns (device name, device version, software version on device, MIME type) The tuple can
optionally have a fifth element, which is a drive information dictionary. See usbms.driver for
an example.
set_driveinfo_name(location_code, name)
Set the device name in the driveinfo file to name. This setting will persist until the file is re-created or the
name is changed again.
Non-disk devices should implement this method based on the location codes returned by the
get_device_information() method.
books(oncard=None, end_session=True)
Return a list of e-books on the device.
Parameters oncard – If carda or cardb return a list of e-books on the specific storage card,
otherwise return list of e-books in main memory of device. If a card is specified and no
books are on the card return empty list.
Returns A BookList.
upload_books(files, names, on_card=None, end_session=True, metadata=None)
Upload a list of books to the device. If a file already exists on the device, it should be replaced. This
method should raise a FreeSpaceError if there is not enough free space on the device. The text of the

FreeSpaceError must contain the word card if on_card is not None otherwise it must contain the word
memory.
Parameters
• files – A list of paths
• names – A list of file names that the books should have once uploaded to the device.
len(names) == len(files)
• metadata – If not None, it is a list of Metadata objects. The idea is to use the metadata
to determine where on the device to put the book. len(metadata) == len(files). Apart from
the regular cover (path to cover), there may also be a thumbnail attribute, which should be
used in preference. The thumbnail attribute is of the form (width, height, cover_data as
jpeg).
Returns A list of 3-element tuples. The list is meant to be passed to
add_books_to_metadata() (page 255).
upload_cover(path, filename, metadata, filepath)
Upload book cover to the device. Default implementation does nothing.
Parameters
• path – The full path to the folder where the associated book is located.
• filename – The name of the book file without the extension.
• metadata – metadata belonging to the book. Use metadata.thumbnail for cover
• filepath – The full path to the e-book file
add_books_to_metadata(locations, metadata, booklists)
Add locations to the booklists. This function must not communicate with the device.
Parameters
• locations – Result of a call to L{upload_books}
• metadata – List of Metadata objects, same as for upload_books() (page 254).
delete_books(paths, end_session=True)
Delete books at paths on device.
remove_books_from_metadata(paths, booklists)
Remove books from the metadata list. This function must not communicate with the device.
Parameters
• paths – paths to books on the device.
sync_booklists(booklists, end_session=True)
Update metadata on device.
Parameters booklists – A tuple containing the result of calls
to (books(oncard=None)(), books(oncard='carda')(),
:meth`books(oncard=cardb)`).
classmethod normalize_path(path)
Return path with platform native path separators

12.1.8 User interface actions
If you are adding your own plugin in a ZIP file, you should subclass both InterfaceActionBase and InterfaceAction.
The load_actual_plugin() method of your InterfaceActionBase subclass must return an instantiated object of
your InterfaceBase subclass.
class calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction(parent, site_customization)
Bases: PyQt5.QtCore.QObject
A plugin representing an action that can be taken in the graphical user interface. All the items in the toolbar and
context menus are implemented by these plugins.
Note that this class is the base class for these plugins, however, to integrate the plugin with calibres plugin
system, you have to make a wrapper class that references the actual plugin. See the calibre.customize.
builtins module for examples.
If two InterfaceAction (page 256) objects have the same name, the one with higher priority takes prece-
dence.
Sub-classes should implement the genesis() (page 258), library_changed()
(page 258), location_selected() (page 258) shutting_down() (page 258) and
initialization_complete() (page 258) methods.
Once initialized, this plugin has access to the main calibre GUI via the gui member. You can access other
plugins by name, for example:
self.gui.iactions['Save To Disk']
To access the actual plugin, use the interface_action_base_plugin attribute, this attribute only be-
comes available after the plugin has been initialized. Useful if you want to use methods from the plugin class
like do_user_config().
The QAction specified by action_spec (page 256) is automatically create and made available as self.
qaction.
name = 'Implement me'
The plugin name. If two plugins with the same name are present, the one with higher priority takes
precedence.
priority = 1
The plugin priority. If two plugins with the same name are present, the one with higher priority takes
precedence.
popup_type = 1
The menu popup type for when this plugin is added to a toolbar
auto_repeat = False
Whether this action should be auto repeated when its shortcut key is held down.
action_spec = ('text', 'icon', None, None)
Of the form: (text, icon_path, tooltip, keyboard shortcut) icon, tooltip and keyboard shortcut can be None
shortcut must be a string, None or tuple of shortcuts. If None, a keyboard shortcut corresponding to the
action is not registered. If you pass an empty tuple, then the shortcut is registered with no default key
binding.
action_add_menu = False
If True, a menu is automatically created and added to self.qaction
action_menu_clone_qaction = False
If True, a clone of self.qaction is added to the menu of self.qaction If you want the text of this action to be
different from that of self.qaction, set this variable to the new text

dont_add_to = frozenset({})
Set of locations to which this action must not be added. See all_locations for a list of possible
locations
dont_remove_from = frozenset({})
Set of locations from which this action must not be removed. See all_locations for a list of possible
locations
action_type = 'global'
Type of action current means acts on the current view global means an action that does not act on the
current view, but rather on calibre as a whole
accepts_drops = False
If True, then this InterfaceAction will have the opportunity to interact with drag and drop events. See the
methods, accept_enter_event() (page 257), :meth`:accept_drag_move_event`, drop_event()
(page 257) for details.
accept_enter_event(event, mime_data)
This method should return True iff this interface action is capable of handling the drag event. Do not call
accept/ignore on the event, that will be taken care of by the calibre UI.
accept_drag_move_event(event, mime_data)
This method should return True iff this interface action is capable of handling the drag event. Do not call
accept/ignore on the event, that will be taken care of by the calibre UI.
drop_event(event, mime_data)
This method should perform some useful action and return True iff this interface action is capable of
handling the drop event. Do not call accept/ignore on the event, that will be taken care of by the cali-
bre UI. You should not perform blocking/long operations in this function. Instead emit a signal or use
QTimer.singleShot and return quickly. See the builtin actions for examples.
create_menu_action(menu, unique_name, text, icon=None, shortcut=None, description=None,
triggered=None, shortcut_name=None, persist_shortcut=False)
Convenience method to easily add actions to a QMenu. Returns the created QAction. This action has one
extra attribute calibre_shortcut_unique_name which if not None refers to the unique name under which
this action is registered with the keyboard manager.
Parameters
• menu – The QMenu the newly created action will be added to
• unique_name – A unique name for this action, this must be globally unique, so make it
as descriptive as possible. If in doubt, add an UUID to it.
• text – The text of the action.
• icon – Either a QIcon or a file name. The file name is passed to the I() builtin, so you do
not need to pass the full path to the images folder.
• shortcut – A string, a list of strings, None or False. If False, no keyboard shortcut
is registered for this action. If None, a keyboard shortcut with no default keybinding is
registered. String and list of strings register a shortcut with default keybinding as specified.
• description – A description for this action. Used to set tooltips.
• triggered – A callable which is connected to the triggered signal of the created action.
• shortcut_name – The text displayed to the user when customizing the keyboard short-
cuts for this action. By default it is set to the value of text.
• persist_shortcut – Shortcuts for actions that dont always appear, or are li-
brary dependent, may disappear when other keyboard shortcuts are edited unless
`persist_shortcut` is set True.

load_resources(names)
If this plugin comes in a ZIP file (user added plugin), this method will allow you to load resources from
the ZIP file.
For example to load an image:
pixmap = QPixmap()
pixmap.loadFromData(tuple(self.load_resources(['images/icon.png']).
,→values())[0])
icon = QIcon(pixmap)
Parameters names – List of paths to resources in the ZIP file using / as separator
Returns A dictionary of the form {name : file_contents}. Any names that were not
found in the ZIP file will not be present in the dictionary.
genesis()
Setup this plugin. Only called once during initialization. self.gui is available. The action specified by
action_spec (page 256) is available as self.qaction.
location_selected(loc)
Called whenever the book list being displayed in calibre changes. Currently values for loc are: library,
main, card and cardb.
This method should enable/disable this action and its sub actions as appropriate for the location.
library_changed(db)
Called whenever the current library is changed.
Parameters db – The LibraryDatabase corresponding to the current library.
gui_layout_complete()
Called once per action when the layout of the main GUI is completed. If your action needs to make changes
to the layout, they should be done here, rather than in initialization_complete() (page 258).
initialization_complete()
Called once per action when the initialization of the main GUI is completed.
shutting_down()
Called once per plugin when the main GUI is in the process of shutting down. Release any used resources,
but try not to block the shutdown for long periods of time.
class calibre.customize.InterfaceActionBase(*args, **kwargs)
load_actual_plugin(gui)
This method must return the actual interface action plugin object.
12.1.9 Preferences plugins
class calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin(plugin_path)
A plugin representing a widget displayed in the Preferences dialog.
This plugin has only one important method create_widget() (page 259). The various fields of the plugin
control how it is categorized in the UI.

config_widget = None
Import path to module that contains a class named ConfigWidget which implements the ConfigWidget-
Interface. Used by create_widget() (page 259).
category_order = 100
Where in the list of categories the category (page 259) of this plugin should be.
name_order = 100
Where in the list of names in a category, the gui_name (page 259) of this plugin should be
category = None
The category this plugin should be in
gui_category = None
The category name displayed to the user for this plugin
gui_name = None
The name displayed to the user for this plugin
icon = None
The icon for this plugin, should be an absolute path
description = None
The description used for tooltips and the like
create_widget(parent=None)
Create and return the actual Qt widget used for setting this group of preferences. The widget must imple-
ment the calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface (page 259).
The default implementation uses config_widget (page 258) to instantiate the widget.
class calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
This class defines the interface that all widgets displayed in the Preferences dialog must implement. See
ConfigWidgetBase (page 260) for a base class that implements this interface and defines various con-
venience methods as well.
changed_signal = None
This signal must be emitted whenever the user changes a value in this widget
supports_restoring_to_defaults = True
Set to True iff the restore_to_defaults() method is implemented.
restore_defaults_desc = 'Restore settings to default values. You have to click Apply to
The tooltip for the Restore defaults button
restart_critical = False
If True the Preferences dialog will not allow the user to set any more preferences. Only has effect if
commit() (page 259) returns True.
genesis(gui)
Called once before the widget is displayed, should perform any necessary setup.
Parameters gui – The main calibre graphical user interface
initialize()
Should set all config values to their initial values (the values stored in the config files).
restore_defaults()
Should set all config values to their defaults.
commit()
Save any changed settings. Return True if the changes require a restart, False otherwise. Raise an

AbortCommit exception to indicate that an error occurred. You are responsible for giving the user
feedback about what the error is and how to correct it.
refresh_gui(gui)
Called once after this widget is committed. Responsible for causing the gui to reread any changed settings.
Note that by default the GUI re-initializes various elements anyway, so most widgets wont need to use this
method.
class calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetBase(parent=None)
Base class that contains code to easily add standard config widgets like checkboxes, combo boxes, text fields
and so on. See the register() (page 260) method.
This class automatically handles change notification, resetting to default, translation between gui objects and
config objects, etc. for registered settings.
If your config widget inherits from this class but includes setting that are not registered, you should override the
ConfigWidgetInterface (page 259) methods and call the base class methods inside the overrides.
register(name, config_obj, gui_name=None, choices=None, restart_required=False,
empty_string_is_None=True, setting=<class 'calibre.gui2.preferences.Setting'>)
Register a setting.
Parameters
• name – The setting name
• config – The config object that reads/writes the setting
• gui_name – The name of the GUI object that presents an interface to change the setting.
By default it is assumed to be 'opt_' + name.
• choices – If this setting is a multiple choice (combobox) based setting, the list of
choices. The list is a list of two element tuples of the form: [(gui name, value),
...]
• setting – The class responsible for managing this setting. The default class handles
almost all cases, so this param is rarely used.
initialize()
Should set all config values to their initial values (the values stored in the config files).
commit(*args)
Save any changed settings. Return True if the changes require a restart, False otherwise. Raise an
AbortCommit exception to indicate that an error occurred. You are responsible for giving the user
feedback about what the error is and how to correct it.
restore_defaults(*args)
Should set all config values to their defaults.
12.2 Environment variables
• CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY - sets the folder where configuration files are stored/read.

• CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR - sets the temporary folder used by calibre
• CALIBRE_CACHE_DIRECTORY - sets the folder calibre uses to cache persistent data between sessions
• CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH - allows you to specify the full path to metadata.db. Using this
variable you can have metadata.db be in a location other than the library folder. Useful if your library folder is
on a networked drive that does not support file locking.

• CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM - used to run from a calibre development environment. See Setting up a calibre
development environment (page 327).
• CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_LANG - used to force the language used by the interface (ISO 639 language code)
• CALIBRE_TEST_TRANSLATION - used to test a translation .po file (should be the path to the .po file)
• CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS - causes calibre to not use native file dialogs for selecting
files/folders.
• CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR - causes calibre to not create a native (global) menu on Ubuntu Unity and
similar linux desktop environments. The menu is instead placed inside the window, as is traditional.
• CALIBRE_USE_SYSTEM_THEME - by default, on Linux, calibre uses its own builtin Qt style. This is to avoid
crashes and hangs caused by incompatibilities between the version of Qt calibre is built against and the system
Qt. The downside is that calibre may not follow the system look and feel. If you set this environment variable
on Linux, it will cause calibre to use the system theme – beware of crashes and hangs.
• CALIBRE_SHOW_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS - causes calibre to print deprecation warnings to stdout. Use-
ful for calibre developers.
• CALIBRE_NO_DEFAULT_PROGRAMS - prevent calibre from automatically registering the filetypes it is capa-
ble of handling with Windows.
• CALIBRE_USE_DARK_PALETTE - set it to 1 to have calibre use dark colors and 0 for normal colors (ignored
on macOS). On Windows 10 in the absence of this variable, the Windows system preference for dark colors is
used.
• SYSFS_PATH - Use if sysfs is mounted somewhere other than /sys
• http_proxy, https_proxy - used on Linux to specify an HTTP(S) proxy
See How to set environment variables in Windows108 . If you are on macOS you can set environment variables by
creating the ~/Library/Preferences/calibre/macos-env.txt and putting the environment variables
one per line in it, for example:
CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM=$HOME/calibre-src/src
CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS=1
CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY=~/.config/calibre
12.3 Tweaks
Tweaks are small changes that you can specify to control various aspects of calibres behavior. You can change them
by going to Preferences->Advanced->Tweaks. The default values for the tweaks are reproduced below
#!/usr/bin/env python
# vim:fileencoding=UTF-8:ts=4:sw=4:sta:et:sts=4:ai
# License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2010, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
# Contains various tweaks that affect calibre behavior. Only edit this file if
# you know what you are doing. If you delete this file, it will be recreated from
# defaults.
#: Auto increment series index

# The algorithm used to assign a book added to an existing series a series number.
# New series numbers assigned using this tweak are always integer values, except
108 https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm
12.3. Tweaks 261


# if a constant non-integer is specified.
# Possible values are:
# next - First available integer larger than the largest existing number
# first_free - First available integer larger than 0
# next_free - First available integer larger than the smallest existing number
# last_free - First available integer smaller than the largest existing number.
,→Return largest existing + 1 if no free number is found
# const - Assign the number 1 always

# no_change - Do not change the series index
# a number - Assign that number always. The number is not in quotes. Note that 0.0
,→can be used here.
# Examples:
# series_index_auto_increment = 'next'
# series_index_auto_increment = 'next_free'
# series_index_auto_increment = 16.5
#
# Set the use_series_auto_increment_tweak_when_importing tweak to True to
# use the above values when importing/adding books. If this tweak is set to
# False (the default) then the series number will be set to 1 if it is not
# explicitly set during the import. If set to True, then the
# series index will be set according to the series_index_auto_increment setting.
# Note that the use_series_auto_increment_tweak_when_importing tweak is used
# only when a value is not provided during import. If the importing regular
# expression produces a value for series_index, or if you are reading metadata
# from books and the import plugin produces a value, than that value will
# be used irrespective of the setting of the tweak.
series_index_auto_increment = 'next'
use_series_auto_increment_tweak_when_importing = False
#: Add separator after completing an author name

# Should the completion separator be append
# to the end of the completed text to
# automatically begin a new completion operation
# for authors.
# Can be either True or False
authors_completer_append_separator = False
#: Author sort name algorithm

# The algorithm used to copy author to author_sort.
# Possible values are:
# invert: use "fn ln" -> "ln, fn"
# copy : copy author to author_sort without modification
# comma : use 'copy' if there is a ',' in the name, otherwise use 'invert'
# nocomma : "fn ln" -> "ln fn" (without the comma)
# When this tweak is changed, the author_sort values stored with each author
# must be recomputed by right-clicking on an author in the left-hand tags
# panel, selecting 'manage authors', and pressing
# 'Recalculate all author sort values'.
#
# The author_name_suffixes are words that are ignored when they occur at the
# end of an author name. The case of the suffix is ignored and trailing
# periods are automatically handled.
#
# The same is true for author_name_prefixes.
#
# The author_name_copywords are a set of words which, if they occur in an
# author name, cause the automatically generated author sort string to be


# identical to the author name. This means that the sort for a string like
# "Acme Inc." will be "Acme Inc." instead of "Inc., Acme".
#
# If author_use_surname_prefixes is enabled, any of the words in
# author_surname_prefixes will be treated as a prefix to the surname, if they
# occur before the surname. So for example, "John von Neumann" would be sorted
# as "von Neumann, John" and not "Neumann, John von".
author_sort_copy_method = 'comma'
author_name_suffixes = ('Jr', 'Sr', 'Inc', 'Ph.D', 'Phd',
'MD', 'M.D', 'I', 'II', 'III', 'IV',
'Junior', 'Senior')
author_name_prefixes = ('Mr', 'Mrs', 'Ms', 'Dr', 'Prof')
author_name_copywords = ('Agency', 'Corporation', 'Company', 'Co.', 'Council',
'Committee', 'Inc.', 'Institute', 'National',
'Society', 'Club', 'Team')
author_use_surname_prefixes = False
author_surname_prefixes = ('da', 'de', 'di', 'la', 'le', 'van', 'von')
#: Splitting multiple author names

# By default, calibre splits a string containing multiple author names on
# ampersands and the words "and" and "with". You can customize the splitting
# by changing the regular expression below. Strings are split on whatever the
# specified regular expression matches, in addition to ampersands.
# Default: r'(?i),?\s+(and|with)\s+'
authors_split_regex = r'(?i),?\s+(and|with)\s+'
#: Use author sort in Tag browser

# Set which author field to display in the Tag browser (the list of authors,
# series, publishers etc on the left hand side). The choices are author and
# author_sort. This tweak affects only what is displayed under the authors
# category in the Tag browser and Content server. Please note that if you set this
# to author_sort, it is very possible to see duplicate names in the list because
# although it is guaranteed that author names are unique, there is no such
# guarantee for author_sort values. Showing duplicates won't break anything, but
# it could lead to some confusion. When using 'author_sort', the tooltip will
# show the author's name.
# Examples:
# categories_use_field_for_author_name = 'author'
# categories_use_field_for_author_name = 'author_sort'
categories_use_field_for_author_name = 'author'
#: Control partitioning of Tag browser

# When partitioning the Tag browser, the format of the subcategory label is
# controlled by a template: categories_collapsed_name_template if sorting by
# name, categories_collapsed_rating_template if sorting by average rating, and
# categories_collapsed_popularity_template if sorting by popularity. There are
# two variables available to the template: first and last. The variable 'first'
# is the initial item in the subcategory, and the variable 'last' is the final
# item in the subcategory. Both variables are 'objects'; they each have multiple
# values that are obtained by using a suffix. For example, first.name for an
# author category will be the name of the author. The sub-values available are:
# name: the printable name of the item
# count: the number of books that references this item
# avg_rating: the average rating of all the books referencing this item
# sort: the sort value. For authors, this is the author_sort for that author
# category: the category (e.g., authors, series) that the item is in.
# Note that the "r'" in front of the { is necessary if there are backslashes
12.3. Tweaks 263


# (\ characters) in the template. It doesn't hurt anything to leave it there
# even if there aren't any backslashes.
categories_collapsed_name_template = r'{first.sort:shorten(4,,0)} - {last.
,→sort:shorten(4,,0)}'
categories_collapsed_rating_template = r'{first.avg_rating:4.2f:ifempty(0)} - {last.

,→avg_rating:4.2f:ifempty(0)}'
categories_collapsed_popularity_template = r'{first.count:d} - {last.count:d}'
#: Control order of categories in the Tag browser

# Change the following dict to change the order that categories are displayed in
# the Tag browser. Items are named using their lookup name, and will be sorted
# using the number supplied. The lookup name '*' stands for all names that
# otherwise do not appear. Two names with the same value will be sorted
# using the default order; the one used when the dict is empty.
# Example: tag_browser_category_order = {'series':1, 'tags':2, '*':3}
# resulting in the order series, tags, then everything else in default order.
tag_browser_category_order = {'*':1}
#: Specify columns to sort the booklist by on startup

# Provide a set of columns to be sorted on when calibre starts.
# The argument is None if saved sort history is to be used
# otherwise it is a list of column,order pairs. Column is the
# lookup/search name, found using the tooltip for the column
# Order is 0 for ascending, 1 for descending.
# For example, set it to [('authors',0),('title',0)] to sort by
# title within authors.
sort_columns_at_startup = None
#: Control how dates are displayed

# Format to be used for publication date and the timestamp (date).
# A string controlling how the publication date is displayed in the GUI
# d the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
# dd the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
# ddd the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun').
# dddd the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Sunday').
# M the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
# MM the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
# MMM the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec').
# MMMM the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December').
# yy the year as two digit number (00-99)
# yyyy the year as four digit number
# h the hours without a leading 0 (0 to 11 or 0 to 23, depending on am/pm) '
# hh the hours with a leading 0 (00 to 11 or 00 to 23, depending on am/pm) '
# m the minutes without a leading 0 (0 to 59) '
# mm the minutes with a leading 0 (00 to 59) '
# s the seconds without a leading 0 (0 to 59) '
# ss the seconds with a leading 0 (00 to 59) '
# ap use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with "ap" replaced by the
,→localized string for am or pm
# AP use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour clock, with "AP" replaced by the
,→localized string for AM or PM
# iso the date with time and timezone. Must be the only format present
# For example, given the date of 9 Jan 2010, the following formats show
# MMM yyyy ==> Jan 2010 yyyy ==> 2010 dd MMM yyyy ==> 09 Jan 2010
# MM/yyyy ==> 01/2010 d/M/yy ==> 9/1/10 yy ==> 10
#


# publication default if not set: MMM yyyy
# timestamp default if not set: dd MMM yyyy
# last_modified_display_format if not set: dd MMM yyyy
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'MMM yyyy'
gui_timestamp_display_format = 'dd MMM yyyy'
gui_last_modified_display_format = 'dd MMM yyyy'
#: Control sorting of titles and series in the library display

# Control title and series sorting in the library view. If set to
# 'library_order', the title sort field will be used instead of the title.
# Unless you have manually edited the title sort field, leading articles such as
# The and A will be ignored. If set to 'strictly_alphabetic', the titles will be
# sorted as-is (sort by title instead of title sort). For example, with
# library_order, The Client will sort under 'C'. With strictly_alphabetic, the
# book will sort under 'T'.
# This flag affects calibre's library display. It has no effect on devices. In
# addition, titles for books added before changing the flag will retain their
# order until the title is edited. Editing a title and hitting return
# without changing anything is sufficient to change the sort. Or you can use
# the 'Update title sort' action in the Bulk metadata edit dialog to update
# it for many books at once.
title_series_sorting = 'library_order'
#: Control formatting of title and series when used in templates

# Control how title and series names are formatted when saving to disk/sending
# to device. The behavior depends on the field being processed. If processing
# title, then if this tweak is set to 'library_order', the title will be
# replaced with title_sort. If it is set to 'strictly_alphabetic', then the
# title will not be changed. If processing series, then if set to
# 'library_order', articles such as 'The' and 'An' will be moved to the end. If
# set to 'strictly_alphabetic', the series will be sent without change.
# For example, if the tweak is set to library_order, "The Lord of the Rings"
# will become "Lord of the Rings, The". If the tweak is set to
# strictly_alphabetic, it would remain "The Lord of the Rings". Note that the
# formatter function raw_field will return the base value for title and
# series regardless of the setting of this tweak.
save_template_title_series_sorting = 'library_order'
#: Set the list of words considered to be "articles" for sort strings

# Set the list of words that are to be considered 'articles' when computing the
# title sort strings. The articles differ by language. By default, calibre uses
# a combination of articles from English and whatever language the calibre user
# interface is set to. In addition, in some contexts where the book language is
# available, the language of the book is used. You can change the list of
# articles for a given language or add a new language by editing
# per_language_title_sort_articles. To tell calibre to use a language other
# than the user interface language, set, default_language_for_title_sort. For
# example, to use German, set it to 'deu'. A value of None means the user
# interface language is used. The setting title_sort_articles is ignored
# (present only for legacy reasons).
per_language_title_sort_articles = {
# English
'eng' : (r'A\s+', r'The\s+', r'An\s+'),
# Esperanto
'epo': (r'La\s+', r"L'", 'Lt’'),
# Spanish
'spa' : (r'El\s+', r'La\s+', r'Lo\s+', r'Los\s+', r'Las\s+', r'Un\s+',
12.3. Tweaks 265


r'Una\s+', r'Unos\s+', r'Unas\s+'),
# French
'fra' : (r'Le\s+', r'La\s+', r"L'", u'Lt’', u'L', r'Les\s+', r'Un\s+', r'Une\
,→ s+',
r'Des\s+', r'De\s+La\s+', r'De\s+', r"D'", u'Dt’', u'L'),
# Italian
'ita': ('Lo\\s+', 'Il\\s+', "L'", 'Lt’', 'La\\s+', 'Gli\\s+',
'I\\s+', 'Le\\s+', 'Uno\\s+', 'Un\\s+', 'Una\\s+', "Un'",
'Unt’', 'Dei\\s+', 'Degli\\s+', 'Delle\\s+', 'Del\\s+',
'Della\\s+', 'Dello\\s+', "Dell'", 'Dellt’'),
# Portuguese
'por' : (r'A\s+', r'O\s+', r'Os\s+', r'As\s+', r'Um\s+', r'Uns\s+',
r'Uma\s+', r'Umas\s+', ),
# Romanian
'ron' : (r'Un\s+', r'O\s+', r'Nite\s+', ),
# German
'deu' : (r'Der\s+', r'Die\s+', r'Das\s+', r'Den\s+', r'Ein\s+',
r'Eine\s+', r'Einen\s+', r'Dem\s+', r'Des\s+', r'Einem\s+',
r'Eines\s+'),
# Dutch
'nld' : (r'De\s+', r'Het\s+', r'Een\s+', r"'n\s+", r"'s\s+", r'Ene\s+',
r'Ener\s+', r'Enes\s+', r'Den\s+', r'Der\s+', r'Des\s+',
r"'t\s+"),
# Swedish
'swe' : (r'En\s+', r'Ett\s+', r'Det\s+', r'Den\s+', r'De\s+', ),
# Turkish
'tur' : (r'Bir\s+', ),
# Afrikaans
'afr' : (r"'n\s+", r'Die\s+', ),
# Greek
'ell' : (r'O\s+', r'I\s+', r'To\s+', r'Ta\s+', r'Tus\s+', r'Tis\s+',
r"'Enas\s+", r"'Mia\s+", r"'Ena\s+", r"'Enan\s+", ),
# Hungarian
'hun' : (r'A\s+', r'Az\s+', r'Egy\s+',),
}
default_language_for_title_sort = None
title_sort_articles=r'^(A|The|An)\s+'
#: Specify a folder calibre should connect to at startup

# Specify a folder that calibre should connect to at startup using
# connect_to_folder. This must be a full path to the folder. If the folder does
# not exist when calibre starts, it is ignored.
# Example for Windows:
# auto_connect_to_folder = 'C:/Users/someone/Desktop/testlib'
# Example for other operating systems:
# auto_connect_to_folder = '/home/dropbox/My Dropbox/someone/library'
auto_connect_to_folder = ''
#: Specify renaming rules for SONY collections

# Specify renaming rules for SONY collections. This tweak is only applicable if
# metadata management is set to automatic. Collections on SONYs are named
# depending upon whether the field is standard or custom. A collection derived
# from a standard field is named for the value in that field. For example, if
# the standard 'series' column contains the value 'Darkover', then the
# collection name is 'Darkover'. A collection derived from a custom field will
# have the name of the field added to the value. For example, if a custom series
# column named 'My Series' contains the name 'Darkover', then the collection


# will by default be named 'Darkover (My Series)'. For purposes of this
# documentation, 'Darkover' is called the value and 'My Series' is called the
# category. If two books have fields that generate the same collection name,
# then both books will be in that collection.
# This set of tweaks lets you specify for a standard or custom field how
# the collections are to be named. You can use it to add a description to a
# standard field, for example 'Foo (Tag)' instead of the 'Foo'. You can also use
# it to force multiple fields to end up in the same collection. For example, you
# could force the values in 'series', '#my_series_1', and '#my_series_2' to
# appear in collections named 'some_value (Series)', thereby merging all of the
# fields into one set of collections.
# There are two related tweaks. The first determines the category name to use
# for a metadata field. The second is a template, used to determines how the
# value and category are combined to create the collection name.
# The syntax of the first tweak, sony_collection_renaming_rules, is:
# {'field_lookup_name':'category_name_to_use', 'lookup_name':'name', ...}
# The second tweak, sony_collection_name_template, is a template. It uses the
# same template language as plugboards and save templates. This tweak controls
# how the value and category are combined together to make the collection name.
# The only two fields available are {category} and {value}. The {value} field is
# never empty. The {category} field can be empty. The default is to put the
# value first, then the category enclosed in parentheses, it isn't empty:
# '{value} {category:|(|)}'
# Examples: The first three examples assume that the second tweak
# has not been changed.
# 1: I want three series columns to be merged into one set of collections. The
# column lookup names are 'series', '#series_1' and '#series_2'. I want nothing
# in the parenthesis. The value to use in the tweak value would be:
# sony_collection_renaming_rules={'series':'', '#series_1':'', '#series_2':''}
# 2: I want the word '(Series)' to appear on collections made from series, and
# the word '(Tag)' to appear on collections made from tags. Use:
# sony_collection_renaming_rules={'series':'Series', 'tags':'Tag'}
# 3: I want 'series' and '#myseries' to be merged, and for the collection name
# to have '(Series)' appended. The renaming rule is:
# sony_collection_renaming_rules={'series':'Series', '#myseries':'Series'}
# 4: Same as example 2, but instead of having the category name in parentheses
# and appended to the value, I want it prepended and separated by a colon, such
# as in Series: Darkover. I must change the template used to format the category name
# The resulting two tweaks are:
# sony_collection_renaming_rules={'series':'Series', 'tags':'Tag'}
# sony_collection_name_template='{category:||: }{value}'
sony_collection_renaming_rules={}
sony_collection_name_template='{value}{category:| (|)}'
#: Specify how SONY collections are sorted

# Specify how SONY collections are sorted. This tweak is only applicable if
# metadata management is set to automatic. You can indicate which metadata is to
# be used to sort on a collection-by-collection basis. The format of the tweak
# is a list of metadata fields from which collections are made, followed by the
# name of the metadata field containing the sort value.
# Example: The following indicates that collections built from pubdate and tags
# are to be sorted by the value in the custom column '#mydate', that collections
# built from 'series' are to be sorted by 'series_index', and that all other
# collections are to be sorted by title. If a collection metadata field is not
# named, then if it is a series- based collection it is sorted by series order,
# otherwise it is sorted by title order.
# [(['pubdate', 'tags'],'#mydate'), (['series'],'series_index'), (['*'], 'title')]
12.3. Tweaks 267


# Note that the bracketing and parentheses are required. The syntax is
# [ ( [list of fields], sort field ) , ( [ list of fields ] , sort field ) ]
# Default: empty (no rules), so no collection attributes are named.
sony_collection_sorting_rules = []
#: Control how tags are applied when copying books to another library
# Set this to True to ensure that tags in 'Tags to add when adding
# a book' are added when copying books to another library
add_new_book_tags_when_importing_books = False
#: Set the maximum number of sort 'levels'

# Set the maximum number of sort 'levels' that calibre will use to resort the
# library after certain operations such as searches or device insertion. Each
# sort level adds a performance penalty. If the database is large (thousands of
# books) the penalty might be noticeable. If you are not concerned about multi-
# level sorts, and if you are seeing a slowdown, reduce the value of this tweak.
maximum_resort_levels = 5
#: Choose whether dates are sorted using visible fields

# Date values contain both a date and a time. When sorted, all the fields are
# used, regardless of what is displayed. Set this tweak to True to use only
# the fields that are being displayed.
sort_dates_using_visible_fields = False
#: Fuzz value for trimming covers

# The value used for the fuzz distance when trimming a cover.
# Colors within this distance are considered equal.
# The distance is in absolute intensity units.
cover_trim_fuzz_value = 10
#: Control behavior of the book list

# You can control the behavior of double clicks and pressing enter on the books list.
# Choices: open_viewer, do_nothing,
# edit_cell, edit_metadata. Selecting anything other than open_viewer has the
# side effect of disabling editing a field using a single click.
# Default: open_viewer.
# Example: doubleclick_on_library_view = 'do_nothing'
# You can also control whether the book list scrolls horizontal per column or
# per pixel. Default is per column.
doubleclick_on_library_view = 'open_viewer'
enter_key_behavior = 'do_nothing'
horizontal_scrolling_per_column = True
#: Language to use when sorting

# Setting this tweak will force sorting to use the
# collating order for the specified language. This might be useful if you run
# calibre in English but want sorting to work in the language where you live.
# Set the tweak to the desired ISO 639-1 language code, in lower case.
# You can find the list of supported locales at
# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
# Default: locale_for_sorting = '' -- use the language calibre displays in
# Example: locale_for_sorting = 'fr' -- sort using French rules.
# Example: locale_for_sorting = 'nb' -- sort using Norwegian rules.
locale_for_sorting = ''
#: Number of columns for custom metadata in the edit metadata dialog

# Set whether to use one or two columns for custom metadata when editing


# metadata one book at a time. If True, then the fields are laid out using two
# columns. If False, one column is used.
metadata_single_use_2_cols_for_custom_fields = True
#: Order of custom column(s) in edit metadata

# Controls the order that custom columns are listed in edit metadata single
# and bulk. The columns listed in the tweak are displayed first and in the
# order provided. Any columns not listed are displayed after the listed ones,
# in alphabetical order. Do note that this tweak does not change the size of
# the edit widgets. Putting comments widgets in this list may result in some
# odd widget spacing when using two-column mode.
# Enter a comma-separated list of custom field lookup names, as in
# metadata_edit_custom_column_order = ['#genre', '#mytags', '#etc']
metadata_edit_custom_column_order = []
#: Edit metadata custom column label width and elision point

# Set the width of custom column labels shown in the edit metadata dialogs.
# If metadata_edit_elide_labels is True then labels wider than the width
# will be elided, otherwise they will be word wrapped. The maximum width is
# computed by multiplying the average width of characters in the font by the
# appropriate number.
# Set the elision point to 'middle' to put the ellipsis () in the middle of
# the label, 'right' to put it at the right end of the label, and 'left' to
# put it at the left end.
metadata_edit_elide_labels = True
metadata_edit_bulk_cc_label_length = 25
metadata_edit_single_cc_label_length = 12
metadata_edit_elision_point = 'right'
#: The number of seconds to wait before sending emails

# The number of seconds to wait before sending emails when using a
# public email server like GMX/Hotmail/Gmail. Default is: 5 minutes
# Setting it to lower may cause the server's SPAM controls to kick in,
# making email sending fail. Changes will take effect only after a restart of
# calibre. You can also change the list of hosts that calibre considers
# to be public relays here. Any relay host ending with one of the suffixes
# in the list below will be considered a public email server.
public_smtp_relay_delay = 301
public_smtp_relay_host_suffixes = ['gmail.com', 'live.com', 'gmx.com']
#: The maximum width and height for covers saved in the calibre library
# All covers in the calibre library will be resized, preserving aspect ratio,
# to fit within this size. This is to prevent slowdowns caused by extremely
# large covers
maximum_cover_size = (1650, 2200)
#: Where to send downloaded news

# When automatically sending downloaded news to a connected device, calibre
# will by default send it to the main memory. By changing this tweak, you can
# control where it is sent. Valid values are "main", "carda", "cardb". Note
# that if there isn't enough free space available on the location you choose,
# the files will be sent to the location with the most free space.
send_news_to_device_location = "main"
#: Unified toolbar on macOS

# If you enable this option and restart calibre, the toolbar will be 'unified'
# with the titlebar as is normal for macOS applications. However, doing this has
12.3. Tweaks 269


# various bugs, for instance the minimum width of the toolbar becomes twice
# what it should be and it causes other random bugs on some systems, so turn it
# on at your own risk!
unified_title_toolbar_on_osx = False
#: Save original file when converting/polishing from same format to same format
# When calibre does a conversion from the same format to the same format, for
# example, from EPUB to EPUB, the original file is saved, so that in case the
# conversion is poor, you can tweak the settings and run it again. By setting
# this to False you can prevent calibre from saving the original file.
# Similarly, by setting save_original_format_when_polishing to False you can
# prevent calibre from saving the original file when polishing.
save_original_format = True
save_original_format_when_polishing = True
#: Number of recently viewed books to show

# Right-clicking the "View" button shows a list of recently viewed books. Control
# how many should be shown, here.
gui_view_history_size = 15
#: Change the font size of the Book details panel in the interface
# Change the font size at which book details are rendered in the side panel and
# comments are rendered in the metadata edit dialog. Set it to a positive or
# negative number to increase or decrease the font size.
change_book_details_font_size_by = 0
#: What format to default to when using the "Unpack book" feature

# The "Unpack book" feature of calibre allows direct editing of a book format.
# If multiple formats are available, calibre will offer you a choice
# of formats, defaulting to your preferred output format if it is available.
# Set this tweak to a specific value of 'EPUB' or 'AZW3' to always default
# to that format rather than your output format preference.
# Set to a value of 'remember' to use whichever format you chose last time you
# used the "Unpack book" feature.
# Examples:
# default_tweak_format = None (Use output format)
# default_tweak_format = 'EPUB'
# default_tweak_format = 'remember'
default_tweak_format = None
#: Do not preselect a completion when editing authors/tags/series/etc.

# This means that you can make changes and press Enter and your changes will
# not be overwritten by a matching completion. However, if you wish to use the
# completions you will now have to press Tab to select one before pressing
# Enter. Which technique you prefer will depend on the state of metadata in
# your library and your personal editing style.
preselect_first_completion = False
#: Completion mode when editing authors/tags/series/etc.

# By default, when completing items, calibre will show you all the candidates
# that start with the text you have already typed. You can instead have it show
# all candidates that contain the text you have already typed. To do this, set
# completion_mode to 'contains'. For example, if you type asi it will match both
# Asimov and Quasimodo, whereas the default behavior would match only Asimov.
completion_mode = 'prefix'
#: Recognize numbers inside text when sorting



# This means that when sorting on text fields like title the text "Book 2"
# will sort before the text "Book 100". If you want this behavior, set
# numeric_collation = True note that doing so will cause problems with text
# that starts with numbers and is a little slower.
numeric_collation = False
#: Sort the list of libraries alphabetically

# The list of libraries in the Copy to library and Quick switch menus are
# normally sorted by most used. However, if there are more than a certain
# number of such libraries, the sorting becomes alphabetic. You can set that
# number here. The default is ten libraries.
many_libraries = 10
#: Choose available output formats for conversion

# Restrict the list of available output formats in the conversion dialogs.
# For example, if you only want to convert to EPUB and AZW3, change this to
# restrict_output_formats = ['EPUB', 'AZW3']. The default value of None causes
# all available output formats to be present.
restrict_output_formats = None
#: Set the thumbnail image quality used by the Content server

# The quality of a thumbnail is largely controlled by the compression quality
# used when creating it. Set this to a larger number to improve the quality.
# Note that the thumbnails get much larger with larger compression quality
# numbers.
# The value can be between 50 and 99
content_server_thumbnail_compression_quality = 75
#: Image file types to treat as e-books when dropping onto the "Book details" panel
# Normally, if you drop any image file in a format known to calibre onto the
# "Book details" panel, it will be used to set the cover. If you want to store
# some image types as e-books instead, you can set this tweak.
# Examples:
# cover_drop_exclude = {'tiff', 'webp'}
cover_drop_exclude = ()
#: Show the Saved searches box in the Search bar

# In newer versions of calibre, only a single button that allows you to add a
# new Saved search is shown in the Search bar. If you would like to have the
# old Saved searches box with its two buttons back, set this tweak to True.
show_saved_search_box = False
#: Exclude fields when copy/pasting metadata

# You can ask calibre to not paste some metadata fields when using the
# Edit metadata->Copy metadata/Paste metadata actions. For example,
# exclude_fields_on_paste = ['cover', 'timestamp', '#mycolumn']
# to prevent pasting of the cover, Date and custom column, mycolumn.
exclude_fields_on_paste = []
#: Skip internet connected check

# Skip checking whether the internet is available before downloading news.
# Useful if for some reason your operating systems network checking
# facilities are not reliable (for example NetworkManager on Linux).
skip_network_check = False
12.3. Tweaks 271

12.4 Overriding icons, templates, et cetera
Note: calibre has direct support for icon themes, there are several icon themes available for calibre, that you can use
by going to Preferences→Interface→Look & Feel→Change Icon theme. The icon themes use the same mechanism
as described below for overriding static resources.
calibre allows you to override the static resources, like icons, JavaScript and templates for the metadata jacket, catalogs,
etc. with customized versions that you like. All static resources are stored in the resources sub-folder of the calibre
install location. On Windows, this is usually C:\Program Files\Calibre2\app\resources. On macOS,
/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/Resources/resources/. On Linux, if you are using the
binary installer from the calibre website it will be /opt/calibre/resources. These paths can change depending
on where you choose to install calibre.
You should not change the files in this resources folder, as your changes will get overwritten the next time you update
calibre. Instead, go to Preferences→Advanced→Miscellaneous and click Open calibre configuration folder. In this
configuration folder, create a sub-folder called resources and place the files you want to override in it. Place the files in
the appropriate sub folders, for example place images in resources/images, etc. calibre will automatically use
your custom file in preference to the built-in one the next time it is started.
For example, if you wanted to change the icon for the Remove books action, you would first look in the built-in
resources folder and see that the relevant file is resources/images/remove_books.png. Assuming you have
an alternate icon in PNG format called my_remove_books.png you would save it in the configuration folder as
resources/images/remove_books.png. All the icons used by the calibre user interface are in resources/
images and its sub-folders.
12.5 Creating your own icon theme for calibre
If you have created a beautiful set of icons and wish to share them with other calibre users via cali-
bres builtin icon theme support, you can easily package up your icons into a theme. To do so, go to
Preferences→Miscellaneous→Create icon theme, select the folder where you have put your icons (usually the
resources/images folder in the calibre config folder, as described above). Then fill up the theme metadata
and click OK. This will result in a ZIP file containing the theme icons. You can upload that to the calibre forum at
Mobileread109 and then I will make your theme available via calibres builtin icon theme system.
12.6 Customizing calibre with plugins
calibre has a very modular design. Almost all functionality in calibre comes in the form of plugins. Plugins are used
for conversion, for downloading news (though these are called recipes), for various components of the user interface,
to connect to different devices, to process files when adding them to calibre and so on. You can get a complete list of
all the built-in plugins in calibre by going to Preferences→Advanced→Plugins.
You can write your own plugins to customize and extend the behavior of calibre. The plugin architecture in calibre is
very simple, see the tutorial Writing your own plugins to extend calibres functionality (page 202).

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
COMMAND LINE INTERFACE
13.1 Documented commands
13.1.1 calibre
calibre [options] [path_to_ebook or calibre url ...]
Launch the main calibre Graphical User Interface and optionally add the e-book at path_to_ebook to the database.
You can also specify calibre URLs to perform various different actions, than just adding books. For example:
calibre://view-book/test_library/1842/epub
Will open the book with id 1842 in the EPUB format from the library test_library in the calibre E-book viewer.
Library names are the folder names of the libraries with spaces replaced by underscores. A full description of the
various URL based actions is in the User Manual.
Whenever you pass arguments to calibre that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For
example: /some path/with spaces
[options]
--detach
Detach from the controlling terminal, if any (Linux only)
--help, -h
show this help message and exit
--ignore-plugins
Ignore custom plugins, useful if you installed a plugin that is preventing calibre from starting
--no-update-check
Do not check for updates
--shutdown-running-calibre, -s
Cause a running calibre instance, if any, to be shutdown. Note that if there are running jobs, they will be silently
aborted, so use with care.
273
--start-in-tray
Start minimized to system tray.
--verbose, -v
Ignored, do not use. Present only for legacy reasons
--version
show program's version number and exit
--with-library
Use the library located at the specified path.
13.1.2 calibre-customize
calibre-customize options
Customize calibre by loading external plugins.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibre-customize that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quota-
tion marks. For example: /some path/with spaces
[options]
--add-plugin, -a
Add a plugin by specifying the path to the ZIP file containing it.
--build-plugin, -b
For plugin developers: Path to the folder where you are developing the plugin. This command will automatically
zip up the plugin and update it in calibre.
--customize-plugin
Customize plugin. Specify name of plugin and customization string separated by a comma.
--disable-plugin
Disable the named plugin
--enable-plugin
Enable the named plugin
--help, -h
--list-plugins, -l
List all installed plugins
--remove-plugin, -r
Remove a custom plugin by name. Has no effect on builtin plugins
--version
274 Chapter 13. Command Line Interface

13.1.3 calibre-debug
calibre-debug [options]
Various command line interfaces useful for debugging calibre. With no options, this command starts an embedded
Python interpreter. You can also run the main calibre GUI, the calibre E-book viewer and the calibre editor in debug
mode.
It also contains interfaces to various bits of calibre that do not have dedicated command line tools, such as font
subsetting, the E-book diff tool and so on.
You can also use calibre-debug to run standalone scripts. To do that use it like this:
calibre-debug myscript.py -- --option1 --option2 file1 file2
Everything after the -- is passed to the script.
Whenever you pass arguments to calibre-debug that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation
marks. For example: /some path/with spaces
[options]
--add-simple-plugin
Add a simple plugin (i.e. a plugin that consists of only a .py file), by specifying the path to the py file containing
the plugin code.
--command, -c
Run Python code.
--debug-device-driver, -d
Debug device detection
--default-programs
(Un)register calibre from Windows Default Programs. --default-programs (page 275) =
(register|unregister)
--diff
Run the calibre diff tool. For example: calibre-debug --diff (page 275) file1 file2
--edit-book, -t
Launch the calibre "Edit book" tool in debug mode.
--exec-file, -e
Run the Python code in file.
--explode-book, -x
Explode the book into the specified folder. Usage: -x file.epub output_dir Exports the book as a collection of
HTML files and metadata, which you can edit using standard HTML editing tools. Works with EPUB, AZW3,
HTMLZ and DOCX files.
--export-all-calibre-data
Export all calibre data (books/settings/plugins). Normally, you will be asked for the export folder and the
libraries to export. You can also specify them as command line arguments to skip the questions. Use absolute
paths for the export folder and libraries. The special keyword "all" can be used to export all libraries.
--fix-multiprocessing
For internal use
--gui, -g
Run the GUI with debugging enabled. Debug output is printed to stdout and stderr.
13.1. Documented commands 275

--gui-debug
Run the GUI with a debug console, logging to the specified path. For internal use only, use the -g option to run
the GUI in debug mode
--help, -h
--implode-book, -i
Implode a previously exploded book. Usage: -i output_dir file.epub Imports the book from the files in output_dir
which must have been created by a previous call to --explode-book (page 275). Be sure to specify the same
file type as was used when exploding.
--import-calibre-data
Import previously exported calibre data
--inspect-mobi, -m
Inspect the MOBI file(s) at the specified path(s)
--paths
Output the paths necessary to setup the calibre environment
--reinitialize-db
Re-initialize the sqlite calibre database at the specified path. Useful to recover from db corruption.
--run-plugin, -r
Run a plugin that provides a command line interface. For example: calibre-debug -r "Add Books" -- file1
--option1 Everything after the -- will be passed to the plugin as arguments.
--shutdown-running-calibre, -s
Cause a running calibre instance, if any, to be shutdown. Note that if there are running jobs, they will be silently
aborted, so use with care.
--subset-font, -f
Subset the specified font. Use -- after this option to pass option to the font subsetting program.
--test-build
Test binary modules in build
--version
--viewer, -w
Run the E-book viewer in debug mode
13.1.4 calibre-server
calibre-server [options] [path to library folder...]
Start the calibre Content server. The calibre Content server exposes your calibre libraries over the internet. You can
specify the path to the library folders as arguments to calibre-server. If you do not specify any paths, all the
libraries that the main calibre program knows about will be used.
Whenever you pass arguments to calibre-server that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation

[options]
--access-log
Path to the access log file. This log contains information about clients connecting to the server and making
requests. By default no access logging is done.
--ajax-timeout
Time (in seconds) to wait for a response from the server when making queries.
--auth-mode
Choose the type of authentication used. Set the HTTP authentication mode used by the server. Set to "basic" if
you are putting this server behind an SSL proxy. Otherwise, leave it as "auto", which will use "basic" if SSL
is configured otherwise it will use "digest".
--auto-reload
Automatically reload server when source code changes. Useful for development. You should also specify a
small value for the shutdown timeout.
--ban-after
Number of login failures for ban. The number of login failures after which an IP address is banned
--ban-for
Ban IP addresses that have repeated login failures. Temporarily bans access for IP addresses that have repeated
login failures for the specified number of minutes. Useful to prevent attempts at guessing passwords. If set to
zero, no banning is done.
--book-list-mode
Choose the default book list mode. Set the default book list mode that will be used for new users. Individual
users can override the default in their own settings. The default is to use a cover grid.
--compress-min-size
Minimum size for which responses use data compression (in bytes).
--custom-list-template
Path to a JSON file containing a template for the custom book list mode. The easiest way to create such a
template file is to go to Preferences-> Sharing over the net-> Book list template in calibre, create the template
and export it.
--daemonize
Run process in background as a daemon (Linux only).
--displayed-fields
Restrict displayed user-defined fields. Comma separated list of user-defined metadata fields that will be dis-
played by the Content server in the /opds and /mobile views. If you specify this option, any fields not in this list
will not be displayed. For example: my_rating,my_tags
--enable-allow-socket-preallocation, --disable-allow-socket-preallocation
Socket pre-allocation, for example, with systemd socket activation. By default, this option is enabled.
--enable-auth, --disable-auth
Password based authentication to access the server. Normally, the server is unrestricted, allowing anyone to
access it. You can restrict access to predefined users with this option. By default, this option is disabled.
--enable-fallback-to-detected-interface, --disable-fallback-to-detected-interface
Fallback to auto-detected interface. If for some reason the server is unable to bind to the interface specified in
the listen_on option, then it will try to detect an interface that connects to the outside world and bind to that. By
default, this option is enabled.
--enable-local-write, --disable-local-write
Allow un-authenticated local connections to make changes. Normally, if you do not turn on authentication, the
server operates in read-only mode, so as to not allow anonymous users to make changes to your calibre libraries.

This option allows anybody connecting from the same computer as the server is running on to make changes.
This is useful if you want to run the server without authentication but still use calibredb to make changes to
your calibre libraries. Note that turning on this option means any program running on the computer can make
changes to your calibre libraries. By default, this option is disabled.
--enable-log-not-found, --disable-log-not-found
Log HTTP 404 (Not Found) requests. Normally, the server logs all HTTP requests for resources that are not
found. This can generate a lot of log spam, if your server is targeted by bots. Use this option to turn it off. By
default, this option is enabled.
--enable-use-bonjour, --disable-use-bonjour
Advertise OPDS feeds via BonJour. Advertise the OPDS feeds via the BonJour service, so that OPDS based
reading apps can detect and connect to the server automatically. By default, this option is enabled.
--enable-use-sendfile, --disable-use-sendfile
Zero copy file transfers for increased performance. This will use zero-copy in-kernel transfers when sending
files over the network, increasing performance. However, it can cause corrupted file transfers on some broken
filesystems. If you experience corrupted file transfers, turn it off. By default, this option is enabled.
--help, -h
--ignored-fields
Ignored user-defined metadata fields. Comma separated list of user-defined metadata fields that will not be
displayed by the Content server in the /opds and /mobile views. For example: my_rating,my_tags
--listen-on
The interface on which to listen for connections. The default is to listen on all available IPv4 interfaces. You
can change this to, for example, "127.0.0.1" to only listen for connections from the local machine, or to "::" to
listen to all incoming IPv6 and IPv4 connections.
--log
Path to log file for server log. This log contains server information and errors, not access logs. By default it is
written to stdout.
--manage-users
Manage the database of users allowed to connect to this server. You can use it in automated mode by adding a
–. See calibre-server --manage-users (page 278) -- help for details. See also the --userdb (page 279)
option.
--max-header-line-size
Max. size of single HTTP header (in KB).
--max-job-time
Maximum time for worker processes. Maximum amount of time worker processes are allowed to run (in min-
utes). Set to zero for no limit.
--max-jobs
Maximum number of worker processes. Worker processes are launched as needed and used for large jobs such
as preparing a book for viewing, adding books, converting, etc. Normally, the max. number of such processes
is based on the number of CPU cores. You can control it by this setting.
--max-log-size
Max. log file size (in MB). The maximum size of log files, generated by the server. When the log becomes
larger than this size, it is automatically rotated. Set to zero to disable log rotation.
--max-opds-items
Maximum number of books in OPDS feeds. The maximum number of books that the server will return in a
single OPDS acquisition feed.

--max-opds-ungrouped-items
Maximum number of ungrouped items in OPDS feeds. Group items in categories such as author/tags by first
letter when there are more than this number of items. Set to zero to disable.
--max-request-body-size
Max. allowed size for files uploaded to the server (in MB).
--num-per-page
Number of books to show in a single page. The number of books to show in a single page in the browser.
--pidfile
Write process PID to the specified file
--port
The port on which to listen for connections.
--search-the-net-urls
Path to a JSON file containing URLs for the "Search the internet" feature. The easiest way to create such a file
is to go to Preferences-> Sharing over the net->Search the internet in calibre, create the URLs and export them.
--shutdown-timeout
Total time in seconds to wait for clean shutdown.
--ssl-certfile
Path to the SSL certificate file.
--ssl-keyfile
Path to the SSL private key file.
--timeout
Time (in seconds) after which an idle connection is closed.
--trusted-ips
Allow un-authenticated connections from specific IP addresses to make changes. Normally, if you do not turn
on authentication, the server operates in read-only mode, so as to not allow anonymous users to make changes to
your calibre libraries. This option allows anybody connecting from the specified IP addresses to make changes.
Must be a comma separated list of address or network specifications. This is useful if you want to run the server
without authentication but still use calibredb to make changes to your calibre libraries. Note that turning on this
option means anyone connecting from the specified IP addresses can make changes to your calibre libraries.
--url-prefix
A prefix to prepend to all URLs. Useful if you wish to run this server behind a reverse proxy. For example use,
/calibre as the URL prefix.
--userdb
Path to the user database to use for authentication. The database is a SQLite file. To create it use
--manage-users (page 278). You can read more about managing users at: https://manual.calibre-ebook.
com/server.html#managing-user-accounts-from-the-command-line-only
--version
--worker-count
Number of worker threads used to process requests.

13.1.5 calibre-smtp
calibre-smtp [options] [from to text]
Send mail using the SMTP protocol. calibre-smtp has two modes of operation. In the compose mode you specify
from to and text and these are used to build and send an email message. In the filter mode, calibre-smtp reads a
complete email message from STDIN and sends it.
text is the body of the email message. If text is not specified, a complete email message is read from STDIN. from
is the email address of the sender and to is the email address of the recipient. When a complete email is read from
STDIN, from and to are only used in the SMTP negotiation, the message headers are not modified.
Whenever you pass arguments to calibre-smtp that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation
[options]
--fork, -f
Fork and deliver message in background. If you use this option, you should also use --outbox (page 280) to
handle delivery failures.
--help, -h
--localhost, -l
Host name of localhost. Used when connecting to SMTP server.
--outbox, -o
Path to maildir folder to store failed email messages in.
--timeout, -t
Timeout for connection
--verbose, -v
Be more verbose
--version
COMPOSE MAIL
Options to compose an email. Ignored if text is not specified

--attachment, -a
File to attach to the email
--subject, -s
Subject of the email

SMTP RELAY
Options to use an SMTP relay server to send mail. calibre will try to send the email directly unless –relay is specified.
--cafile
Path to a file of concatenated CA certificates in PEM format, used to verify the server certificate when using
TLS. By default, the system CA certificates are used.
--dont-verify-server-certificate
Do not verify the server certificate when connecting using TLS. This used to be the default behavior in calibre
versions before 3.27. If you are using a relay with a self-signed or otherwise invalid certificate, you can use this
option to restore the pre 3.27 behavior
--encryption-method, -e
Encryption method to use when connecting to relay. Choices are TLS, SSL and NONE. Default is TLS. WARN-
ING: Choosing NONE is highly insecure
--password, -p
Password for relay
--port
Port to connect to on relay server. Default is to use 465 if encryption method is SSL and 25 otherwise.
--relay, -r
An SMTP relay server to use to send mail.
--username, -u
Username for relay
13.1.6 calibredb
calibredb command [options] [arguments]
calibredb is the command line interface to the calibre database. It has several sub-commands, documented below.
calibredb can be used to manipulate either a calibre database specified by path or a calibre Content server
running either on the local machine or over the internet. You can start a calibre Content server using either the
calibre-server program or in the main calibre program click Connect/share → Start Content server. Since
calibredb can make changes to your calibre libraries, you must setup authentication on the server first. There are
two ways to do that:
• If you plan to connect only to a server running on the same computer, you can simply use the
--enable-local-write option of the content server, to allow any program, including calibredb, running
on the local computer to make changes to your calibre data. When running the server from the main calibre
program, this option is in Preferences→Sharing over the net→Advanced.
• If you want to enable access over the internet, then you should setup user accounts on the server and use
the --username (page 283) and --password (page 282) options to calibredb to give it access. You
can setup user authentication for calibre-server by using the --enable-auth option and using
--manage-users to create the user accounts. If you are running the server from the main calibre program,
use Preferences→Sharing over the net→Require username/password.
To connect to a running Content server, pass the URL of the server to the --with-library (page 282) option, see
the documentation of that option for details and examples.

• Global Options (page 282)

• list (page 283)
• add (page 284)
– Adding From Directories (page 285)
• remove (page 285)
• add_format (page 285)
• remove_format (page 286)
• show_metadata (page 286)
• set_metadata (page 286)
• export (page 287)
• catalog (page 288)
– Epub Options (page 288)
• saved_searches (page 289)
• add_custom_column (page 290)
• custom_columns (page 290)
• remove_custom_column (page 290)
• set_custom (page 291)
• restore_database (page 291)
• check_library (page 291)
• list_categories (page 292)
• backup_metadata (page 292)
• clone (page 292)
• embed_metadata (page 293)
• search (page 293)
Global Options
--help, -h
--library-path, --with-library
Path to the calibre library. Default is to use the path stored in the settings. You can also connect to a calibre
Content server to perform actions on remote libraries. To do so use a URL of the form: http://hostname:
port/#library_id for example, http://localhost:8080/#mylibrary. library_id is the library id of the library you
want to connect to on the Content server. You can use the special library_id value of - to get a list of library ids
available on the server. For details on how to setup access via a Content server, see https://manual.calibre-ebook.
com/generated/en/calibredb.html.
--password
Password for connecting to a calibre Content server. To read the password from standard input, use the special
value: <stdin>. To read the password from a file, use: <f:/path/to/file> (i.e. <f: followed by the full path to the

file and a trailing >). The angle brackets in the above are required, remember to escape them or use quotes for
your shell.
--timeout
The timeout, in seconds, when connecting to a calibre library over the network. The default is two minutes.
--username
Username for connecting to a calibre Content server
--version
list
calibredb list [options]
List the books available in the calibre database.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For
--ascending
Sort results in ascending order
--fields, -f
The fields to display when listing books in the database. Should be a comma separated list of fields. Available
fields: author_sort, authors, comments, cover, formats, identifiers, isbn, languages, last_modified, pubdate,
publisher, rating, series, series_index, size, tags, timestamp, title, uuid Default: title,authors. The special field
"all" can be used to select all fields. In addition to the builtin fields above, custom fields are also available as
*field_name, for example, for a custom field #rating, use the name: *rating
--for-machine
Generate output in JSON format, which is more suitable for machine parsing. Causes the line width and sepa-
rator options to be ignored.
--limit
The maximum number of results to display. Default: all
--line-width, -w
The maximum width of a single line in the output. Defaults to detecting screen size.
--prefix
The prefix for all file paths. Default is the absolute path to the library folder.
--search, -s
Filter the results by the search query. For the format of the search query, please see the search related documen-
tation in the User Manual. Default is to do no filtering.
--separator
The string used to separate fields. Default is a space.
--sort-by
The field by which to sort the results. Available fields: author_sort, authors, comments, cover, formats, identi-
fiers, isbn, languages, last_modified, pubdate, publisher, rating, series, series_index, size, tags, timestamp, title,
uuid Default: id

add
calibredb add [options] file1 file2 file3 ...
Add the specified files as books to the database. You can also specify folders, see the folder related options below.
--authors, -a
Set the authors of the added book(s)
--automerge, -m
If books with similar titles and authors are found, merge the incoming formats (files) automatically into existing
book records. A value of "ignore" means duplicate formats are discarded. A value of "overwrite" means
duplicate formats in the library are overwritten with the newly added files. A value of "new_record" means
duplicate formats are placed into a new book record.
--cover, -c
Path to the cover to use for the added book
--duplicates, -d
Add books to database even if they already exist. Comparison is done based on book titles and authors. Note
that the --automerge (page 284) option takes precedence.
--empty, -e
Add an empty book (a book with no formats)
--identifier, -I
Set the identifiers for this book, for e.g. -I asin:XXX -I isbn:YYY
--isbn, -i
Set the ISBN of the added book(s)
--languages, -l
A comma separated list of languages (best to use ISO639 language codes, though some language names may
also be recognized)
--series, -s
Set the series of the added book(s)
--series-index, -S
Set the series number of the added book(s)
--tags, -T
Set the tags of the added book(s)
--title, -t
Set the title of the added book(s)

Adding From Directories
Options to control the adding of books from directories. By default only files that have extensions of known e-book
file types are added.
--add
A filename (glob) pattern, files matching this pattern will be added when scanning folders for files, even if they
are not of a known e-book file type. Can be specified multiple times for multiple patterns.
--ignore
A filename (glob) pattern, files matching this pattern will be ignored when scanning folders for files. Can be
specified multiple times for multiple patterns. For e.g.: *.pdf will ignore all PDF files
--one-book-per-directory, -1
Assume that each folder has only a single logical book and that all files in it are different e-book formats of that
book
--recurse, -r
Process folders recursively
remove
calibredb remove ids
Remove the books identified by ids from the database. ids should be a comma separated list of id numbers (you can
get id numbers by using the search command). For example, 23,34,57-85 (when specifying a range, the last number
in the range is not included).
--permanent
Do not use the recycle bin
add_format
calibredb add_format [options] id ebook_file
Add the e-book in ebook_file to the available formats for the logical book identified by id. You can get id by using the
search command. If the format already exists, it is replaced, unless the do not replace option is specified.
--dont-replace
Do not replace the format if it already exists

remove_format
calibredb remove_format [options] id fmt
Remove the format fmt from the logical book identified by id. You can get id by using the search command. fmt
should be a file extension like LRF or TXT or EPUB. If the logical book does not have fmt available, do nothing.
show_metadata
calibredb show_metadata [options] id
Show the metadata stored in the calibre database for the book identified by id. id is an id number from the search
command.
--as-opf
Print metadata in OPF form (XML)
set_metadata
calibredb set_metadata [options] id [/path/to/metadata.opf]
Set the metadata stored in the calibre database for the book identified by id from the OPF file metadata.opf. id is an
id number from the search command. You can get a quick feel for the OPF format by using the –as-opf switch to the
show_metadata command. You can also set the metadata of individual fields with the –field option. If you use the
–field option, there is no need to specify an OPF file.
--field, -f
The field to set. Format is field_name:value, for example: --field (page 286) tags:tag1,tag2. Use
--list-fields (page 286) to get a list of all field names. You can specify this option multiple times to
set multiple fields. Note: For languages you must use the ISO639 language codes (e.g. en for English, fr for
French and so on). For identifiers, the syntax is --field (page 286) identifiers:isbn:XXXX,doi:YYYYY. For
boolean (yes/no) fields use true and false or yes and no.
--list-fields, -l
List the metadata field names that can be used with the --field (page 286) option

export
calibredb export [options] ids
Export the books specified by ids (a comma separated list) to the filesystem. The export operation saves all formats
of the book, its cover and metadata (in an opf file). You can get id numbers from the search command.
--all
Export all books in database, ignoring the list of ids.
--dont-asciiize
Have calibre convert all non English characters into English equivalents for the file names. This is useful if
saving to a legacy filesystem without full support for Unicode filenames. Specifying this switch will turn this
behavior off.
--dont-save-cover
Normally, calibre will save the cover in a separate file along with the actual e-book files. Specifying this switch
will turn this behavior off.
--dont-update-metadata
Normally, calibre will update the metadata in the saved files from what is in the calibre library. Makes saving to
disk slower. Specifying this switch will turn this behavior off.
--dont-write-opf
Normally, calibre will write the metadata into a separate OPF file along with the actual e-book files. Specifying
this switch will turn this behavior off.
--formats
Comma separated list of formats to save for each book. By default all available formats are saved.
--progress
Report progress
--replace-whitespace
Replace whitespace with underscores.
--single-dir
Export all books into a single folder
--template
The template to control the filename and folder structure of the saved files. Default is
"{author_sort}/{title}/{title} - {authors}" which will save books into a per-author subfolder with file-
names containing title and author. Available controls are: {author_sort, authors, id, isbn, languages,
last_modified, pubdate, publisher, rating, series, series_index, tags, timestamp, title}
--timefmt
The format in which to display dates. %d - day, %b - month, %m - month number, %Y - year. Default is: %b,
%Y
--to-dir
Export books to the specified folder. Default is .
--to-lowercase
Convert paths to lowercase.

catalog
calibredb catalog /path/to/destination.(csv|epub|mobi|xml...) [options]
Export a catalog in format specified by path/to/destination extension. Options control how entries are displayed in
the generated catalog output. Note that different catalog formats support different sets of options. To see the
different options, specify the name of the output file and then the –help option.
--ids, -i
Comma-separated list of database IDs to catalog. If declared, --search (page 288) is ignored. Default: all
--search, -s
Filter the results by the search query. For the format of the search query, please see the search-related documen-
tation in the User Manual. Default: no filtering
--verbose, -v
Show detailed output information. Useful for debugging
Epub Options
--catalog-title
Title of generated catalog used as title in metadata. Default: 'My Books' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI
output formats
--cross-reference-authors
Create cross-references in Authors section for books with multiple authors. Default: 'False' Applies to:
AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--debug-pipeline
Save the output from different stages of the conversion pipeline to the specified folder. Useful if you are unsure
at which stage of the conversion process a bug is occurring. Default: 'None' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI
output formats
--exclude-genre
Regex describing tags to exclude as genres. Default: '[.+]|^+$' excludes bracketed tags, e.g. '[Project Guten-
berg]', and '+', the default tag for read books. Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--exclusion-rules
Specifies the rules used to exclude books from the generated catalog. The model for an exclusion rule
is either ('<rule name>','Tags','<comma-separated list of tags>') or ('<rule name>','<custom col-
umn>','<pattern>'). For example: (('Archived books','#status','Archived'),) will exclude a book with
a value of 'Archived' in the custom column 'status'. When multiple rules are defined, all rules will be ap-
plied. Default: "(('Catalogs','Tags','Catalog'),)" Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--generate-authors
Include 'Authors' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--generate-descriptions
Include 'Descriptions' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--generate-genres
Include 'Genres' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--generate-recently-added
Include 'Recently Added' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output
formats

--generate-series
Include 'Series' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--generate-titles
Include 'Titles' section in catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--genre-source-field
Source field for 'Genres' section. Default: 'Tags' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--header-note-source-field
Custom field containing note text to insert in Description header. Default: '' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI
output formats
--merge-comments-rule
#<custom field>:[before|after]:[True|False] specifying: <custom field> Custom field containing notes to merge
with comments [before|after] Placement of notes with respect to comments [True|False] - A horizontal rule is
inserted between notes and comments Default: '::' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--output-profile
Specifies the output profile. In some cases, an output profile is required to optimize the catalog for the device. For
example, 'kindle' or 'kindle_dx' creates a structured Table of Contents with Sections and Articles. Default:
'None' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--prefix-rules
Specifies the rules used to include prefixes indicating read books, wishlist items and other user-specified prefixes.
The model for a prefix rule is ('<rule name>','<source field>','<pattern>','<prefix>'). When multiple
rules are defined, the first matching rule will be used. Default: "(('Read books','tags','+','✓'),('Wishlist
item','tags','Wishlist','Œ'))" Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--preset
Use a named preset created with the GUI catalog builder. A preset specifies all settings for building a catalog.
Default: 'None' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output formats
--thumb-width
Size hint (in inches) for book covers in catalog. Range: 1.0 - 2.0 Default: '1.0' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB,
MOBI output formats
--use-existing-cover
Replace existing cover when generating the catalog. Default: 'False' Applies to: AZW3, EPUB, MOBI output
formats
saved_searches
calibredb saved_searches [options] (list|add|remove)
Manage the saved searches stored in this database. If you try to add a query with a name that already exists, it will be
replaced.
Syntax for adding:
calibredb saved_searches add search_name search_expression
Syntax for removing:
calibredb saved_searches remove search_name

add_custom_column
calibredb add_custom_column [options] label name datatype
Create a custom column. label is the machine friendly name of the column. Should not contain spaces or colons. name
is the human friendly name of the column. datatype is one of: bool, comments, composite, datetime, enumeration,
float, int, rating, series, text
--display
A dictionary of options to customize how the data in this column will be interpreted. This is a JSON string.
For enumeration columns, use --display (page 290)"{\ "enum_values\ ":[\ "val1\ ", \ "val2\ "]}" There
are many options that can go into the display variable.The options by column type are: composite: compos-
ite_template, composite_sort, make_category,contains_html, use_decorations datetime: date_format enumera-
tion: enum_values, enum_colors, use_decorations int, float: number_format text: is_names, use_decorations
The best way to find legal combinations is to create a custom column of the appropriate type in the GUI then
look at the backup OPF for a book (ensure that a new OPF has been created since the column was added). You
will see the JSON for the "display" for the new column in the OPF.
--is-multiple
This column stores tag like data (i.e. multiple comma separated values). Only applies if datatype is text.
custom_columns
calibredb custom_columns [options]
List available custom columns. Shows column labels and ids.

--details, -d
Show details for each column.
remove_custom_column
calibredb remove_custom_column [options] label
Remove the custom column identified by label. You can see available columns with the custom_columns command.
--force, -f
Do not ask for confirmation

set_custom
calibredb set_custom [options] column id value
Set the value of a custom column for the book identified by id. You can get a list of ids using the search command.
You can get a list of custom column names using the custom_columns command.
--append, -a
If the column stores multiple values, append the specified values to the existing ones, instead of replacing them.
restore_database
calibredb restore_database [options]
Restore this database from the metadata stored in OPF files in each folder of the calibre library. This is useful if your
metadata.db file has been corrupted.
WARNING: This command completely regenerates your database. You will lose all saved searches, user categories,
plugboards, stored per-book conversion settings, and custom recipes. Restored metadata will only be as accurate as
what is found in the OPF files.
--really-do-it, -r
Really do the recovery. The command will not run unless this option is specified.
check_library
calibredb check_library [options]
Perform some checks on the filesystem representing a library. Reports are invalid_titles, extra_titles, invalid_authors,
extra_authors, missing_formats, extra_formats, extra_files, missing_covers, extra_covers, failed_folders
--csv, -c
Output in CSV
--ignore_extensions, -e
Comma-separated list of extensions to ignore. Default: all
--ignore_names, -n
Comma-separated list of names to ignore. Default: all
--report, -r
Comma-separated list of reports. Default: all

list_categories
calibredb list_categories [options]
Produce a report of the category information in the database. The information is the equivalent of what is shown in the
Tag browser.
--categories, -r
Comma-separated list of category lookup names. Default: all
--csv, -c
Output in CSV
--dialect
The type of CSV file to produce. Choices: excel, excel-tab, unix
--item_count, -i
Output only the number of items in a category instead of the counts per item within the category
--width, -w
The maximum width of a single line in the output. Defaults to detecting screen size.
backup_metadata
calibredb backup_metadata [options]
Backup the metadata stored in the database into individual OPF files in each books folder. This normally happens
automatically, but you can run this command to force re-generation of the OPF files, with the –all option.
Note that there is normally no need to do this, as the OPF files are backed up automatically, every time metadata is
changed.
--all
Normally, this command only operates on books that have out of date OPF files. This option makes it operate
on all books.
clone
calibredb clone path/to/new/library
Create a clone of the current library. This creates a new, empty library that has all the same custom columns, Virtual
libraries and other settings as the current library.
The cloned library will contain no books. If you want to create a full duplicate, including all books, then simply use
your filesystem tools to copy the library folder.

embed_metadata
calibredb embed_metadata [options] book_id
Update the metadata in the actual book files stored in the calibre library from the metadata in the calibre database.
Normally, metadata is updated only when exporting files from calibre, this command is useful if you want the files to
be updated in place. Note that different file formats support different amounts of metadata. You can use the special
value all for book_id to update metadata in all books. You can also specify many book ids separated by spaces and id
ranges separated by hyphens. For example: calibredb embed_metadata 1 2 10-15 23
--only-formats, -f
Only update metadata in files of the specified format. Specify it multiple times for multiple formats. By default,
all formats are updated.
search
calibredb search [options] search expression
Search the library for the specified search term, returning a comma separated list of book ids matching the search
expression. The output format is useful to feed into other commands that accept a list of ids as input.
The search expression can be anything from calibres powerful search query language, for example: calibredb
search author:asimov title:i robot
--limit, -l
The maximum number of results to return. Default is all results.
13.1.7 ebook-convert
ebook-convert input_file output_file [options]
Convert an e-book from one format to another.

input_file is the input and output_file is the output. Both must be specified as the first two arguments to the command.
The output e-book format is guessed from the file extension of output_file. output_file can also be of the special format
.EXT where EXT is the output file extension. In this case, the name of the output file is derived from the name of
the input file. Note that the filenames must not start with a hyphen. Finally, if output_file has no extension, then it is
treated as a folder and an open e-book (OEB) consisting of HTML files is written to that folder. These files are the
files that would normally have been passed to the output plugin.
After specifying the input and output file you can customize the conversion by specifying various options. The avail-
able options depend on the input and output file types. To get help on them specify the input and output file and then
use the -h option.
For full documentation of the conversion system see E-book conversion (page 49)
Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-convert that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation

The options and default values for the options change depending on both the input and output formats, so you should
always check with:
ebook-convert myfile.input_format myfile.output_format -h
Below are the options that are common to all conversion, followed by the options specific to every input and output
format.
• Look and Feel (page 296)

• Heuristic Processing (page 298)
• Search and Replace (page 299)
• Structure Detection (page 299)
• Table of Contents (page 300)
• Metadata (page 301)
• Debug (page 302)
• AZW4 Input Options (page 302)
• CHM Input Options (page 302)
• Comic Input Options (page 302)
• DJVU Input Options (page 303)
• DOCX Input Options (page 303)
• EPUB Input Options (page 304)
• FB2 Input Options (page 304)
• HTLZ Input Options (page 304)
• HTML Input Options (page 304)
• LIT Input Options (page 304)
• LRF Input Options (page 305)
• MOBI Input Options (page 305)
• ODT Input Options (page 305)
• PDB Input Options (page 305)
• PDF Input Options (page 305)
• PML Input Options (page 306)
• RB Input Options (page 306)
• RTF Input Options (page 306)
• Recipe Input Options (page 306)
• SNB Input Options (page 307)
• TCR Input Options (page 307)
• TXT Input Options (page 307)
• AZW3 Output Options (page 308)

• DOCX Output Options (page 308)

• EPUB Output Options (page 309)
• FB2 Output Options (page 310)
• HTML Output Options (page 310)
• HTMLZ Output Options (page 311)
• LIT Output Options (page 311)
• LRF Output Options (page 311)
• MOBI Output Options (page 312)
• OEB Output Options (page 313)
• PDB Output Options (page 313)
• PDF Output Options (page 313)
• PML Output Options (page 315)
• RB Output Options (page 315)
• RTF Output Options (page 315)
• SNB Output Options (page 315)
• TCR Output Options (page 316)
• TXT Output Options (page 316)
• TXTZ Output Options (page 317)
--help, -h
--input-profile
Specify the input profile. The input profile gives the conversion system information on how to interpret various
information in the input document. For example resolution dependent lengths (i.e. lengths in pixels). Choices
are:cybookg3, cybook_opus, default, hanlinv3, hanlinv5, illiad, irexdr1000, irexdr800, kindle, msreader, mo-
bipocket, nook, sony, sony300, sony900
--list-recipes
List builtin recipe names. You can create an e-book from a builtin recipe like this: ebook-convert "Recipe
Name.recipe" output.epub
--output-profile
Specify the output profile. The output profile tells the conversion system how to optimize the created doc-
ument for the specified device (such as by resizing images for the device screen size). In some cases, an
output profile can be used to optimize the output for a particular device, but this is rarely necessary. Choices
are:cybookg3, cybook_opus, default, generic_eink, generic_eink_hd, generic_eink_large, hanlinv3, hanlinv5,
illiad, ipad, ipad3, irexdr1000, irexdr800, jetbook5, kindle, kindle_dx, kindle_fire, kindle_oasis, kindle_pw,
kindle_pw3, kindle_voyage, kobo, msreader, mobipocket, nook, nook_color, nook_hd_plus, pocketbook_900,
pocketbook_pro_912, galaxy, sony, sony300, sony900, sony-landscape, sonyt3, tablet
--version

Look and Feel
Options to control the look and feel of the output

--asciiize
Transliterate Unicode characters to an ASCII representation. Use with care because this will replace Unicode
characters with ASCII. For instance it will replace "Pelé" with "Pele". Also, note that in cases where there are
multiple representations of a character (characters shared by Chinese and Japanese for instance) the representa-
tion based on the current calibre interface language will be used.
--base-font-size
The base font size in pts. All font sizes in the produced book will be rescaled based on this size. By choosing
a larger size you can make the fonts in the output bigger and vice versa. By default, when the value is zero, the
base font size is chosen based on the output profile you chose.
--change-justification
Change text justification. A value of "left" converts all justified text in the source to left aligned (i.e. unjustified)
text. A value of "justify" converts all unjustified text to justified. A value of "original" (the default) does not
change justification in the source file. Note that only some output formats support justification.
--disable-font-rescaling
Disable all rescaling of font sizes.
--embed-all-fonts
Embed every font that is referenced in the input document but not already embedded. This will search your
system for the fonts, and if found, they will be embedded. Embedding will only work if the format you are
converting to supports embedded fonts, such as EPUB, AZW3, DOCX or PDF. Please ensure that you have the
proper license for embedding the fonts used in this document.
--embed-font-family
Embed the specified font family into the book. This specifies the "base" font used for the book. If the input
document specifies its own fonts, they may override this base font. You can use the filter style information
option to remove fonts from the input document. Note that font embedding only works with some output
formats, principally EPUB, AZW3 and DOCX.
--expand-css
By default, calibre will use the shorthand form for various CSS properties such as margin, padding, border,
etc. This option will cause it to use the full expanded form instead. Note that CSS is always expanded when
generating EPUB files with the output profile set to one of the Nook profiles as the Nook cannot handle shorthand
CSS.
--extra-css
Either the path to a CSS stylesheet or raw CSS. This CSS will be appended to the style rules from the source
file, so it can be used to override those rules.
--filter-css
A comma separated list of CSS properties that will be removed from all CSS style rules. This is useful if
the presence of some style information prevents it from being overridden on your device. For example: font-
family,color,margin-left,margin-right
--font-size-mapping
Mapping from CSS font names to font sizes in pts. An example setting is 12,12,14,16,18,20,22,24. These are
the mappings for the sizes xx-small to xx-large, with the final size being for huge fonts. The font rescaling
algorithm uses these sizes to intelligently rescale fonts. The default is to use a mapping based on the output
profile you chose.
--insert-blank-line
Insert a blank line between paragraphs. Will not work if the source file does not use paragraphs (<p> or <div>
tags).

--insert-blank-line-size
Set the height of the inserted blank lines (in em). The height of the lines between paragraphs will be twice the
value set here.
--keep-ligatures
Preserve ligatures present in the input document. A ligature is a special rendering of a pair of characters like ff,
fi, fl et cetera. Most readers do not have support for ligatures in their default fonts, so they are unlikely to render
correctly. By default, calibre will turn a ligature into the corresponding pair of normal characters. This option
will preserve them instead.
--line-height
The line height in pts. Controls spacing between consecutive lines of text. Only applies to elements that do not
define their own line height. In most cases, the minimum line height option is more useful. By default no line
height manipulation is performed.
--linearize-tables
Some badly designed documents use tables to control the layout of text on the page. When converted these
documents often have text that runs off the page and other artifacts. This option will extract the content from
the tables and present it in a linear fashion.
--margin-bottom
Set the bottom margin in pts. Default is 5.0. Setting this to less than zero will cause no margin to be set (the
margin setting in the original document will be preserved). Note: Page oriented formats such as PDF and DOCX
have their own margin settings that take precedence.
--margin-left
Set the left margin in pts. Default is 5.0. Setting this to less than zero will cause no margin to be set (the margin
setting in the original document will be preserved). Note: Page oriented formats such as PDF and DOCX have
their own margin settings that take precedence.
--margin-right
Set the right margin in pts. Default is 5.0. Setting this to less than zero will cause no margin to be set (the margin
--margin-top
Set the top margin in pts. Default is 5.0. Setting this to less than zero will cause no margin to be set (the margin
--minimum-line-height
The minimum line height, as a percentage of the element's calculated font size. calibre will ensure that every
element has a line height of at least this setting, irrespective of what the input document specifies. Set to zero to
disable. Default is 120%. Use this setting in preference to the direct line height specification, unless you know
what you are doing. For example, you can achieve "double spaced" text by setting this to 240.
--remove-paragraph-spacing
Remove spacing between paragraphs. Also sets an indent on paragraphs of 1.5em. Spacing removal will not
work if the source file does not use paragraphs (<p> or <div> tags).
--remove-paragraph-spacing-indent-size
When calibre removes blank lines between paragraphs, it automatically sets a paragraph indent, to ensure that
paragraphs can be easily distinguished. This option controls the width of that indent (in em). If you set this value
negative, then the indent specified in the input document is used, that is, calibre does not change the indentation.
--smarten-punctuation
Convert plain quotes, dashes and ellipsis to their typographically correct equivalents. For details, see https:
//daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants

--subset-embedded-fonts
Subset all embedded fonts. Every embedded font is reduced to contain only the glyphs used in this document.
This decreases the size of the font files. Useful if you are embedding a particularly large font with lots of unused
glyphs.
--transform-css-rules
Path to a file containing rules to transform the CSS styles in this book. The easiest way to create such a file is to
use the wizard for creating rules in the calibre GUI. Access it in the "Look & feel->Transform styles" section
of the conversion dialog. Once you create the rules, you can use the "Export" button to save them to a file.
--unsmarten-punctuation
Convert fancy quotes, dashes and ellipsis to their plain equivalents.
Heuristic Processing
Modify the document text and structure using common patterns. Disabled by default. Use –enable-heuristics to enable.
Individual actions can be disabled with the –disable-* options.
--disable-dehyphenate
Analyze hyphenated words throughout the document. The document itself is used as a dictionary to determine
whether hyphens should be retained or removed.
--disable-delete-blank-paragraphs
Remove empty paragraphs from the document when they exist between every other paragraph
--disable-fix-indents
Turn indentation created from multiple non-breaking space entities into CSS indents.
--disable-format-scene-breaks
Left aligned scene break markers are center aligned. Replace soft scene breaks that use multiple blank lines
with horizontal rules.
--disable-italicize-common-cases
Look for common words and patterns that denote italics and italicize them.
--disable-markup-chapter-headings
Detect unformatted chapter headings and sub headings. Change them to h2 and h3 tags. This setting will not
create a TOC, but can be used in conjunction with structure detection to create one.
--disable-renumber-headings
Looks for occurrences of sequential <h1> or <h2> tags. The tags are renumbered to prevent splitting in the
middle of chapter headings.
--disable-unwrap-lines
Unwrap lines using punctuation and other formatting clues.
--enable-heuristics
Enable heuristic processing. This option must be set for any heuristic processing to take place.
--html-unwrap-factor
Scale used to determine the length at which a line should be unwrapped. Valid values are a decimal between
0 and 1. The default is 0.4, just below the median line length. If only a few lines in the document require
unwrapping this value should be reduced
--replace-scene-breaks
Replace scene breaks with the specified text. By default, the text from the input document is used.

Search and Replace
Modify the document text and structure using user defined patterns.
--search-replace
Path to a file containing search and replace regular expressions. The file must contain alternating lines of regular
expression followed by replacement pattern (which can be an empty line). The regular expression must be in
the Python regex syntax and the file must be UTF-8 encoded.
--sr1-replace
Replacement to replace the text found with sr1-search.
--sr1-search
Search pattern (regular expression) to be replaced with sr1-replace.
--sr2-replace
--sr2-search
--sr3-replace
--sr3-search
Structure Detection
Control auto-detection of document structure.

--chapter
An XPath expression to detect chapter titles. The default is to consider <h1> or <h2> tags that contain the words
"chapter", "book", "section", "prologue", "epilogue" or "part" as chapter titles as well as any tags that have
class="chapter". The expression used must evaluate to a list of elements. To disable chapter detection, use the
expression "/". See the XPath Tutorial in the calibre User Manual for further help on using this feature.
--chapter-mark
Specify how to mark detected chapters. A value of "pagebreak" will insert page breaks before chapters. A
value of "rule" will insert a line before chapters. A value of "none" will disable chapter marking and a value
of "both" will use both page breaks and lines to mark chapters.
--disable-remove-fake-margins
Some documents specify page margins by specifying a left and right margin on each individual paragraph.
calibre will try to detect and remove these margins. Sometimes, this can cause the removal of margins that
should not have been removed. In this case you can disable the removal.
--insert-metadata
Insert the book metadata at the start of the book. This is useful if your e-book reader does not support display-
ing/searching metadata directly.
--page-breaks-before
An XPath expression. Page breaks are inserted before the specified elements. To disable use the expression: /
--prefer-metadata-cover
Use the cover detected from the source file in preference to the specified cover.
--remove-first-image
Remove the first image from the input e-book. Useful if the input document has a cover image that is not

identified as a cover. In this case, if you set a cover in calibre, the output document will end up with two cover
images if you do not specify this option.
--start-reading-at
An XPath expression to detect the location in the document at which to start reading. Some e-book reading
programs (most prominently the Kindle) use this location as the position at which to open the book. See the
XPath tutorial in the calibre User Manual for further help using this feature.
Table of Contents
Control the automatic generation of a Table of Contents. By default, if the source file has a Table of Contents, it will
be used in preference to the automatically generated one.
--duplicate-links-in-toc
When creating a TOC from links in the input document, allow duplicate entries, i.e. allow more than one entry
with the same text, provided that they point to a different location.
--level1-toc
XPath expression that specifies all tags that should be added to the Table of Contents at level one. If this is
specified, it takes precedence over other forms of auto-detection. See the XPath Tutorial in the calibre User
Manual for examples.
--level2-toc
XPath expression that specifies all tags that should be added to the Table of Contents at level two. Each entry is
added under the previous level one entry. See the XPath Tutorial in the calibre User Manual for examples.
--level3-toc
XPath expression that specifies all tags that should be added to the Table of Contents at level three. Each entry
is added under the previous level two entry. See the XPath Tutorial in the calibre User Manual for examples.
--max-toc-links
Maximum number of links to insert into the TOC. Set to 0 to disable. Default is: 50. Links are only added to
the TOC if less than the threshold number of chapters were detected.
--no-chapters-in-toc
Don't add auto-detected chapters to the Table of Contents.
--toc-filter
Remove entries from the Table of Contents whose titles match the specified regular expression. Matching entries
and all their children are removed.
--toc-threshold
If fewer than this number of chapters is detected, then links are added to the Table of Contents. Default: 6
--use-auto-toc
Normally, if the source file already has a Table of Contents, it is used in preference to the auto-generated one.
With this option, the auto-generated one is always used.

Metadata
Options to set metadata in the output

--author-sort
String to be used when sorting by author.
--authors
Set the authors. Multiple authors should be separated by ampersands.
--book-producer
Set the book producer.
--comments
Set the e-book description.
--cover
Set the cover to the specified file or URL
--isbn
Set the ISBN of the book.
--language
Set the language.
--pubdate
Set the publication date (assumed to be in the local timezone, unless the timezone is explicitly specified)
--publisher
Set the e-book publisher.
--rating
Set the rating. Should be a number between 1 and 5.
--read-metadata-from-opf, --from-opf, -m
Read metadata from the specified OPF file. Metadata read from this file will override any metadata in the source
file.
--series
Set the series this e-book belongs to.
--series-index
Set the index of the book in this series.
--tags
Set the tags for the book. Should be a comma separated list.
--timestamp
Set the book timestamp (no longer used anywhere)
--title
Set the title.
--title-sort
The version of the title to be used for sorting.

Debug
Options to help with debugging the conversion

--debug-pipeline, -d
Save the output from different stages of the conversion pipeline to the specified folder. Useful if you are unsure
at which stage of the conversion process a bug is occurring.
--verbose, -v
Level of verbosity. Specify multiple times for greater verbosity. Specifying it twice will result in full verbosity,
once medium verbosity and zero times least verbosity.
AZW4 Input Options
--input-encoding
Specify the character encoding of the input document. If set this option will override any encoding declared by
the document itself. Particularly useful for documents that do not declare an encoding or that have erroneous
encoding declarations.
CHM Input Options
--input-encoding
Comic Input Options
--colors
Reduce the number of colors used in the image. This works only if you choose the PNG output format. It is
useful to reduce file sizes. Set to zero to turn off. Maximum value is 256. It is off by default.
--comic-image-size
Specify the image size as widthxheight pixels. Normally, an image size is automatically calculated from the
output profile, this option overrides it.
--despeckle
Enable Despeckle. Reduces speckle noise. May greatly increase processing time.
--disable-trim
Disable trimming of comic pages. For some comics, trimming might remove content as well as borders.
--dont-add-comic-pages-to-toc
When converting a CBC do not add links to each page to the TOC. Note this only applies if the TOC has more
than one section
--dont-grayscale
Do not convert the image to grayscale (black and white)
--dont-normalize
Disable normalize (improve contrast) color range for pictures. Default: False
--dont-sharpen
Disable sharpening.

--input-encoding
--keep-aspect-ratio
Maintain picture aspect ratio. Default is to fill the screen.
--landscape
Don't split landscape images into two portrait images
--no-process
Apply no processing to the image
--no-sort
Don't sort the files found in the comic alphabetically by name. Instead use the order they were added to the
comic.
--output-format
The format that images in the created e-book are converted to. You can experiment to see which format gives
you optimal size and look on your device.
--right2left
Used for right-to-left publications like manga. Causes landscape pages to be split into portrait pages from right
to left.
--wide
Keep aspect ratio and scale image using screen height as image width for viewing in landscape mode.
DJVU Input Options
--input-encoding
DOCX Input Options
--docx-inline-subsup
Render superscripts and subscripts so that they do not affect the line height.
--docx-no-cover
Normally, if a large image is present at the start of the document that looks like a cover, it will be removed from
the document and used as the cover for created e-book. This option turns off that behavior.
--docx-no-pagebreaks-between-notes
Do not insert a page break after every endnote.
--input-encoding

EPUB Input Options
--input-encoding
FB2 Input Options
--input-encoding
--no-inline-fb2-toc
Do not insert a Table of Contents at the beginning of the book.
HTLZ Input Options
--input-encoding
HTML Input Options
--breadth-first
Traverse links in HTML files breadth first. Normally, they are traversed depth first.
--dont-package
Normally this input plugin re-arranges all the input files into a standard folder hierarchy. Only use this option if
you know what you are doing as it can result in various nasty side effects in the rest of the conversion pipeline.
--input-encoding
--max-levels
Maximum levels of recursion when following links in HTML files. Must be non-negative. 0 implies that no
links in the root HTML file are followed. Default is 5.
LIT Input Options
--input-encoding

LRF Input Options
--input-encoding
MOBI Input Options
--input-encoding
ODT Input Options
--input-encoding
PDB Input Options
--input-encoding
PDF Input Options
--input-encoding
--new-pdf-engine
Use the new PDF conversion engine. Currently not operational.
--no-images
Do not extract images from the document
--unwrap-factor
Scale used to determine the length at which a line should be unwrapped. Valid values are a decimal between 0
and 1. The default is 0.45, just below the median line length.

PML Input Options
--input-encoding
RB Input Options
--input-encoding
RTF Input Options
--ignore-wmf
Ignore WMF images instead of replacing them with a placeholder image.
--input-encoding
Recipe Input Options
--dont-download-recipe
Do not download latest version of builtin recipes from the calibre server
--input-encoding
--lrf
Optimize fetching for subsequent conversion to LRF.
--password
Password for sites that require a login to access content.
--test
Useful for recipe development. Forces max_articles_per_feed to 2 and downloads at most 2 feeds. You can
change the number of feeds and articles by supplying optional arguments. For example: --test (page 306) 3
1 will download at most 3 feeds and only 1 article per feed.
--username
Username for sites that require a login to access content.

SNB Input Options
--input-encoding
TCR Input Options
--input-encoding
TXT Input Options
--formatting-type
Formatting used within the document. * auto: Automatically decide which formatting processor to use * plain:
No formatting * heuristic: Use heuristics to determine chapter headings, italics, etc. * textile: Use the TexTile
markup language * markdown: Use the Markdown markup language To learn more about markdown see https:
//daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
--input-encoding
--markdown-extensions
Enable extensions to markdown syntax. Extensions are formatting that is not part of the standard markdown
format. The extensions enabled by default: footnotes, tables, toc. To learn more about markdown extensions, see
https://python-markdown.github.io/extensions/ This should be a comma separated list of extensions to enable:
* abbr: Abbreviations * admonition: Support admonitions * attr_list: Add attribute to HTML tags * codehilite:
Add code highlighting via Pygments * def_list: Definition lists * extra: Enables various common extensions *
fenced_code: Alternative code block syntax * footnotes: Footnotes * legacy_attrs: Use legacy element attributes
* legacy_em: Use legacy underscore handling for connected words * meta: Metadata in the document * nl2br:
Treat newlines as hard breaks * sane_lists: Do not allow mixing list types * smarty: Use markdown's internal
smartypants parser * tables: Support tables * toc: Generate a table of contents * wikilinks: Wiki style links
--paragraph-type
Paragraph structure to assume. The value of "off" is useful for formatted documents such as Markdown or
Textile. Choices are: * auto: Try to auto detect paragraph type * block: Treat a blank line as a paragraph break
* single: Assume every line is a paragraph * print: Assume every line starting with 2+ spaces or a tab starts a
paragraph * unformatted: Most lines have hard line breaks, few/no blank lines or indents * off: Don't modify
the paragraph structure
--preserve-spaces
Normally extra spaces are condensed into a single space. With this option all spaces will be displayed.
--txt-in-remove-indents
Normally extra space at the beginning of lines is retained. With this option they will be removed.

AZW3 Output Options
--dont-compress
Disable compression of the file contents.
--extract-to
Extract the contents of the generated AZW3 file to the specified folder. The contents of the folder are first
deleted, so be careful.
--mobi-toc-at-start
When adding the Table of Contents to the book, add it at the start of the book instead of the end. Not recom-
mended.
--no-inline-toc
Don't add Table of Contents to the book. Useful if the book has its own table of contents.
--prefer-author-sort
When present, use author sort field as author.
--pretty-print
If specified, the output plugin will try to create output that is as human readable as possible. May not have any
effect for some output plugins.
--share-not-sync
Enable sharing of book content via Facebook etc. on the Kindle. WARNING: Using this feature means that the
book will not auto sync its last read position on multiple devices. Complain to Amazon.
--toc-title
Title for any generated in-line table of contents.
DOCX Output Options
--docx-custom-page-size
Custom size of the document. Use the form widthxheight EG. 123x321 to specify the width and height (in pts).
This overrides any specified page-size.
--docx-no-cover
Do not insert the book cover as an image at the start of the document. If you use this option, the book cover will
be discarded.
--docx-no-toc
Do not insert the table of contents as a page at the start of the document.
--docx-page-margin-bottom
The size of the bottom page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common bottom page margin setting,
unless set to zero.
--docx-page-margin-left
The size of the left page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common left page margin setting.
--docx-page-margin-right
The size of the right page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common right page margin setting,
unless set to zero.
--docx-page-margin-top
The size of the top page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common top page margin setting, unless
set to zero.

--docx-page-size
The size of the page. Default is letter. Choices are ['a0', 'a1', 'a2', 'a3', 'a4', 'a5', 'a6', 'b0', 'b1',
'b2', 'b3', 'b4', 'b5', 'b6', 'legal', 'letter']
--extract-to
Extract the contents of the generated DOCX file to the specified folder. The contents of the folder are first
--preserve-cover-aspect-ratio
Preserve the aspect ratio of the cover image instead of stretching it out to cover the entire page.
--pretty-print
EPUB Output Options
--dont-split-on-page-breaks
Turn off splitting at page breaks. Normally, input files are automatically split at every page break into two files.
This gives an output e-book that can be parsed faster and with less resources. However, splitting is slow and if
your source file contains a very large number of page breaks, you should turn off splitting on page breaks.
--epub-flatten
This option is needed only if you intend to use the EPUB with FBReaderJ. It will flatten the file system inside
the EPUB, putting all files into the top level.
--epub-inline-toc
Insert an inline Table of Contents that will appear as part of the main book content.
--epub-toc-at-end
Put the inserted inline Table of Contents at the end of the book instead of the start.
--epub-version
The version of the EPUB file to generate. EPUB 2 is the most widely compatible, only use EPUB 3 if you know
you actually need it.
--extract-to
Extract the contents of the generated EPUB file to the specified folder. The contents of the folder are first
--flow-size
Split all HTML files larger than this size (in KB). This is necessary as most EPUB readers cannot handle large
file sizes. The default of 260KB is the size required for Adobe Digital Editions. Set to 0 to disable size based
splitting.
--no-default-epub-cover
Normally, if the input file has no cover and you don't specify one, a default cover is generated with the title,
authors, etc. This option disables the generation of this cover.
--no-svg-cover
Do not use SVG for the book cover. Use this option if your EPUB is going to be used on a device that does not
support SVG, like the iPhone or the JetBook Lite. Without this option, such devices will display the cover as a
blank page.
When using an SVG cover, this option will cause the cover to scale to cover the available screen area, but still
preserve its aspect ratio (ratio of width to height). That means there may be white borders at the sides or top
and bottom of the image, but the image will never be distorted. Without this option the image may be slightly
distorted, but there will be no borders.

--pretty-print
--toc-title
FB2 Output Options
--fb2-genre
Genre for the book. Choices: sf_history, sf_action, sf_epic, sf_heroic, sf_detective, sf_cyberpunk, sf_space,
sf_social, sf_horror, sf_humor, sf_fantasy, sf, det_classic, det_police, det_action, det_irony, det_history,
det_espionage, det_crime, det_political, det_maniac, det_hard, thriller, detective, prose_classic, prose_history,
prose_contemporary, prose_counter, prose_rus_classic, prose_su_classics, love_contemporary, love_history,
love_detective, love_short, love_erotica, adv_western, adv_history, adv_indian, adv_maritime, adv_geo,
adv_animal, adventure, child_tale, child_verse, child_prose, child_sf, child_det, child_adv, child_education,
children, poetry, dramaturgy, antique_ant, antique_european, antique_russian, antique_east, antique_myths, an-
tique, sci_history, sci_psychology, sci_culture, sci_religion, sci_philosophy, sci_politics, sci_business, sci_juris,
sci_linguistic, sci_medicine, sci_phys, sci_math, sci_chem, sci_biology, sci_tech, science, comp_www,
comp_programming, comp_hard, comp_soft, comp_db, comp_osnet, computers, ref_encyc, ref_dict, ref_ref,
ref_guide, reference, nonf_biography, nonf_publicism, nonf_criticism, design, nonfiction, religion_rel, reli-
gion_esoterics, religion_self, religion, humor_anecdote, humor_prose, humor_verse, humor, home_cooking,
home_pets, home_crafts, home_entertain, home_health, home_garden, home_diy, home_sport, home_sex,
home See: http://www.fictionbook.org/index.php/Eng:FictionBook_2.1_genres for a complete list with descrip-
tions.
--pretty-print
--sectionize
Specify how sections are created: * nothing: A single section * files: Section per file * toc: Section per entry
in the ToC If ToC based generation fails, adjust the "Structure detection" and/or "Table of Contents" settings
(turn on "Force use of auto-generated Table of Contents").
HTML Output Options
--extract-to
Extract the contents of the generated ZIP file to the specified folder. WARNING: The contents of the folder will
be deleted.
--pretty-print
--template-css
CSS file used for the output instead of the default file
--template-html
Template used for the generation of the HTML contents of the book instead of the default file
--template-html-index
Template used for generation of the HTML index file instead of the default file

HTMLZ Output Options
--htmlz-class-style
How to handle the CSS when using css-type = 'class'. Default is external. external: Use an external CSS file
inline: Use a <style> tag in the HTML file
--htmlz-css-type
Specify the handling of CSS. Default is class. class: Use CSS classes inline: Use the style attribute tag: Use
HTML tags wherever possible
--htmlz-title-filename
If set this option causes the file name of the HTML file inside the HTMLZ archive to be based on the book title.
--pretty-print
LIT Output Options
--pretty-print
LRF Output Options
--enable-autorotation
Enable auto-rotation of images that are wider than the screen width.
--header
Add a header to all the pages with title and author.
--header-format
Set the format of the header. %a is replaced by the author and %t by the title. Default is %t by %a
--header-separation
Add extra spacing below the header. Default is 0 pt.
--minimum-indent
Minimum paragraph indent (the indent of the first line of a paragraph) in pts. Default: 0
--mono-family
The monospace family of fonts to embed
--pretty-print
--render-tables-as-images
This option has no effect
--sans-family
The sans-serif family of fonts to embed
--serif-family
The serif family of fonts to embed
--text-size-multiplier-for-rendered-tables
Multiply the size of text in rendered tables by this factor. Default is 1.0

--wordspace
Set the space between words in pts. Default is 2.5
MOBI Output Options
--dont-compress
Disable compression of the file contents.
--extract-to
Extract the contents of the generated MOBI file to the specified folder. The contents of the folder are first
--mobi-file-type
By default calibre generates MOBI files that contain the old MOBI 6 format. This format is compatible with all
devices. However, by changing this setting, you can tell calibre to generate MOBI files that contain both MOBI
6 and the new KF8 format, or only the new KF8 format. KF8 has more features than MOBI 6, but only works
with newer Kindles. Allowed values: old, both, new
--mobi-ignore-margins
Ignore margins in the input document. If False, then the MOBI output plugin will try to convert margins specified
in the input document, otherwise it will ignore them.
--mobi-keep-original-images
By default calibre converts all images to JPEG format in the output MOBI file. This is for maximum compat-
ibility as some older MOBI viewers have problems with other image formats. This option tells calibre not to
do this. Useful if your document contains lots of GIF/PNG images that become very large when converted to
JPEG.
--mobi-toc-at-start
When adding the Table of Contents to the book, add it at the start of the book instead of the end. Not recom-
mended.
--no-inline-toc
Don't add Table of Contents to the book. Useful if the book has its own table of contents.
--personal-doc
Tag for MOBI files to be marked as personal documents. This option has no effect on the conversion. It is used
only when sending MOBI files to a device. If the file being sent has the specified tag, it will be marked as a
personal document when sent to the Kindle.
--prefer-author-sort
When present, use author sort field as author.
--pretty-print
--share-not-sync
Enable sharing of book content via Facebook etc. on the Kindle. WARNING: Using this feature means that the
book will not auto sync its last read position on multiple devices. Complain to Amazon.
--toc-title

OEB Output Options
--pretty-print
PDB Output Options
--format, -f
Format to use inside the PDB container. Choices are: ['doc', 'ereader', 'ztxt']
--inline-toc
Add Table of Contents to beginning of the book.
--pdb-output-encoding
Specify the character encoding of the output document. The default is cp1252. Note: This option is not honored
by all formats.
--pretty-print
PDF Output Options
--custom-size
Custom size of the document. Use the form widthxheight e.g. 123x321 to specify the width and height. This
overrides any specified paper-size.
--paper-size
The size of the paper. This size will be overridden when a non default output profile is used. Default is letter.
Choices are a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, b0, b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, legal, letter
--pdf-add-toc
Add a Table of Contents at the end of the PDF that lists page numbers. Useful if you want to print out the PDF.
If this PDF is intended for electronic use, use the PDF Outline instead.
--pdf-default-font-size
The default font size
--pdf-footer-template
An HTML template used to generate footers on every page. The strings _PAGENUM_, _TITLE_, _AUTHOR_
and _SECTION_ will be replaced by their current values.
--pdf-header-template
An HTML template used to generate headers on every page. The strings _PAGENUM_, _TITLE_, _AUTHOR_
and _SECTION_ will be replaced by their current values.
--pdf-hyphenate
Break long words at the end of lines. This can give the text at the right margin a more even appearance.
--pdf-mark-links
Surround all links with a red box, useful for debugging.
--pdf-mono-family
The font family used to render monospace fonts. Will work only if the font is available system-wide.
--pdf-mono-font-size
The default font size for monospaced text

--pdf-odd-even-offset
Shift the text horizontally by the specified offset (in pts). On odd numbered pages, it is shifted to the right and on
even numbered pages to the left. Use negative numbers for the opposite effect. Note that this setting is ignored
on pages where the margins are smaller than the specified offset. Shifting is done by setting the PDF CropBox,
not all software respects the CropBox.
--pdf-page-margin-bottom
The size of the bottom page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common bottom page margin setting,
unless set to zero.
--pdf-page-margin-left
The size of the left page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common left page margin setting.
--pdf-page-margin-right
The size of the right page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common right page margin setting,
unless set to zero.
--pdf-page-margin-top
The size of the top page margin, in pts. Default is 72pt. Overrides the common top page margin setting, unless
set to zero.
--pdf-page-number-map
Adjust page numbers, as needed. Syntax is a JavaScript expression for the page number. For example, "if (n <
3) 0; else n - 3;", where n is current page number.
--pdf-page-numbers
Add page numbers to the bottom of every page in the generated PDF file. If you specify a footer template, it
will take precedence over this option.
--pdf-sans-family
The font family used to render sans-serif fonts. Will work only if the font is available system-wide.
--pdf-serif-family
The font family used to render serif fonts. Will work only if the font is available system-wide.
--pdf-standard-font
The font family used to render monospace fonts
--pdf-use-document-margins
Use the page margins specified in the input document via @page CSS rules. This will cause the margins
specified in the conversion settings to be ignored. If the document does not specify page margins, the conversion
settings will be used as a fallback.
Preserve the aspect ratio of the cover, instead of stretching it to fill the full first page of the generated PDF.
--pretty-print
--toc-title
Title for generated table of contents.
--uncompressed-pdf
Generate an uncompressed PDF, useful for debugging.
--unit, -u
The unit of measure for page sizes. Default is inch. Choices are millimeter, centimeter, point, inch, pica, didot,
cicero, devicepixel Note: This does not override the unit for margins!

--use-profile-size
Instead of using the paper size specified in the PDF Output options, use a paper size corresponding to the current
output profile. Useful if you want to generate a PDF for viewing on a specific device.
PML Output Options
--full-image-depth
Do not reduce the size or bit depth of images. Images have their size and depth reduced by default to accommo-
date applications that can not convert images on their own such as Dropbook.
--inline-toc
--pml-output-encoding
Specify the character encoding of the output document. The default is cp1252.
--pretty-print
RB Output Options
--inline-toc
--pretty-print
RTF Output Options
--pretty-print
SNB Output Options
--pretty-print
--snb-dont-indent-first-line
Specify whether or not to insert two space characters to indent the first line of each paragraph.
--snb-full-screen
Resize all the images for full screen view.
--snb-hide-chapter-name
Specify whether or not to hide the chapter title for each chapter. Useful for image-only output (eg. comics).
--snb-insert-empty-line
Specify whether or not to insert an empty line between two paragraphs.

--snb-max-line-length
The maximum number of characters per line. This splits on the first space before the specified value. If no space
is found the line will be broken at the space after and will exceed the specified value. Also, there is a minimum
of 25 characters. Use 0 to disable line splitting.
--snb-output-encoding
Specify the character encoding of the output document. The default is utf-8.
TCR Output Options
--pretty-print
--tcr-output-encoding
TXT Output Options
--force-max-line-length
Force splitting on the max-line-length value when no space is present. Also allows max-line-length to be below
the minimum
--inline-toc
--keep-color
Do not remove font color from output. This is only useful when TXT output formatting is set to textile. Textile
is the only formatting that supports setting font color. If this option is not specified font color will not be set and
default to the color displayed by the reader (generally this is black).
--keep-image-references
Do not remove image references within the document. This is only useful when paired with a TXT output
formatting option that is not none because links are always removed with plain text output.
--keep-links
Do not remove links within the document. This is only useful when paired with a TXT output formatting option
that is not none because links are always removed with plain text output.
--max-line-length
--newline, -n
Type of newline to use. Options are ['old_mac', 'system', 'unix', 'windows']. Default is 'system'. Use
'old_mac' for compatibility with Mac OS 9 and earlier. For macOS use 'unix'. 'system' will default to the
newline type used by this OS.
--pretty-print
--txt-output-encoding

--txt-output-formatting
Formatting used within the document. * plain: Plain text * markdown: Markdown formatted text * textile:
TexTile formatted text
TXTZ Output Options
--force-max-line-length
Force splitting on the max-line-length value when no space is present. Also allows max-line-length to be below
the minimum
--inline-toc
--keep-color
Do not remove font color from output. This is only useful when TXT output formatting is set to textile. Textile
is the only formatting that supports setting font color. If this option is not specified font color will not be set and
default to the color displayed by the reader (generally this is black).
--keep-image-references
Do not remove image references within the document. This is only useful when paired with a TXT output
formatting option that is not none because links are always removed with plain text output.
--keep-links
Do not remove links within the document. This is only useful when paired with a TXT output formatting option
that is not none because links are always removed with plain text output.
--max-line-length
--newline, -n
Type of newline to use. Options are ['old_mac', 'system', 'unix', 'windows']. Default is 'system'. Use
'old_mac' for compatibility with Mac OS 9 and earlier. For macOS use 'unix'. 'system' will default to the
newline type used by this OS.
--pretty-print
--txt-output-encoding
--txt-output-formatting
Formatting used within the document. * plain: Plain text * markdown: Markdown formatted text * textile:
TexTile formatted text
13.1.8 ebook-edit
ebook-edit [opts] [path_to_ebook] [name_of_file_inside_book ...]
Launch the calibre Edit book tool. You can optionally also specify the names of files inside the book which will be
opened for editing automatically.
Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-edit that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.
For example: /some path/with spaces

[options]
--detach
--help, -h
--select-text
The text to select in the book when it is opened for editing
--version
13.1.9 ebook-meta
ebook-meta ebook_file [options]
Read/Write metadata from/to e-book files.

Supported formats for reading metadata: azw, azw1, azw3, azw4, cb7, cbr, cbz, chm, docx, epub, fb2, fbz, html, htmlz,
imp, lit, lrf, lrx, mobi, odt, oebzip, opf, pdb, pdf, pml, pmlz, pobi, prc, rar, rb, rtf, snb, tpz, txt, txtz, updb, zip
Supported formats for writing metadata: azw, azw1, azw3, azw4, docx, epub, fb2, fbz, htmlz, lrf, mobi, odt, pdb, pdf,
prc, rtf, tpz, txtz
Different file types support different kinds of metadata. If you try to set some metadata on a file type that does not
support it, the metadata will be silently ignored.
Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-meta that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.
[options]
--author-sort
String to be used when sorting by author. If unspecified, and the author(s) are specified, it will be auto-generated
from the author(s).
--authors, -a
Set the authors. Multiple authors should be separated by the & character. Author names should be in the order
Firstname Lastname.
--book-producer, -k
Set the book producer.
--category
Set the book category.
--comments, -c
Set the e-book description.
--cover
Set the cover to the specified file.
--date, -d
Set the published date.

--from-opf
Read metadata from the specified OPF file and use it to set metadata in the e-book. Metadata specified on the
command line will override metadata read from the OPF file
--get-cover
Get the cover from the e-book and save it at as the specified file.
--help, -h
--identifier
Set the identifiers for the book, can be specified multiple times. For example: --identifier (page 319)
uri:https://acme.com --identifier (page 319) isbn:12345 To remove an identifier, specify no value,
--identifier (page 319) isbn: Note that for EPUB files, an identifier marked as the package identifier
cannot be removed.
--index, -i
Set the index of the book in this series.
--isbn
Set the ISBN of the book.
--language, -l
Set the language.
--lrf-bookid
Set the BookID in LRF files
--publisher, -p
Set the e-book publisher.
--rating, -r
Set the rating. Should be a number between 1 and 5.
--series, -s
Set the series this e-book belongs to.
--tags
Set the tags for the book. Should be a comma separated list.
--title, -t
Set the title.
--title-sort
The version of the title to be used for sorting. If unspecified, and the title is specified, it will be auto-generated
from the title.
--to-opf
Specify the name of an OPF file. The metadata will be written to the OPF file.
--version

13.1.10 ebook-polish
ebook-polish [options] input_file [output_file]
Polishing books is all about putting the shine of perfection onto your carefully crafted e-books.
Polishing tries to minimize the changes to the internal code of your e-book. Unlike conversion, it does not flatten CSS,
rename files, change font sizes, adjust margins, etc. Every action performs only the minimum set of changes needed
for the desired effect.
You should use this tool as the last step in your e-book creation process.
Note that polishing only works on files in the AZW3 or EPUB formats.
Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-polish that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation
[options]
--add-soft-hyphens, -H
Add soft hyphens to all words in the book. This allows the book to be rendered better when the text is justified,
in readers that do not support hyphenation.
--compress-images, -i
Losslessly compress images in the book, to reduce the filesize, without affecting image quality.
--cover, -c
Path to a cover image. Changes the cover specified in the e-book. If no cover is present, or the cover is not
properly identified, inserts a new cover.
--embed-fonts, -e
Embed all fonts that are referenced in the document and are not already embedded. This will scan your computer
for the fonts, and if they are found, they will be embedded into the document. Please ensure that you have the
proper license for embedding the fonts used in this document.
--help, -h
--jacket, -j
Insert a "book jacket" page at the start of the book that contains all the book metadata such as title, tags, authors,
series, comments, etc. Any previous book jacket will be replaced.
--opf, -o
Path to an OPF file. The metadata in the book is updated from the OPF file.
--remove-jacket
Remove a previous inserted book jacket page.
--remove-soft-hyphens
Remove soft hyphens from all text in the book.
--remove-unused-css, -u
Remove all unused CSS rules from stylesheets and <style> tags. Some books created from production templates
can have a large number of extra CSS rules that don't match any actual content. These extra rules can slow
down readers that need to parse them all.
--smarten-punctuation, -p
Convert plain text dashes, ellipsis, quotes, multiple hyphens, etc. into their typographically correct equivalents.
Note that the algorithm can sometimes generate incorrect results, especially when single quotes at the start of
contractions are involved.

--subset-fonts, -f
Subsetting fonts means reducing an embedded font to contain only the characters used from that font in the
book. This greatly reduces the size of the font files (halving the font file sizes is common). For example, if the
book uses a specific font for headers, then subsetting will reduce that font to contain only the characters present
in the actual headers in the book. Or if the book embeds the bold and italic versions of a font, but bold and
italic text is relatively rare, or absent altogether, then the bold and italic fonts can either be reduced to only a few
characters or completely removed. The only downside to subsetting fonts is that if, at a later date you decide to
add more text to your books, the newly added text might not be covered by the subset font.
--upgrade-book, -U
Upgrade the internal structures of the book, if possible. For instance, upgrades EPUB 2 books to EPUB 3 books.
--verbose
Produce more verbose output, useful for debugging.
--version
13.1.11 ebook-viewer
ebook-viewer [options] file
View an e-book.
Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-viewer that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation
[options]
--continue
Continue reading at the previously opened book
--detach
--force-reload
Force reload of all opened books
--full-screen, --fullscreen, -f
If specified, the E-book viewer window will try to open full screen when started.
--help, -h
--open-at
The position at which to open the specified book. The position is a location or position you can get by using
the Go to->Location action in the viewer controls. Alternately, you can use the form toc:something and it will
open at the location of the first Table of Contents entry that contains the string "something". The form toc-
href:something will match the href (internal link destination) of toc nodes. The matching is exact, If you want to
match a substring, use the form toc-href-contains:something. The form ref:something will use Reference mode
references.
--raise-window
If specified, the E-book viewer window will try to come to the front when started.
--version

13.1.12 fetch-ebook-metadata
fetch-ebook-metadata [options]
Fetch book metadata from online sources. You must specify at least one of title, authors or ISBN.
Whenever you pass arguments to fetch-ebook-metadata that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in
quotation marks. For example: /some path/with spaces
[options]
--allowed-plugin, -p
Specify the name of a metadata download plugin to use. By default, all metadata plugins will be used. Can
be specified multiple times for multiple plugins. All plugin names: Google, Google Images, Amazon.com,
Edelweiss, Open Library, Overdrive, Big Book Search
--authors, -a
Book author(s)
--cover, -c
Specify a filename. The cover, if available, will be saved to it. Without this option, no cover will be downloaded.
--help, -h
--identifier, -I
Identifiers such as ASIN/Goodreads id etc. Can be specified multiple times for multiple identifiers. For example:
--identifier (page 322) asin:B0082BAJA0
--isbn, -i
Book ISBN
--opf, -o
Output the metadata in OPF format instead of human readable text.
--timeout, -d
Timeout in seconds. Default is 30
--title, -t
Book title
--verbose, -v
Print the log to the console (stderr)
--version
13.1.13 lrf2lrs
lrf2lrs book.lrf
Convert an LRF file into an LRS (XML UTF-8 encoded) file

Whenever you pass arguments to lrf2lrs that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For

[options]
--dont-output-resources
Do not save embedded image and font files to disk
--help, -h
--output, -o
Output LRS file
--verbose
Be more verbose
--version
13.1.14 lrfviewer
lrfviewer [options] book.lrf
Read the LRF e-book book.lrf

Whenever you pass arguments to lrfviewer that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.
[options]
--disable-hyphenation
Disable hyphenation. Should significantly speed up rendering.
--help, -h
--profile
Profile the LRF renderer
--verbose
Print more information about the rendering process
--version
--visual-debug
Turn on visual aids to debugging the rendering engine
--white-background
By default the background is off white as I find this easier on the eyes. Use this option to make the background
pure white.

13.1.15 lrs2lrf
lrs2lrf [options] file.lrs
Compile an LRS file into an LRF file.

Whenever you pass arguments to lrs2lrf that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For
[options]
--help, -h
--lrs
Convert LRS to LRS, useful for debugging.
--output, -o
Path to output file
--verbose
Verbose processing
--version
13.1.16 web2disk
web2disk URL
Where URL is for example https://google.com

Whenever you pass arguments to web2disk that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For
[options]
--base-dir, -d
Base folder into which URL is saved. Default is .
--delay
Minimum interval in seconds between consecutive fetches. Default is 0 s
--dont-download-stylesheets
Do not download CSS stylesheets.
--encoding
The character encoding for the websites you are trying to download. The default is to try and guess the encoding.
--filter-regexp
Any link that matches this regular expression will be ignored. This option can be specified multiple times, in
which case as long as any regexp matches a link, it will be ignored. By default, no links are ignored. If both
filter regexp and match regexp are specified, then filter regexp is applied first.
--help, -h

--match-regexp
Only links that match this regular expression will be followed. This option can be specified multiple times, in
which case as long as a link matches any one regexp, it will be followed. By default all links are followed.
--max-files, -n
The maximum number of files to download. This only applies to files from <a href> tags. Default is
9223372036854775807
--max-recursions, -r
Maximum number of levels to recurse i.e. depth of links to follow. Default 1
--timeout, -t
Timeout in seconds to wait for a response from the server. Default: 10.0 s
--verbose
Show detailed output information. Useful for debugging
--version
13.2 Undocumented commands
• ebook-device
• markdown-calibre
You can see usage for undocumented commands by executing them without arguments in a terminal.
13.2. Undocumented commands 325


CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
SETTING UP A CALIBRE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
calibre is completely open source, licensed under the GNU GPL v3110 . This means that you are free to download
and modify the program to your hearts content. In this section, you will learn how to get a calibre development
environment set up on the operating system of your choice. calibre is written primarily in Python111 with some C/C++
code for speed and system interfacing. Note that calibre requires at least Python 3.8.
Contents
• Design philosophy (page 328)

– Code layout (page 328)
• Getting the code (page 329)
– Submitting your changes to be included (page 329)
• Windows development environment (page 330)
• macOS development environment (page 331)
• Linux development environment (page 331)
• Having separate normal and development calibre installs on the same computer (page 332)
• Debugging tips (page 332)
– Using print statements (page 333)
– Using an interactive Python interpreter (page 333)
– Using the Python debugger as a remote debugger (page 333)
– Using the debugger in your favorite Python IDE (page 334)
– Executing arbitrary scripts in the calibre Python environment (page 334)
• Using calibre in your projects (page 334)
– Binary install of calibre (page 334)
– Source install on Linux (page 334)
• API documentation for various parts of calibre (page 335)
110 https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
327
14.1 Design philosophy
calibre has its roots in the Unix world, which means that its design is highly modular. The modules interact with each
other via well defined interfaces. This makes adding new features and fixing bugs in calibre very easy, resulting in
a frenetic pace of development. Because of its roots, calibre has a comprehensive command line interface for all its
functions, documented in Command Line Interface (page 273).
The modular design of calibre is expressed via Plugins. There is a tutorial (page 233) on writing calibre plugins. For
example, adding support for a new device to calibre typically involves writing less than a 100 lines of code in the form
of a device driver plugin. You can browse the built-in drivers112 . Similarly, adding support for new conversion formats
involves writing input/output format plugins. Another example of the modular design is the recipe system (page 25)
for fetching news. For more examples of plugins designed to add features to calibre, see the Index of plugins113 .
14.1.1 Code layout
All the calibre python code is in the calibre package. This package contains the following main sub-packages
• devices - All the device drivers. Just look through some of the built-in drivers to get an idea for how they work.
– For details, see: devices.interface which defines the interface supported by device drivers and
devices.usbms which defines a generic driver that connects to a USBMS device. All USBMS based
drivers in calibre inherit from it.
• e-books - All the e-book conversion/metadata code. A good starting point is calibre.ebooks.
conversion.cli which is the module powering the ebook-convert command. The conversion pro-
cess is controlled via conversion.plumber. The format independent code is all in ebooks.oeb and the
format dependent code is in ebooks.format_name.
– Metadata reading, writing, and downloading is all in ebooks.metadata
– Conversion happens in a pipeline, for the structure of the pipeline, see Introduction (page 51). The pipeline
consists of an input plugin, various transforms and an output plugin. The code that constructs and drives the
pipeline is in plumber.py. The pipeline works on a representation of an e-book that is like an unzipped
epub, with manifest, spine, toc, guide, html content, etc. The class that manages this representation is
OEBBook in ebooks.oeb.base. The various transformations that are applied to the book during
conversions live in oeb/transforms/*.py. And the input and output plugins live in conversion/
plugins/*.py.
– E-book editing happens using a different container object. It is documented in API documentation for the
e-book editing tools (page 341).
• db - The database back-end. See API documentation for the database interface (page 335) for the interface to
the calibre library.
• Content server: srv is the calibre Content server.
• gui2 - The Graphical User Interface. GUI initialization happens in gui2.main and gui2.ui. The e-book-
viewer is in gui2.viewer. The e-book editor is in gui2.tweak_book.
If you want to locate the entry points for all the various calibre executables, look at the entry_points structure in
linux.py114 .
If you need help understanding the code, post in the development forum115 and you will most likely get help from one
of calibres many developers.
112 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/tree/master/src/calibre/devices
113 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1362767#post1362767
114 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre/blob/master/src/calibre/linux.py
328 Chapter 14. Setting up a calibre development environment

14.2 Getting the code
You can get the calibre source code in two ways, using a version control system or directly downloading a tarball116 .
calibre uses Git117 , a distributed version control system. Git is available on all the platforms calibre supports. After
installing Git, you can get the calibre source code with the command:
git clone git://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre.git
On Windows you will need the complete path name, that will be something like C:\Program Files\Git\git.
exe.
calibre is a very large project with a very long source control history, so the above can take a while (10 mins to an hour
depending on your internet speed).
If you want to get the code faster, the source code for the latest release is always available as an archive118 .
To update a branch to the latest code, use the command:
git pull --no-edit
You can also browse the code at GitHub119 .
14.2.1 Submitting your changes to be included
If you only plan to make a few small changes, you can make your changes and create a merge directive which you can
then attach to a ticket in the calibre bug tracker120 . To do this, make your changes, then run:
git commit -am "Comment describing your changes"

git format-patch origin/master --stdout > my-changes
This will create a my-changes file in the current folder, simply attach that to a ticket on the calibre bug tracker121 .
Note that this will include all the commits you have made. If you only want to send some commits, you have to change
origin/master above. To send only the last commit, use:
git format-patch HEAD~1 --stdout > my-changes
To send the last n commits, replace 1 with n, for example, for the last 3 commits:
git format-patch HEAD~3 --stdout > my-changes
Be careful to not include merges when using HEAD~n.

If you plan to do a lot of development on calibre, then the best method is to create a GitHub122 account. Below is a
basic guide to setting up your own fork of calibre in a way that will allow you to submit pull requests for inclusion
into the main calibre repository:
• Setup git on your machine as described in this article: Setup Git123
116 https://calibre-ebook.com/dist/src
117 https://www.git-scm.com/
118 https://calibre-ebook.com/dist/src
119 https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre
122 https://github.com
123 https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git
14.2. Getting the code 329

• Setup ssh keys for authentication to GitHub, as described here: Generating SSH keys124
• Go to https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre and click the Fork button.
• In a Terminal do:
git clone [email protected]:<username>/calibre.git

git remote add upstream https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibre.git
Replace <username> above with your GitHub username. That will get your fork checked out locally.
• You can make changes and commit them whenever you like. When you are ready to have your work merged,
do a:
git push
and go to https://github.com/<username>/calibre and click the Pull Request button to generate

a pull request that can be merged.
• You can update your local copy with code from the main repo at any time by doing:
git pull upstream
You should also keep an eye on the calibre development forum125 . Before making major changes, you should discuss
them in the forum or contact Kovid directly (his email address is all over the source code).
14.3 Windows development environment
Note: You must also get the calibre source code separately as described above.
Install calibre normally, using the Windows installer. Then open a Command Prompt and change to the previously
checked out calibre code folder. For example:
cd C:\Users\kovid\work\calibre
calibre is the folder that contains the src and resources sub-folders.
The next step is to set the environment variable CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM to the absolute path of the src folder.
So, following the example above, it would be C:\Users\kovid\work\calibre\src. Here is a short guide126
to setting environment variables on Windows.
Once you have set the environment variable, open a new command prompt and check that it was correctly set by using
the command:
echo %CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM%
Setting this environment variable means that calibre will now load all its Python code from the specified location.
Thats it! You are now ready to start hacking on the calibre code. For example, open the file src\calibre\
__init__.py in your favorite editor and add the line:
print ("Hello, world!")
124 https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys
126 https://docs.python.org/using/windows.html#excursus-setting-environment-variables

near the top of the file. Now run the command calibredb. The very first line of output should be Hello,
world!.
You can also setup a calibre development environment inside the free Microsoft Visual Studio, if you like, following
the instructions here127 .
14.4 macOS development environment
Install calibre normally using the provided .dmg. Then open a Terminal and change to the previously checked out
calibre code folder, for example:
cd /Users/kovid/work/calibre
calibre is the folder that contains the src and resources sub-folders. The calibre command line tools are found inside
the calibre app bundle, in /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS you should add this folder to
your PATH environment variable, if you want to run the command line tools easily.
The next step is to create a bash script that will set the environment variable CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM to the
absolute path of the src folder when running calibre in debug mode.
Create a plain text file:
#!/bin/sh
export CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM="/Users/kovid/work/calibre/src"
calibre-debug -g
Save this file as /usr/bin/calibre-develop, then set its permissions so that it can be executed:
chmod +x /usr/bin/calibre-develop
Once you have done this, run:
calibre-develop
You should see some diagnostic information in the Terminal window as calibre starts up, and you should see an asterisk
after the version number in the GUI window, indicating that you are running from source.
14.5 Linux development environment
calibre is primarily developed on Linux. You have two choices in setting up the development environment. You can
install the calibre binary as normal and use that as a runtime environment to do your development. This approach is
similar to that used in Windows and macOS. Alternatively, you can install calibre from source. Instructions for setting
up a development environment from source are in the INSTALL file in the source tree. Here we will address using the
binary as a runtime, which is the recommended method.
14.4. macOS development environment 331

Install calibre using the binary installer. Then open a terminal and change to the previously checked out calibre code
folder, for example:
cd /home/kovid/work/calibre
calibre is the folder that contains the src and resources sub-folders.
The next step is to set the environment variable CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM to the absolute path of the src folder.
So, following the example above, it would be /home/kovid/work/calibre/src. How to set environment
variables depends on your Linux distribution and what shell you are using.
Once you have set the environment variable, open a new terminal and check that it was correctly set by using the
command:
echo $CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM
Setting this environment variable means that calibre will now load all its Python code from the specified location.
Thats it! You are now ready to start hacking on the calibre code. For example, open the file src/calibre/
__init__.py in your favorite editor and add the line:
print ("Hello, world!")
near the top of the file. Now run the command calibredb. The very first line of output should be Hello,
world!.
14.6 Having separate normal and development calibre installs on the

same computer
The calibre source tree is very stable and rarely breaks, but if you feel the need to run from source on a separate test
library and run the released calibre version with your everyday library, you can achieve this easily using .bat files or
shell scripts to launch calibre. The example below shows how to do this on Windows using .bat files (the instructions
for other platforms are the same, just use a shell script instead of a .bat file)
To launch the release version of calibre with your everyday library:
calibre-normal.bat:
calibre.exe "--with-library=C:\path\to\everyday\library folder"
calibre-dev.bat:
set CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM=C:\path\to\calibre\checkout\src
calibre.exe "--with-library=C:\path\to\test\library folder"
14.7 Debugging tips
Python is a dynamically typed language with excellent facilities for introspection. Kovid wrote the core calibre code
without once using a debugger. There are many strategies to debug calibre code:

14.7.1 Using print statements
This is Kovids favorite way to debug. Simply insert print statements at points of interest and run your program in the
terminal. For example, you can start the GUI from the terminal as:
calibre-debug -g
Similarly, you can start the E-book viewer as:
calibre-debug -w /path/to/file/to/be/viewed
The e-book-editor can be started as:
calibre-debug -t /path/to/be/edited
14.7.2 Using an interactive Python interpreter
You can insert the following two lines of code to start an interactive Python session at that point:
from calibre import ipython

ipython(locals())
When running from the command line, this will start an interactive Python interpreter with access to all locally defined
variables (variables in the local scope). The interactive prompt even has TAB completion for object properties and you
can use the various Python facilities for introspection, such as dir(), type(), repr(), etc.
14.7.3 Using the Python debugger as a remote debugger
You can use the builtin Python debugger (pdb) as a remote debugger from the command line. First, start the remote
debugger at the point in the calibre code you are interested in, like this:
from calibre.rpdb import set_trace

set_trace()
Then run calibre, either as normal, or using one of the calibre-debug commands described in the previous section.
Once the above point in the code is reached, calibre will freeze, waiting for the debugger to connect.
Now open a terminal or command prompt and use the following command to start the debugging session:
calibre-debug -c "from calibre.rpdb import cli; cli()"
You can read about how to use the Python debugger in the Python stdlib docs for the pdb module128 .
Note: By default, the remote debugger will try to connect on port 4444. You can change it, by passing the
port parameter to both the set_trace() and the cli() functions above, like this: set_trace(port=1234) and
cli(port=1234).
Note: The Python debugger cannot handle multiple threads, so you have to call set_trace once per thread, each time
with a different port number.
128 https://docs.python.org/library/pdb.html#debugger-commands
14.7. Debugging tips 333

14.7.4 Using the debugger in your favorite Python IDE
It is possible to use the builtin debugger in your favorite Python IDE, if it supports remote debugging. The first
step is to add the calibre src checkout to the PYTHONPATH in your IDE. In other words, the folder you set as
CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM above, must also be in the PYTHONPATH of your IDE.
Then place the IDEs remote debugger module into the src sub-folder of the calibre source code checkout. Add
whatever code is needed to launch the remote debugger to calibre at the point of interest, for example in the main
function. Then run calibre as normal. Your IDE should now be able to connect to the remote debugger running inside
calibre.
14.7.5 Executing arbitrary scripts in the calibre Python environment
The calibre-debug command provides a couple of handy switches to execute your own code, with access to the
calibre modules:
calibre-debug -c "some Python code"
is great for testing a little snippet of code on the command line. It works in the same way as the -c switch to the Python
interpreter:
calibre-debug myscript.py
can be used to execute your own Python script. It works in the same way as passing the script to the Python interpreter,
except that the calibre environment is fully initialized, so you can use all the calibre code in your script. To use
command line arguments with your script, use the form:
calibre-debug myscript.py -- --option1 arg1
The -- causes all subsequent arguments to be passed to your script.
14.8 Using calibre in your projects
It is possible to directly use calibre functions/code in your Python project. Two ways exist to do this:
14.8.1 Binary install of calibre
If you have a binary install of calibre, you can use the Python interpreter bundled with calibre, like this:
calibre-debug /path/to/your/python/script.py -- arguments to your script
14.8.2 Source install on Linux
In addition to using the above technique, if you do a source install on Linux, you can also directly import calibre, as
follows:
import init_calibre
import calibre
print calibre.__version__

It is essential that you import the init_calibre module before any other calibre modules/packages as it sets up the
interpreter to run calibre code.
14.9 API documentation for various parts of calibre
14.9.1 API documentation for the database interface
This API is thread safe (it uses a multiple reader, single writer locking scheme). You can access this API like this:
from calibre.library import db

db = db('Path to calibre library folder').new_api
If you are in a calibre plugin that is part of the main calibre GUI, you get access to it like this instead:
db = self.gui.current_db.new_api
class calibre.db.cache.Cache(backend)
An in-memory cache of the metadata.db file from a calibre library. This class also serves as a threadsafe API
for accessing the database. The in-memory cache is maintained in normal form for maximum performance.
SQLITE is simply used as a way to read and write from metadata.db robustly. All table read-
ing/sorting/searching/caching logic is re-implemented. This was necessary for maximum performance and
flexibility.
add_books(books, add_duplicates=True, apply_import_tags=True, preserve_uuid=False,
run_hooks=True, dbapi=None)
Add the specified books to the library. Books should be an iterable of 2-tuples, each 2-tuple of the form
(mi, format_map) where mi is a Metadata object and format_map is a dictionary of the form {fmt:
path_or_stream}, for example: {'EPUB': '/path/to/file.epub'}.
Returns a pair of lists: ids, duplicates. ids contains the book ids for all newly created books in
the database. duplicates contains the (mi, format_map) for all books that already exist in the
database as per the simple duplicate detection heuristic used by has_book() (page 338).
add_custom_book_data(name, val_map, delete_first=False)
Add data for name where val_map is a map of book_ids to values. If delete_first is True, all previously
stored data for name will be removed.
add_format(book_id, fmt, stream_or_path, replace=True, run_hooks=True, dbapi=None)
Add a format to the specified book. Return True if the format was added successfully.
Parameters
• replace – If True replace existing format, otherwise if the format already exists, return
False.
• run_hooks – If True, file type plugins are run on the format before and after being
added.
• dbapi – Internal use only.
all_book_ids(type=<class 'frozenset'>)
Frozen set of all known book ids.
all_field_for(field, book_ids, default_value=None)
Same as field_for, except that it operates on multiple books at once
all_field_ids(name)
Frozen set of ids for all values in the field name.
14.9. API documentation for various parts of calibre 335

all_field_names(field)
Frozen set of all fields names (should only be used for many-one and many-many fields)
author_data(author_ids=None)
Return author data as a dictionary with keys: name, sort, link
If no authors with the specified ids are found an empty dictionary is returned. If author_ids is None, data
for all authors is returned.
author_sort_from_authors(authors, key_func=<function make_change_case_func.<locals>.change_case>)
Given a list of authors, return the author_sort string for the authors, preferring the author sort associated
with the author over the computed string.
books_for_field(name, item_id)
Return all the books associated with the item identified by item_id, where the item belongs to the field
name.
Returned value is a set of book ids, or the empty set if the item or the field does not exist.
books_in_virtual_library(vl, search_restriction=None)
Return the set of books in the specified virtual library
compress_covers(book_ids, jpeg_quality=100, progress_callback=None)
Compress the cover images for the specified books. A compression quality of 100 will perform lossless
compression, otherwise lossy compression.
The progress callback will be called with the book_id and the old and new sizes for each book that has
been processed. If an error occurs, the news size will be a string with the error details.
copy_cover_to(book_id, dest, use_hardlink=False, report_file_size=None)
Copy the cover to the file like object dest. Returns False if no cover exists or dest is the same file as
the current cover. dest can also be a path in which case the cover is copied to it if and only if the path is
different from the current path (taking case sensitivity into account).
copy_format_to(book_id, fmt, dest, use_hardlink=False, report_file_size=None)
Copy the format fmt to the file like object dest. If the specified format does not exist, raises
NoSuchFormat error. dest can also be a path (to a file), in which case the format is copied to it, iff
the path is different from the current path (taking case sensitivity into account).
cover(book_id, as_file=False, as_image=False, as_path=False)
Return the cover image or None. By default, returns the cover as a bytestring.
WARNING: Using as_path will copy the cover to a temp file and return the path to the temp file. You
should delete the temp file when you are done with it.
Parameters
• as_file – If True return the image as an open file object (a SpooledTemporaryFile)
• as_image – If True return the image as a QImage object
• as_path – If True return the image as a path pointing to a temporary file
data_for_find_identical_books()
Return data that can be used to implement find_identical_books() (page 337) in a worker process
without access to the db. See db.utils for an implementation.
data_for_has_book()
Return data suitable for use in has_book() (page 338). This can be used for an implementation of
has_book() (page 338) in a worker process without access to the db.

delete_custom_book_data(name, book_ids=())
Delete data for name. By default deletes all data, if you only want to delete data for some book ids, pass
in a list of book ids.
embed_metadata(book_ids, only_fmts=None, report_error=None, report_progress=None)
Update metadata in all formats of the specified book_ids to current metadata in the database.
fast_field_for(field_obj, book_id, default_value=None)
Same as field_for, except that it avoids the extra lookup to get the field object
field_for(name, book_id, default_value=None)
Return the value of the field name for the book identified by book_id. If no such book exists or it has
no defined value for the field name or no such field exists, then default_value is returned.
default_value is not used for title, title_sort, authors, author_sort and series_index. This is because
these always have values in the db. default_value is used for all custom columns.
The returned value for is_multiple fields are always tuples, even when no values are found (in other words,
default_value is ignored). The exception is identifiers for which the returned value is always a dict. The
returned tuples are always in link order, that is, the order in which they were created.
field_ids_for(name, book_id)
Return the ids (as a tuple) for the values that the field name has on the book identified by book_id. If
there are no values, or no such book, or no such field, an empty tuple is returned.
find_identical_books(mi, search_restriction='', book_ids=None)
Finds books that have a superset of the authors in mi and the same title (title is fuzzy matched). See also
data_for_find_identical_books() (page 336).
format(book_id, fmt, as_file=False, as_path=False, preserve_filename=False)
Return the e-book format as a bytestring or None if the format doesnt exist, or we dont have permission to
write to the e-book file.
Parameters
• as_file – If True the e-book format is returned as a file object. Note that the file object
is a SpooledTemporaryFile, so if what you want to do is copy the format to another file,
use copy_format_to() (page 336) instead for performance.
• as_path – Copies the format file to a temp file and returns the path to the temp file
• preserve_filename – If True and returning a path the filename is the same as that
used in the library. Note that using this means that repeated calls yield the same temp file
(which is re-created each time)
format_abspath(book_id, fmt)
Return absolute path to the e-book file of format format. You should almost never use this, as it breaks the
threadsafe promise of this API. Instead use, copy_format_to() (page 336).
Currently used only in calibredb list, the viewer, edit book, compare_format to original format, open with,
bulk metadata edit and the catalogs (via get_data_as_dict()).
Apart from the viewer, open with and edit book, I dont believe any of the others do any file write I/O with
the results of this call.
format_hash(book_id, fmt)
Return the hash of the specified format for the specified book. The kind of hash is backend dependent, but
is usually SHA-256.
format_metadata(book_id, fmt, allow_cache=True, update_db=False)
Return the path, size and mtime for the specified format for the specified book. You should not use path

unless you absolutely have to, since accessing it directly breaks the threadsafe guarantees of this API.
Instead use the copy_format_to() (page 336) method.
Parameters
• allow_cache – If True cached values are used, otherwise a slow filesystem access is
done. The cache values could be out of date if access was performed to the filesystem
outside of this API.
• update_db – If True The max_size field of the database is updated for this book.
formats(book_id, verify_formats=True)
Return tuple of all formats for the specified book. If verify_formats is True, verifies that the files exist on
disk.
get_categories(sort='name', book_ids=None, already_fixed=None, first_letter_sort=False)
Used internally to implement the Tag Browser
get_custom_book_data(name, book_ids=(), default=None)
Get data for name. By default returns data for all book_ids, pass in a list of book ids if you only want some
data. Returns a map of book_id to values. If a particular value could not be decoded, uses default for it.
get_id_map(field)
Return a mapping of id numbers to values for the specified field. The field must be a many-one or many-
many field, otherwise a ValueError is raised.
get_ids_for_custom_book_data(name)
Return the set of book ids for which name has data.
get_item_id(field, item_name)
Return the item id for item_name (case-insensitive)
get_item_ids(field, item_names)
Return the item id for item_name (case-insensitive)
get_item_name(field, item_id)
Return the item name for the item specified by item_id in the specified field. See also get_id_map()
(page 338).
get_metadata(book_id, get_cover=False, get_user_categories=True, cover_as_data=False)
Return metadata for the book identified by book_id as a calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.
base.Metadata (page 187) object. Note that the list of formats is not verified. If get_cover is True, the
cover is returned, either a path to temp file as mi.cover or if cover_as_data is True then as mi.cover_data.
get_next_series_num_for(series, field='series', current_indices=False)
Return the next series index for the specified series, taking into account the various preferences that control
next series number generation.
Parameters
• field – The series-like field (defaults to the builtin series column)
• current_indices – If True, returns a mapping of book_id to current series_index
value instead.
get_proxy_metadata(book_id)
Like get_metadata() (page 338) except that it returns a ProxyMetadata object that only reads values
from the database on demand. This is much faster than get_metadata when only a small number of fields
need to be accessed from the returned metadata object.
get_usage_count_by_id(field)
Return a mapping of id to usage count for all values of the specified field, which must be a many-one or
many-many field.

has_book(mi)
Return True iff the database contains an entry with the same title as the passed in Metadata object. The
comparison is case-insensitive. See also data_for_has_book() (page 336).
has_format(book_id, fmt)
Return True iff the format exists on disk
has_id(book_id)
Return True iff the specified book_id exists in the db
init()
Initialize this cache with data from the backend.
multisort(fields, ids_to_sort=None, virtual_fields=None)
Return a list of sorted book ids. If ids_to_sort is None, all book ids are returned.
fields must be a list of 2-tuples of the form (field_name, ascending=True or False). The most significant
field is the first 2-tuple.
pref(name, default=None, namespace=None)
Return the value for the specified preference or the value specified as default if the preference is not
set.
read_backup(book_id)
Return the OPF metadata backup for the book as a bytestring or None if no such backup exists.
remove_books(book_ids, permanent=False)
Remove the books specified by the book_ids from the database and delete their format files. If
permanent is False, then the format files are placed in the recycle bin.
remove_formats(formats_map, db_only=False)
Remove the specified formats from the specified books.
Parameters
• formats_map – A mapping of book_id to a list of formats to be removed from the book.
• db_only – If True, only remove the record for the format from the db, do not delete the
actual format file from the filesystem.
remove_items(field, item_ids, restrict_to_book_ids=None)
Delete all items in the specified field with the specified ids. Returns the set of affected book ids.
restrict_to_book_ids is an optional set of books ids. If specified the items will only be removed
from those books.
rename_items(field, item_id_to_new_name_map, change_index=True, restrict_to_book_ids=None)
Rename items from a many-one or many-many field such as tags or series.
Parameters
• change_index – When renaming in a series-like field also change the series_index
values.
• restrict_to_book_ids – An optional set of book ids for which the rename is to be
performed, defaults to all books.
restore_book(book_id, mi, last_modified, path, formats, annotations=())
Restore the book entry in the database for a book that already exists on the filesystem
restore_original_format(book_id, original_fmt)
Restore the specified format from the previously saved ORIGINAL_FORMAT, if any. Return True on
success. The ORIGINAL_FORMAT is deleted after a successful restore.

property safe_read_lock
A safe read lock is a lock that does nothing if the thread already has a write lock, otherwise it acquires
a read lock. This is necessary to prevent DowngradeLockErrors, which can happen when updating the
search cache in the presence of composite columns. Updating the search cache holds an exclusive lock,
but searching a composite column involves reading field values via ProxyMetadata which tries to get a
shared lock. There may be other scenarios that trigger this as well.
This property returns a new lock object on every access. This lock object is not recursive (for performance)
and must only be used in a with statement as with cache.safe_read_lock: otherwise bad things
will happen.
save_original_format(book_id, fmt)
Save a copy of the specified format as ORIGINAL_FORMAT, overwriting any existing ORIGI-
NAL_FORMAT.
search(query, restriction='', virtual_fields=None, book_ids=None)
Search the database for the specified query, returning a set of matched book ids.
Parameters
• restriction – A restriction that is ANDed to the specified query. Note that restrictions
are cached, therefore the search for a AND b will be slower than a with restriction b.
• virtual_fields – Used internally (virtual fields such as on_device to search over).
• book_ids – If not None, a set of book ids for which books will be searched instead of
searching all books.
set_conversion_options(options, fmt='PIPE')
options must be a map of the form {book_id:conversion_options}
set_cover(book_id_data_map)
Set the cover for this book. data can be either a QImage, QPixmap, file object or bytestring. It can also be
None, in which case any existing cover is removed.
set_field(name, book_id_to_val_map, allow_case_change=True, do_path_update=True)
Set the values of the field specified by name. Returns the set of all book ids that were affected by the
change.
Parameters
• book_id_to_val_map – Mapping of book_ids to values that should be applied.
• allow_case_change – If True, the case of many-one or many-many fields will be
changed. For example, if a book has the tag tag1 and you set the tag for another book to
Tag1 then the both books will have the tag Tag1 if allow_case_change is True, otherwise
they will both have the tag tag1.
• do_path_update – Used internally, you should never change it.
set_metadata(book_id, mi, ignore_errors=False, force_changes=False, set_title=True,
set_authors=True, allow_case_change=False)
Set metadata for the book id from the Metadata object mi
Setting force_changes=True will force set_metadata to update fields even if mi contains empty values. In
this case, None is distinguished from empty. If mi.XXX is None, the XXX is not replaced, otherwise it
is. The tags, identifiers, and cover attributes are special cases. Tags and identifiers cannot be set to None
so they will always be replaced if force_changes is true. You must ensure that mi contains the values you
want the book to have. Covers are always changed if a new cover is provided, but are never deleted. Also
note that force_changes has no effect on setting title or authors.
set_pref(name, val, namespace=None)
Set the specified preference to the specified value. See also pref() (page 339).

tags_older_than(tag, delta=None, must_have_tag=None, must_have_authors=None)

Return the ids of all books having the tag tag that are older than the specified time. tag comparison is
case insensitive.
Parameters
• delta – A timedelta object or None. If None, then all ids with the tag are returned.
• must_have_tag – If not None the list of matches will be restricted to books that have
this tag
• must_have_authors – A list of authors. If not None the list of matches will be re-
stricted to books that have these authors (case insensitive).
user_categories_for_books(book_ids, proxy_metadata_map=None)
Return the user categories for the specified books. proxy_metadata_map is optional and is useful for a
performance boost, in contexts where a ProxyMetadata object for the books already exists. It should be a
mapping of book_ids to their corresponding ProxyMetadata objects.
14.9.2 API documentation for the e-book editing tools
The e-book editing tools consist of a calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container (page 341)

object that represents a book as a collection of HTML + resource files, and various tools that can be used to perform
operations on the container. All the tools are in the form of module level functions in the various calibre.ebooks.
oeb.polish.* modules.
You obtain a container object for a book at a path like this:
from calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container import get_container

container = get_container('Path to book file', tweak_mode=True)
If you are writing a plugin for the E-book editor, you get the current container for the book being edited like this:
from calibre.gui2.tweak_book import current_container

container = current_container()
if container is None:
report_error # No book has been opened yet
The Container object
class calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container(rootpath, opfpath, log,

clone_data=None)
A container represents an open e-book as a folder full of files and an OPF file. There are two important concepts:
• The root folder. This is the base of the e-book. All the e-books files are inside this folder or in its sub-
folders.
• Names: These are paths to the books files relative to the root folder. They always contain POSIX separators
and are unquoted. They can be thought of as canonical identifiers for files in the book. Most methods on
the container object work with names. Names are always in the NFC Unicode normal form.
• Clones: the container object supports efficient on-disk cloning, which is used to implement checkpoints
in the e-book editor. In order to make this work, you should never access files on the filesystem directly.
Instead, use raw_data() (page 344) or open() (page 343) to read/write to component files in the book.
When converting between hrefs and names use the methods provided by this class, they assume all hrefs are
quoted.

abspath_to_name(fullpath, root=None)
Convert an absolute path to a canonical name relative to root
Parameters root – The base folder. By default the root for this container object is used.
add_file(name, data, media_type=None, spine_index=None, modify_name_if_needed=False, pro-
cess_manifest_item=None)
Add a file to this container. Entries for the file are automatically created in the OPF manifest and spine (if
the file is a text document)
add_name_to_manifest(name, process_manifest_item=None)
Add an entry to the manifest for a file with the specified name. Returns the manifest id.
add_properties(name, *properties)
Add the specified properties to the manifest item identified by name.
apply_unique_properties(name, *properties)
Ensure that the specified properties are set on only the manifest item identified by name. You can pass
None as the name to remove the property from all items.
book_type = 'oeb'
The type of book (epub for EPUB files and azw3 for AZW3 files)
commit(outpath=None, keep_parsed=False)
Commit all dirtied parsed objects to the filesystem and write out the e-book file at outpath.
Parameters
• output – The path to write the saved e-book file to. If None, the path of the original
book file is used.
• keep_parsed – If True the parsed representations of committed items are kept in the
cache.
commit_item(name, keep_parsed=False)
Commit a parsed object to disk (it is serialized and written to the underlying file). If keep_parsed is
True the parsed representation is retained in the cache. See also: parsed() (page 344)
dirty(name)
Mark the parsed object corresponding to name as dirty. See also: parsed() (page 344).
exists(name)
True iff a file/folder corresponding to the canonical name exists. Note that this function suffers from
the limitations of the underlying OS filesystem, in particular case (in)sensitivity. So on a case insensi-
tive filesystem this will return True even if the case of name is different from the case of the underlying
filesystem file. See also has_name() (page 342)
filesize(name)
Return the size in bytes of the file represented by the specified canonical name. Automatically handles
dirtied parsed objects. See also: parsed() (page 344)
generate_item(name, id_prefix=None, media_type=None, unique_href=True)
Add an item to the manifest with href derived from the given name. Ensures uniqueness of href and id
automatically. Returns generated item.
get_file_path_for_processing(name, allow_modification=True)
Similar to open() except that it returns a file path, instead of an open file object.
property guide_type_map
Mapping of guide type to canonical name

has_name(name)
Return True iff a file with the same canonical name as that specified exists. Unlike exists() (page 342)
this method is always case-sensitive.
href_to_name(href, base=None)
Convert an href (relative to base) to a name. base must be a name or None, in which case self.root is used.
insert_into_xml(parent, item, index=None)
Insert item into parent (or append if index is None), fixing indentation. Only works with self closing items.
is_dir = False
If this container represents an unzipped book (a directory)
iterlinks(name, get_line_numbers=True)
Iterate over all links in name. If get_line_numbers is True the yields results of the form (link, line_number,
offset). Where line_number is the line_number at which the link occurs and offset is the number of
characters from the start of the line. Note that offset could actually encompass several lines if not zero.
make_name_unique(name)
Ensure that name does not already exist in this book. If it does, return a modified version that does not
exist.
manifest_has_name(name)
Return True if the manifest has an entry corresponding to name
property manifest_id_map
Mapping of manifest id to canonical names
manifest_items_of_type(predicate)
The names of all manifest items whose media-type matches predicate. predicate can be a set, a list, a string
or a function taking a single argument, which will be called with the media-type.
manifest_items_with_property(property_name)
All manifest items that have the specified property
property manifest_type_map
Mapping of manifest media-type to list of canonical names of that media-type
property mi
The metadata of this book as a Metadata object. Note that this object is constructed on the fly every time
this property is requested, so use it sparingly.
name_to_abspath(name)
Convert a canonical name to an absolute OS dependant path
name_to_href(name, base=None)
Convert a name to a href relative to base, which must be a name or None in which case self.root is used as
the base
property names_that_must_not_be_changed
Set of names that must never be renamed. Depends on the e-book file format.
property names_that_must_not_be_removed
Set of names that must never be deleted from the container. Depends on the e-book file format.
property names_that_need_not_be_manifested
Set of names that are allowed to be missing from the manifest. Depends on the e-book file format.
open(name, mode='rb')
Open the file pointed to by name for direct read/write. Note that this will commit the file if it is dirtied
and remove it from the parse cache. You must finish with this file before accessing the parsed version of it
again, or bad things will happen.

property opf
The parsed OPF file
opf_get_or_create(name)
Convenience method to either return the first XML element with the specified name or create it under the
opf:package element and then return it, if it does not already exist.
property opf_version
The version set on the OPFs <package> element
property opf_version_parsed
The version set on the OPFs <package> element as a tuple of integers
opf_xpath(expr)
Convenience method to evaluate an XPath expression on the OPF file, has the opf: and dc: namespace
prefixes pre-defined.
parsed(name)
Return a parsed representation of the file specified by name. For HTML and XML files an lxml tree
is returned. For CSS files a css_parser stylesheet is returned. Note that parsed objects are cached for
performance. If you make any changes to the parsed object, you must call dirty() (page 342) so that
the container knows to update the cache. See also replace() (page 344).
raw_data(name, decode=True, normalize_to_nfc=True)
Return the raw data corresponding to the file specified by name
Parameters
• decode – If True and the file has a text based MIME type, decode it and return a unicode
object instead of raw bytes.
• normalize_to_nfc – If True the returned unicode object is normalized to the NFC
normal form as is required for the EPUB and AZW3 file formats.
relpath(path, base=None)
Convert an absolute path (with os separators) to a path relative to base (defaults to self.root). The relative
path is not a name. Use abspath_to_name() (page 341) for that.
remove_from_spine(spine_items, remove_if_no_longer_in_spine=True)
Remove the specified items (by canonical name) from the spine. If
remove_if_no_longer_in_spine is True, the items are also deleted from the book, not just
from the spine.
remove_from_xml(item)
Removes item from parent, fixing indentation (works only with self closing items)
remove_item(name, remove_from_guide=True)
Remove the item identified by name from this container. This removes all references to the item in the
OPF manifest, guide and spine as well as from any internal caches.
rename(current_name, new_name)
Renames a file from current_name to new_name. It automatically rebases all links inside the file if the
folder the file is in changes. Note however, that links are not updated in the other files that could reference
this file. This is for performance, such updates should be done once, in bulk.
replace(name, obj)
Replace the parsed object corresponding to name with obj, which must be a similar object, i.e. an lxml
tree for HTML/XML or a css_parser stylesheet for a CSS file.
replace_links(name, replace_func)
Replace all links in name using replace_func, which must be a callable that accepts a URL and returns the

replaced URL. It must also have a replaced attribute that is set to True if any actual replacement is done.
Convenient ways of creating such callables are using the LinkReplacer and LinkRebaser classes.
serialize_item(name)
Convert a parsed object (identified by canonical name) into a bytestring. See parsed() (page 344).
set_spine(spine_items)
Set the spine to be spine_items where spine_items is an iterable of the form (name, linear). Will raise an
error if one of the names is not present in the manifest.
property spine_items
An iterator yielding the path for every item in the books spine. See also: spine_iter (page 345) and
spine_items (page 345).
property spine_iter
An iterator that yields item, name is_linear for every item in the books spine. item is the lxml element,
name is the canonical file name and is_linear is True if the item is linear. See also: spine_names
(page 345) and spine_items (page 345).
property spine_names
An iterator yielding name and is_linear for every item in the books spine. See also: spine_iter
(page 345) and spine_items (page 345).
Managing component files in a container
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace.replace_links(container, link_map,
frag_map=<function <lambda>>,
replace_in_opf=False)
Replace links to files in the container. Will iterate over all files in the container and change the specified links in
them.
Parameters
• link_map – A mapping of old canonical name to new canonical name. For example:
{'images/old.png': 'images/new.png'}
• frag_map – A callable that takes two arguments (name, anchor) and returns a new
anchor. This is useful if you need to change the anchors in HTML files. By default, it does
nothing.
• replace_in_opf – If False, links are not replaced in the OPF file.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace.rename_files(container, file_map)
Rename files in the container, automatically updating all links to them.
Parameters file_map – A mapping of old canonical name to new canonical name, for example:
{'text/chapter1.html': 'chapter1.html'}.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace.get_recommended_folders(container, names)
Return the folders that are recommended for the given filenames. The recommendation is based on where the
majority of files of the same type are located in the container. If no files of a particular type are present, the
recommended folder is assumed to be the folder containing the OPF file.

Pretty printing and auto fixing parse errors
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.fix_html(container, raw)
Fix any parsing errors in the HTML represented as a string in raw. Fixing is done using the HTML5 parsing
algorithm.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.fix_all_html(container)
Fix any parsing errors in all HTML files in the container. Fixing is done using the HTML5 parsing algorithm.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.pretty_html(container, name, raw)
Pretty print the HTML represented as a string in raw
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.pretty_css(container, name, raw)
Pretty print the CSS represented as a string in raw
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.pretty_xml(container, name, raw)
Pretty print the XML represented as a string in raw. If name is the name of the OPF, extra OPF-specific prettying
is performed.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty.pretty_all(container)
Pretty print all HTML/CSS/XML files in the container
Managing book jackets
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket.remove_jacket(container)
Remove an existing jacket, if any. Returns False if no existing jacket was found.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket.add_or_replace_jacket(container)
Either create a new jacket from the books metadata or replace an existing jacket. Returns True if an existing
jacket was replaced.
Splitting and merging of files
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split.split(container, name, loc_or_xpath, before=True, to-

tals=None)
Split the file specified by name at the position specified by loc_or_xpath. Splitting automatically migrates all
links and references to the affected files.
Parameters
• loc_or_xpath – Should be an XPath expression such as //h:div[@id=split_here]. Can
also be a loc which is used internally to implement splitting in the preview panel.
• before – If True the split occurs before the identified element otherwise after it.
• totals – Used internally
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split.multisplit(container, name, xpath, before=True)
Split the specified file at multiple locations (all tags that match the specified XPath expression). See also:
split() (page 346). Splitting automatically migrates all links and references to the affected files.
Parameters before – If True the splits occur before the identified element otherwise after it.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split.merge(container, category, names, master)
Merge the specified files into a single file, automatically migrating all links and references to the affected files.
The file must all either be HTML or CSS files.
Parameters
• category – Must be either 'text' for HTML files or 'styles' for CSS files

• names – The list of files to be merged

• master – Which of the merged files is the master file, that is, the file that will remain after
merging.
Managing covers
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover.set_cover(container, cover_path, report=None, op-

tions=None)
Set the cover of the book to the image pointed to by cover_path.
Parameters
• cover_path – Either the absolute path to an image file or the canonical name of an image
in the book. When using an image in the book, you must also set options, see below.
• report – An optional callable that takes a single argument. It will be called with informa-
tion about the tasks being processed.
• options – None or a dictionary that controls how the cover is set. The dictionary can
have entries: keep_aspect: True or False (Preserve aspect ratio of covers in EPUB) no_svg:
True or False (Use an SVG cover wrapper in the EPUB titlepage) existing: True or False
(cover_path refers to an existing image in the book)
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover.mark_as_cover(container, name)
Mark the specified image as the cover image.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover.mark_as_titlepage(container, name,
move_to_start=True)
Mark the specified HTML file as the titlepage of the EPUB.
Parameters move_to_start – If True the HTML file is moved to the start of the spine
Working with CSS
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.fonts.change_font(container, old_name, new_name=None)

Change a font family from old_name to new_name. Changes all occurrences of the font family in stylesheets,
style tags and style attributes. If the old_name refers to an embedded font, it is removed. You can set new_name
to None to remove the font family instead of changing it.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css.remove_unused_css(container, report=None, re-
move_unused_classes=False,
merge_rules=False,
merge_rules_with_identical_properties=False)
Remove all unused CSS rules from the book. An unused CSS rule is one that does not match any actual content.
Parameters
• report – An optional callable that takes a single argument. It is called with information
about the operations being performed.
• remove_unused_classes – If True, class attributes in the HTML that do not match
any CSS rules are also removed.
• merge_rules – If True, rules with identical selectors are merged.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css.filter_css(container, properties, names=())
Remove the specified CSS properties from all CSS rules in the book.
Parameters

• properties – Set of properties to remove. For example: {'font-family',

'color'}.
• names – The files from which to remove the properties. Defaults to all HTML and CSS
files in the book.
Working with the Table of Contents
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc.from_xpaths(container, xpaths)
Generate a Table of Contents from a list of XPath expressions. Each expression in the list corresponds to a
level of the generate ToC. For example: ['//h:h1', '//h:h2', '//h:h3'] will generate a three level
Table of Contents from the <h1>, <h2> and <h3> tags.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc.from_links(container)
Generate a Table of Contents from links in the book.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc.from_files(container)
Generate a Table of Contents from files in the book.
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc.create_inline_toc(container, title=None)
Create an inline (HTML) Table of Contents from an existing NCX Table of Contents.
Parameters title – The title for this table of contents.
Edit book tool
class calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool
Bases: object
The base class for individual tools in an Edit Book plugin. Useful members include:
• self.plugin: A reference to the calibre.customize.Plugin (page 234) object to which this
tool belongs.
• self. boss (page 348)
• self. gui (page 348)
Methods that must be overridden in sub classes:
• create_action() (page 349)
• register_shortcut() (page 349)
name = None
Set this to a unique name it will be used as a key
allowed_in_toolbar = True
If True the user can choose to place this tool in the plugins toolbar
allowed_in_menu = True
If True the user can choose to place this tool in the plugins menu
toolbar_button_popup_mode = 'delayed'
The popup mode for the menu (if any) of the toolbar button. Possible values are delayed, instant, button
property boss
The calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss (page 350) object. Used to control the user inter-
face.
property gui
The main window of the user interface

property current_container
Return the current calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container (page 341) object
that represents the book being edited.
register_shortcut(qaction, unique_name, default_keys=(), short_text=None, description=None,
**extra_data)
Register a keyboard shortcut that will trigger the specified qaction. This keyboard shortcut will become
automatically customizable by the user in the Keyboard section of the editor preferences.
Parameters
• qaction – A QAction object, it will be triggered when the configured key combination
is pressed by the user.
• unique_name – A unique name for this shortcut/action. It will be used internally, it
must not be shared by any other actions in this plugin.
• default_keys – A list of the default keyboard shortcuts. If not specified no default
shortcuts will be set. If the shortcuts specified here conflict with either builtin short-
cuts or shortcuts from user configuration/other plugins, they will be ignored. In that
case, users will have to configure the shortcuts manually via Preferences. For example:
default_keys=('Ctrl+J', 'F9').
• short_text – An optional short description of this action. If not specified the text from
the QAction will be used.
• description – An optional longer description of this action, it will be used in the
preferences entry for this shortcut.
create_action(for_toolbar=True)
Create a QAction that will be added to either the plugins toolbar or the plugins menu depending on
for_toolbar. For example:
def create_action(self, for_toolbar=True):

ac = QAction(get_icons('myicon.png'), 'Do something')
if for_toolbar:
# We want the toolbar button to have a popup menu
menu = QMenu()
ac.setMenu(menu)
menu.addAction('Do something else')
subaction = menu.addAction('And another')
# Register a keyboard shortcut for this toolbar action be

# careful to do this for only one of the toolbar action or
# the menu action, not both.
self.register_shortcut(ac, 'some-unique-name', default_keys=('Ctrl+K',
,→))
return ac
See also:
Method register_shortcut() (page 349).

Controlling the editors user interface
The e-book editors user interface is controlled by a single global Boss object. This has many useful methods that can
be used in plugin code to perform common tasks.
class calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss(parent, notify=None)
add_savepoint(msg)
Create a restore checkpoint with the name specified as msg
apply_container_update_to_gui(mark_as_modified=True)
Update all the components of the user interface to reflect the latest data in the current book container.
Parameters mark_as_modified – If True, the book will be marked as modified, so the user
will be prompted to save it when quitting.
close_editor(name)
Close the editor that is editing the file specified by name
commit_all_editors_to_container()
Commit any changes that the user has made to files open in editors to the container. You should call this
method before performing any actions on the current container
property currently_editing
Return the name of the file being edited currently or None if no file is being edited
edit_file(name, syntax=None, use_template=None)
Open the file specified by name in an editor
Parameters
• syntax – The media type of the file, for example, 'text/html'. If not specified it is
guessed from the file extension.
• use_template – A template to initialize the opened editor with
open_book(path=None, edit_file=None, clear_notify_data=True, open_folder=False,
search_text=None)
Open the e-book at path for editing. Will show an error if the e-book is not in a supported format or the
current book has unsaved changes.
Parameters edit_file – The name of a file inside the newly opened book to start editing.
Can also be a list of names.
rewind_savepoint()
Undo the previous creation of a restore checkpoint, useful if you create a checkpoint, then abort the oper-
ation with no changes
save_book()
Save the book. Saving is performed in the background
set_modified()
Mark the book as having been modified
show_current_diff(allow_revert=True, to_container=None)
Show the changes to the book from its last checkpointed state
Parameters
• allow_revert – If True the diff dialog will have a button to allow the user to revert all
changes

• to_container – A container object to compare the current container to. If None, the
previously checkpointed container is used
show_editor(name)
Show the editor that is editing the file specified by name
sync_preview_to_editor()
Sync the position of the preview panel to the current cursor position in the current editor


CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM)
Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware
manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to try to impose limitations on the usage of digital content
and devices. It is also, sometimes, disparagingly described as Digital Restrictions Management. The term is used
to describe any technology which inhibits uses (legitimate or otherwise) of digital content that were not desired or
foreseen by the content provider. The term generally doesnt refer to other forms of copy protection which can be
circumvented without modifying the file or device, such as serial numbers or key-files. It can also refer to restrictions
associated with specific instances of digital works or devices. DRM technologies attempt to control use of digital
media by preventing access, copying or conversion to other formats by end users. See wikipedia129 .
15.1 What does DRM imply for me personally?
When you buy an e-book with DRM you dont really own it but have purchased the permission to use it in a manner
dictated to you by the seller. DRM limits what you can do with e-books you have bought. Often people who buy
books with DRM are unaware of the extent of these restrictions. These restrictions prevent you from reformatting the
e-book to your liking, including making stylistic changes like adjusting the font sizes, although there is software that
empowers you to do such things for non DRM books. People are often surprised that an e-book they have bought in
a particular format cannot be converted to another format if the e-book has DRM. So if you have an Amazon Kindle
and buy a book sold by Barnes and Nobles, you should know that if that e-book has DRM you will not be able to read
it on your Kindle. Notice that I am talking about a book you buy, not steal or pirate but BUY.
15.2 What does DRM do for authors?
Publishers of DRMed e-books argue that the DRM is all for the sake of authors and to protect their artistic integrity
and prevent piracy. But DRM does NOT prevent piracy. People who want to pirate content or use pirated content still
do it and succeed. The three major DRM schemes for e-books today are run by Amazon, Adobe and Barnes and Noble
and all three DRM schemes have been cracked. All DRM does is inconvenience legitimate users. It can be argued that
it actually harms authors as people who would have bought the book choose to find a pirated version as they are not
willing to put up with DRM. Those that would pirate in the absence of DRM do so in its presence as well. To reiterate,
the key point is that DRM does not prevent piracy. So DRM is not only pointless and harmful to buyers of e-books
but also a waste of money.
129 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
353
15.3 DRM and freedom
Although digital content can be used to make information as well as creative works easily available to everyone and
empower humanity, this is not in the interests of some publishers who want to steer people away from this possibility
of freedom simply to maintain their relevance in world developing so fast that they cant keep up.
15.4 Why does calibre not support DRM?
calibre is open source software while DRM by its very nature is closed. If calibre were to support opening or viewing
DRM files it could be trivially modified to be used as a tool for DRM removal which is illegal under todays laws. Open
source software and DRM are a clash of principles. While DRM is all about controlling the user open source software
is about empowering the user. The two simply can not coexist.
15.5 What is calibres view on content providers?
We firmly believe that authors and other content providers should be compensated for their efforts, but DRM is not
the way to go about it. We are developing this database of DRM-free e-books from various sources to help you find
DRM-free alternatives and to help independent authors and publishers of DRM-free e-books publicize their content.
We hope you will find this useful and we request that you do not pirate the content made available to you here.
15.6 How can I help fight DRM?
As somebody who reads and buys e-books you can help fight DRM. Do not buy e-books with DRM. There are some
publishers who publish DRM-free e-books. Make an effort to see if they carry the e-book you are looking for. If
you like books by certain independent authors that sell DRM-free e-books and you can afford it make donations to
them. This is money well spent as their e-books tend to be cheaper (there may be exceptions) than the ones you
would buy from publishers of DRMed books and would probably work on all devices you own in the future saving
you the cost of buying the e-book again. Do not discourage publishers and authors of DRM-free e-books by pirating
their content. Content providers deserve compensation for their efforts. Do not punish them for trying to make your
reading experience better by making available DRM-free e-books. In the long run this is detrimental to you. If
you have bought books from sellers that carry both DRMed as well as DRM-free books, not knowing if they carry
DRM or not make it a point to leave a comment or review on the website informing future buyers of its DRM status.
Many sellers do not think it important to clearly indicate to their buyers if an e-book carries DRM or not. Here
<https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks> you will find a guide to DRM-free living.
354 Chapter 15. Digital Rights Management (DRM)

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
GLOSSARY
RSS RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed format that is used to publish frequently updated content, like
news articles, blog posts, etc. It is a format that is particularly suited to being read by computers, and is therefore
the preferred way of getting content from the web into an e-book. There are many other feed formats in use
on the Internet, and calibre understands most of them. In particular, it has good support for the ATOM format,
which is commonly used for blogs.
recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that teach calibre how to convert an online news source, such as a magazine
or a blog, into an e-book. A recipe is essentially Python130 code. As such, it is capable of converting arbitrarily
complex news sources into e-books. At the simplest level, it is just a set of variables, such as URLs, that give
calibre enough information to go out onto the Internet and download the news.
HTML HTML (Hyper Text Mark-Up Language), a subset of Standard Generalized Mark-Up Language (SGML) for
electronic publishing, is the specific standard used for the World Wide Web.
CSS CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language used to describe how an HTML document should be rendered (visual
styling).
API API (Application Programming Interface) is a source code interface that a library provides to support requests
for services to be made of it by computer programs.
LRF LRF The e-book format that is read by the SONY e-book readers.
URL URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for example: http://example.com
regexp Regular expressions provide a concise and flexible means for identifying strings of text of interest, such as
particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. See regexp syntax131 for the syntax of regular expressions
used in Python.
355
356 Chapter 16. Glossary

PYTHON MODULE INDEX
c
calibre.customize, 233
calibre.customize.conversion, 241
calibre.db.cache, 335
calibre.devices.interface, 244
calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base, 187
calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base,
238
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container, 341
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover, 347
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css, 347
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket, 346
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty, 346
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace, 345
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split, 346
calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc, 348
calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss, 350
calibre.utils.formatter_functions, 171
calibre.web.feeds.news, 33
357
358 Python Module Index

INDEX
Symbols calibredb-export command line

-1 option, 287
calibredb-add command line option, --allowed-plugin
285 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
-H option, 322
ebook-polish command line option, --append
320 calibredb-set_custom command line
-I option, 291
calibredb-add command line option, --as-opf
284 calibredb-show_metadata command
fetch-ebook-metadata command line line option, 286
option, 322 --ascending
-S calibredb-list command line option,
calibredb-add command line option, 283
284 --asciiize
-T ebook-convert command line option,
284 --attachment
-U calibre-smtp command line option,
ebook-polish command line option, 280
321 --auth-mode
--access-log calibre-server command line option,
calibre-server command line option, 277
277 --author-sort
--add ebook-convert command line option,
285 ebook-meta command line option, 318
--add-plugin --authors
calibre-customize command line calibredb-add command line option,
option, 274 284
--add-simple-plugin ebook-convert command line option,
calibre-debug command line option, 301
--add-soft-hyphens fetch-ebook-metadata command line
ebook-polish command line option, option, 322
320 --auto-reload
--ajax-timeout calibre-server command line option,
277 --automerge
--all calibredb-add command line option,
calibredb-backup_metadata command 284
line option, 292 --ban-after
359

--ban-for --compress-images
calibre-server command line option, ebook-polish command line option,
277 320
--base-dir --compress-min-size
web2disk command line option, 324 calibre-server command line option,
--base-font-size 277
ebook-convert command line option, --continue
296 ebook-viewer command line option,
--book-list-mode 321
calibre-server command line option, --cover
277 calibredb-add command line option,
--book-producer 284
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert command line option,
301 301
ebook-meta command line option, 318 ebook-meta command line option, 318
--breadth-first ebook-polish command line option,
ebook-convert-html-input command 320
line option, 304 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
--build-plugin option, 322
calibre-customize command line --cross-reference-authors
option, 274 calibredb-catalog command line
--cafile option, 288
calibre-smtp command line option, --csv
281 calibredb-check_library command
--catalog-title line option, 291
calibredb-catalog command line calibredb-list_categories command
option, 288 line option, 292
--categories --custom-list-template
calibredb-list_categories command calibre-server command line option,
line option, 292 277
--category --custom-size
ebook-meta command line option, 318 ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--change-justification line option, 313
ebook-convert command line option, --customize-plugin
296 calibre-customize command line
--chapter option, 274
ebook-convert command line option, --daemonize
299 calibre-server command line option,
--chapter-mark 277
ebook-convert command line option, --date
--colors --debug-device-driver
ebook-convert-comic-input command calibre-debug command line option,
--comic-image-size --debug-pipeline
ebook-convert-comic-input command calibredb-catalog command line
line option, 302 option, 288
--command ebook-convert command line option,
275 --default-programs
--comments calibre-debug command line option,
ebook-convert command line option, 275
360 Index
--delay --disable-markup-chapter-headings
web2disk command line option, 324 ebook-convert command line option,
--despeckle 298
ebook-convert-comic-input command --disable-plugin
line option, 302 calibre-customize command line
--detach option, 274
calibre command line option, 273 --disable-remove-fake-margins
ebook-edit command line option, 318 ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-viewer command line option, 299
321 --disable-renumber-headings
--details ebook-convert command line option,
calibredb-custom_columns command 298
line option, 290 --disable-trim
--dialect ebook-convert-comic-input command
calibredb-list_categories command line option, 302
line option, 292 --disable-unwrap-lines
--diff ebook-convert command line option,
275 --disable-use-bonjour
--disable-allow-socket-preallocation calibre-server command line option,
277 --disable-use-sendfile
--disable-auth calibre-server command line option,
277 --display
--disable-dehyphenate calibredb-add_custom_column
ebook-convert command line option, command line option, 290
298 --displayed-fields
--disable-delete-blank-paragraphs calibre-server command line option,
298 --docx-custom-page-size
--disable-fallback-to-detected-interface ebook-convert-docx-output command
calibre-server command line option, line option, 308
277 --docx-inline-subsup
--disable-fix-indents ebook-convert-docx-input command
ebook-convert command line option, line option, 303
298 --docx-no-cover
--disable-font-rescaling ebook-convert-docx-input command
296 ebook-convert-docx-output command
--disable-format-scene-breaks line option, 308
ebook-convert command line option, --docx-no-pagebreaks-between-notes
298 ebook-convert-docx-input command
--disable-hyphenation line option, 303
lrfviewer command line option, 323 --docx-no-toc
--disable-italicize-common-cases ebook-convert-docx-output command
298 --docx-page-margin-bottom
--disable-local-write ebook-convert-docx-output command
277 --docx-page-margin-left
--disable-log-not-found ebook-convert-docx-output command
278 --docx-page-margin-right
Index 361
ebook-convert-docx-output command calibredb-export command line

--docx-page-margin-top --duplicate-links-in-toc
ebook-convert-docx-output command ebook-convert command line option,
--docx-page-size --duplicates
ebook-convert-docx-output command calibredb-add command line option,
--dont-add-comic-pages-to-toc --edit-book
ebook-convert-comic-input command calibre-debug command line option,
--dont-asciiize --embed-all-fonts
calibredb-export command line ebook-convert command line option,
option, 287 296
--dont-compress --embed-font-family
ebook-convert-azw3-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-mobi-output command --embed-fonts
line option, 312 ebook-polish command line option,
--dont-download-recipe 320
ebook-convert-recipe-input command --empty
line option, 306 calibredb-add command line option,
--dont-download-stylesheets 284
web2disk command line option, 324 --enable-allow-socket-preallocation
--dont-grayscale calibre-server command line option,
ebook-convert-comic-input command 277
line option, 302 --enable-auth
--dont-normalize calibre-server command line option,
line option, 302 --enable-autorotation
--dont-output-resources ebook-convert-lrf-output command
lrf2lrs command line option, 323 line option, 311
--dont-package --enable-fallback-to-detected-interface
ebook-convert-html-input command calibre-server command line option,
--dont-replace --enable-heuristics
calibredb-add_format command line ebook-convert command line option,
option, 285 298
--dont-save-cover --enable-local-write
calibredb-export command line calibre-server command line option,
option, 287 277
--dont-sharpen --enable-log-not-found
ebook-convert-comic-input command calibre-server command line option,
--dont-split-on-page-breaks --enable-plugin
ebook-convert-epub-output command calibre-customize command line
--dont-update-metadata --enable-use-bonjour
calibredb-export command line calibre-server command line option,
option, 287 278
--dont-verify-server-certificate --enable-use-sendfile
calibre-smtp command line option, calibre-server command line option,
281 278
--dont-write-opf --encoding
362 Index
web2disk command line option, 324 --fields

--encryption-method calibredb-list command line option,
calibre-smtp command line option, 283
281 --filter-css
--epub-flatten ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-epub-output command 296
line option, 309 --filter-regexp
--epub-inline-toc web2disk command line option, 324
ebook-convert-epub-output command --fix-multiprocessing
line option, 309 calibre-debug command line option,
--epub-toc-at-end 275
ebook-convert-epub-output command --flow-size
line option, 309 ebook-convert-epub-output command
--epub-version line option, 309
ebook-convert-epub-output command --font-size-mapping
line option, 309 ebook-convert command line option,
--exclude-genre 296
calibredb-catalog command line --for-machine
option, 288 calibredb-list command line option,
--exclusion-rules 283
calibredb-catalog command line --force
option, 288 calibredb-remove_custom_column
--exec-file command line option, 290
calibre-debug command line option, --force-max-line-length
275 ebook-convert-txt-output command
--expand-css line option, 316
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert-txtz-output command
296 line option, 317
--explode-book --force-reload
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-viewer command line option,
275 321
--export-all-calibre-data --fork
calibre-debug command line option, calibre-smtp command line option,
275 280
--extra-css --format
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert-pdb-output command
--extract-to --formats
ebook-convert-azw3-output command calibredb-export command line
ebook-convert-docx-output command --formatting-type
line option, 309 ebook-convert-txt-input command
ebook-convert-epub-output command line option, 307
line option, 309 --from-opf
ebook-convert-html-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-mobi-output command ebook-meta command line option, 318
line option, 312 --full-image-depth
--fb2-genre ebook-convert-pml-output command
ebook-convert-fb2-output command line option, 315
line option, 310 --full-screen
--field ebook-viewer command line option,
calibredb-set_metadata command 321
line option, 286 --fullscreen
Index 363
ebook-viewer command line option, ebook-convert command line option,

321 295
--generate-authors ebook-edit command line option, 318
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-meta command line option, 319
option, 288 ebook-polish command line option,
--generate-descriptions 320
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-viewer command line option,
option, 288 321
--generate-genres fetch-ebook-metadata command line
calibredb-catalog command line option, 322
option, 288 lrf2lrs command line option, 323
--generate-recently-added lrfviewer command line option, 323
calibredb-catalog command line lrs2lrf command line option, 324
option, 288 web2disk command line option, 324
--generate-series --html-unwrap-factor
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-convert command line option,
option, 288 298
--generate-titles --htmlz-class-style
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-convert-htmlz-output command
--genre-source-field --htmlz-css-type
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-convert-htmlz-output command
--get-cover --htmlz-title-filename
ebook-meta command line option, 319 ebook-convert-htmlz-output command
--gui line option, 311
calibre-debug command line option, --identifier
--gui-debug 284
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-meta command line option, 319
--header option, 322
ebook-convert-lrf-output command --ids
line option, 311 calibredb-catalog command line
--header-format option, 288
ebook-convert-lrf-output command --ignore
--header-note-source-field 285
calibredb-catalog command line --ignore_extensions
option, 289 calibredb-check_library command
--header-separation line option, 291
ebook-convert-lrf-output command --ignore_names
line option, 311 calibredb-check_library command
--help line option, 291
calibre command line option, 273 --ignore-plugins
calibre-customize command line calibre command line option, 273
option, 274 --ignore-wmf
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-convert-rtf-input command
calibre-server command line option, --ignored-fields
280 --implode-book
command line option, 282 calibre-debug command line option,
364 Index
276 ebook-convert-rtf-input command

--import-calibre-data line option, 306
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-convert-snb-input command
--index ebook-convert-tcr-input command
ebook-meta command line option, 319 line option, 307
--inline-toc ebook-convert-txt-input command
ebook-convert-pdb-output command line option, 307
line option, 313 --input-profile
ebook-convert-pml-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-rb-output command --insert-blank-line
ebook-convert-txt-output command 296
line option, 316 --insert-blank-line-size
ebook-convert-txtz-output command ebook-convert command line option,
--input-encoding --insert-metadata
ebook-convert-azw4-input command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-chm-input command --inspect-mobi
line option, 302 --is-multiple
ebook-convert-djvu-input command calibredb-add_custom_column
line option, 303 command line option, 290
ebook-convert-docx-input command --isbn
ebook-convert-epub-input command 284
ebook-convert-fb2-input command 301
line option, 304 ebook-meta command line option, 319
ebook-convert-htlz-input command fetch-ebook-metadata command line
ebook-convert-html-input command --item_count
line option, 304 calibredb-list_categories command
ebook-convert-lit-input command line option, 292
line option, 304 --jacket
ebook-convert-lrf-input command ebook-polish command line option,
ebook-convert-mobi-input command --keep-aspect-ratio
line option, 305 ebook-convert-comic-input command
ebook-convert-odt-input command line option, 303
line option, 305 --keep-color
ebook-convert-pdb-input command ebook-convert-txt-output command
line option, 305 line option, 316
ebook-convert-pdf-input command ebook-convert-txtz-output command
ebook-convert-pml-input command --keep-image-references
line option, 306 ebook-convert-txt-output command
ebook-convert-rb-input command line option, 316
line option, 306 ebook-convert-txtz-output command
ebook-convert-recipe-input command line option, 317
line option, 306 --keep-ligatures
Index 365
ebook-convert command line option, --localhost

297 calibre-smtp command line option,
--keep-links 280
ebook-convert-txt-output command --log
line option, 316 calibre-server command line option,
ebook-convert-txtz-output command 278
line option, 317 --lrf
--landscape ebook-convert-recipe-input command
ebook-convert-comic-input command line option, 306
line option, 303 --lrf-bookid
--language ebook-meta command line option, 319
ebook-convert command line option, --lrs
301 lrs2lrf command line option, 324
ebook-meta command line option, 319 --manage-users
--languages calibre-server command line option,
284 --margin-bottom
--level1-toc ebook-convert command line option,
300 --margin-left
300 --margin-right
300 --margin-top
--library-path ebook-convert command line option,
command line option, 282 297
--limit --markdown-extensions
calibredb-list command line option, ebook-convert-txt-input command
calibredb-search command line --match-regexp
option, 293 web2disk command line option, 324
--line-height --max-files
ebook-convert command line option, web2disk command line option, 325
297 --max-header-line-size
--line-width calibre-server command line option,
calibredb-list command line option, 278
283 --max-job-time
--linearize-tables calibre-server command line option,
297 --max-jobs
--list-fields calibre-server command line option,
calibredb-set_metadata command 278
line option, 286 --max-levels
--list-plugins ebook-convert-html-input command
calibre-customize command line line option, 304
option, 274 --max-line-length
--list-recipes ebook-convert-txt-output command
295 ebook-convert-txtz-output command
--listen-on line option, 317
calibre-server command line option, --max-log-size
366 Index

--max-opds-items --no-images
calibre-server command line option, ebook-convert-pdf-input command
--max-opds-ungrouped-items --no-inline-fb2-toc
calibre-server command line option, ebook-convert-fb2-input command
--max-recursions --no-inline-toc
web2disk command line option, 325 ebook-convert-azw3-output command
--max-request-body-size line option, 308
calibre-server command line option, ebook-convert-mobi-output command
--max-toc-links --no-process
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert-comic-input command
--merge-comments-rule --no-sort
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-convert-comic-input command
--minimum-indent --no-svg-cover
ebook-convert-lrf-output command ebook-convert-epub-output command
--minimum-line-height --no-update-check
ebook-convert command line option, calibre command line option, 273
297 --num-per-page
--mobi-file-type calibre-server command line option,
ebook-convert-mobi-output command 279
line option, 312 --one-book-per-directory
--mobi-ignore-margins calibredb-add command line option,
ebook-convert-mobi-output command 285
line option, 312 --only-formats
--mobi-keep-original-images calibredb-embed_metadata command
ebook-convert-mobi-output command line option, 293
line option, 312 --open-at
--mobi-toc-at-start ebook-viewer command line option,
ebook-convert-azw3-output command 321
line option, 308 --opf
ebook-convert-mobi-output command ebook-polish command line option,
--mono-family fetch-ebook-metadata command line
ebook-convert-lrf-output command option, 322
line option, 311 --outbox
--new-pdf-engine calibre-smtp command line option,
ebook-convert-pdf-input command 280
line option, 305 --output
--newline lrf2lrs command line option, 323
ebook-convert-txt-output command lrs2lrf command line option, 324
line option, 316 --output-format
ebook-convert-txtz-output command ebook-convert-comic-input command
--no-chapters-in-toc --output-profile
ebook-convert command line option, calibredb-catalog command line
300 option, 289
--no-default-epub-cover ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-epub-output command 295
Index 367
--page-breaks-before --pdf-page-margin-right
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--paper-size --pdf-page-margin-top
ebook-convert-pdf-output command ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--paragraph-type --pdf-page-number-map
ebook-convert-txt-input command ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--password --pdf-page-numbers
calibre-smtp command line option, ebook-convert-pdf-output command
command line option, 282 --pdf-sans-family
ebook-convert-recipe-input command ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--paths --pdf-serif-family
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--pdb-output-encoding --pdf-standard-font
ebook-convert-pdb-output command ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--pdf-add-toc --pdf-use-document-margins
ebook-convert-pdf-output command ebook-convert-pdf-output command
--pdf-default-font-size --permanent
ebook-convert-pdf-output command calibredb-remove command line
--pdf-footer-template --personal-doc
ebook-convert-pdf-output command ebook-convert-mobi-output command
--pdf-header-template --pidfile
ebook-convert-pdf-output command calibre-server command line option,
--pdf-hyphenate --pml-output-encoding
ebook-convert-pdf-output command ebook-convert-pml-output command
--pdf-mark-links --port
--pdf-mono-family calibre-smtp command line option,
ebook-convert-pdf-output command 281
line option, 313 --prefer-author-sort
--pdf-mono-font-size ebook-convert-azw3-output command
ebook-convert-pdf-output command line option, 308
line option, 313 ebook-convert-mobi-output command
--pdf-odd-even-offset line option, 312
ebook-convert-pdf-output command --prefer-metadata-cover
--pdf-page-margin-bottom 299
ebook-convert-pdf-output command --prefix
line option, 314 calibredb-list command line option,
--pdf-page-margin-left 283
ebook-convert-pdf-output command --prefix-rules
line option, 314 calibredb-catalog command line
368 Index
option, 289 lrfviewer command line option, 323

--preserve-cover-aspect-ratio --progress
ebook-convert-docx-output command calibredb-export command line
ebook-convert-epub-output command --pubdate
line option, 314 --publisher
--preserve-spaces ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-txt-input command 301
--preset --raise-window
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-viewer command line option,
option, 289 321
--pretty-print --rating
ebook-convert-azw3-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-docx-output command ebook-meta command line option, 319
line option, 309 --read-metadata-from-opf
ebook-convert-epub-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-fb2-output command --really-do-it
line option, 310 calibredb-restore_database command
ebook-convert-html-output command line option, 291
line option, 310 --recurse
ebook-convert-htmlz-output command calibredb-add command line option,
ebook-convert-lit-output command --reinitialize-db
ebook-convert-lrf-output command 276
line option, 311 --relay
ebook-convert-mobi-output command calibre-smtp command line option,
ebook-convert-oeb-output command --remove-first-image
ebook-convert-pdb-output command 299
line option, 313 --remove-jacket
ebook-convert-pdf-output command ebook-polish command line option,
ebook-convert-pml-output command --remove-paragraph-spacing
ebook-convert-rb-output command 297
line option, 315 --remove-paragraph-spacing-indent-size
ebook-convert-rtf-output command ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-snb-output command --remove-plugin
ebook-convert-tcr-output command option, 274
line option, 316 --remove-soft-hyphens
ebook-convert-txt-output command ebook-polish command line option,
ebook-convert-txtz-output command --remove-unused-css
line option, 317 ebook-polish command line option,
--profile 320
Index 369
--render-tables-as-images --share-not-sync
ebook-convert-lrf-output command ebook-convert-azw3-output command
--replace-scene-breaks ebook-convert-mobi-output command
298 --shutdown-running-calibre
--replace-whitespace calibre command line option, 273
calibredb-export command line calibre-debug command line option,
option, 287 276
--report --shutdown-timeout
calibredb-check_library command calibre-server command line option,
--right2left --single-dir
ebook-convert-comic-input command calibredb-export command line
--run-plugin --smarten-punctuation
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-convert command line option,
276 297
--sans-family ebook-polish command line option,
line option, 311 --snb-dont-indent-first-line
--search ebook-convert-snb-output command
calibredb-catalog command line line option, 315
option, 288 --snb-full-screen
calibredb-list command line option, ebook-convert-snb-output command
--search-replace --snb-hide-chapter-name
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-convert-snb-output command
--search-the-net-urls --snb-insert-empty-line
calibre-server command line option, ebook-convert-snb-output command
--sectionize --snb-max-line-length
ebook-convert-fb2-output command ebook-convert-snb-output command
--select-text --snb-output-encoding
ebook-edit command line option, 318 ebook-convert-snb-output command
--separator line option, 316
calibredb-list command line option, --sort-by
283 calibredb-list command line option,
--series 283
calibredb-add command line option, --sr1-replace
284 ebook-convert command line option,
301 --sr1-search
ebook-meta command line option, 319 ebook-convert command line option,
--series-index 299
calibredb-add command line option, --sr2-replace
284 ebook-convert command line option,
301 --sr2-search
--serif-family ebook-convert command line option,
line option, 311 --sr3-replace
370 Index

299 --text-size-multiplier-for-rendered-tables
--sr3-search ebook-convert-lrf-output command
299 --thumb-width
--ssl-certfile calibredb-catalog command line
calibre-server command line option, option, 289
279 --timefmt
--ssl-keyfile calibredb-export command line
calibre-server command line option, option, 287
279 --timeout
--start-in-tray calibre-server command line option,
calibre command line option, 274 279
--start-reading-at calibre-smtp command line option,
300 command line option, 283
--subject fetch-ebook-metadata command line
calibre-smtp command line option, option, 322
280 web2disk command line option, 325
--subset-embedded-fonts --timestamp
297 301
--subset-font --title
calibre-debug command line option, calibredb-add command line option,
276 284
--subset-fonts ebook-convert command line option,
--tags fetch-ebook-metadata command line
calibredb-add command line option, option, 322
284 --title-sort
301 301
ebook-meta command line option, 319 ebook-meta command line option, 319
--tcr-output-encoding --to-dir
ebook-convert-tcr-output command calibredb-export command line
--template --to-lowercase
calibredb-export command line calibredb-export command line
option, 287 option, 287
--template-css --to-opf
ebook-convert-html-output command ebook-meta command line option, 319
line option, 310 --toc-filter
--template-html ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-html-output command 300
line option, 310 --toc-threshold
--template-html-index ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-html-output command 300
line option, 310 --toc-title
--test ebook-convert-azw3-output command
ebook-convert-recipe-input command line option, 308
line option, 306 ebook-convert-epub-output command
--test-build line option, 310
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-convert-mobi-output command
Index 371

ebook-convert-pdf-output command command line option, 283
line option, 314 ebook-convert-recipe-input command
--transform-css-rules line option, 306
ebook-convert command line option, --verbose
298 calibre command line option, 274
--trusted-ips calibre-smtp command line option,
279 calibredb-catalog command line
--txt-in-remove-indents option, 288
ebook-convert-txt-input command ebook-convert command line option,
--txt-output-encoding ebook-polish command line option,
line option, 316 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
ebook-convert-txtz-output command option, 322
line option, 317 lrf2lrs command line option, 323
--txt-output-formatting lrfviewer command line option, 323
ebook-convert-txt-output command lrs2lrf command line option, 324
line option, 316 web2disk command line option, 325
ebook-convert-txtz-output command --version
line option, 317 calibre command line option, 274
--uncompressed-pdf calibre-customize command line
ebook-convert-pdf-output command option, 274
--unit 276
--unsmarten-punctuation calibre-smtp command line option,
--unwrap-factor ebook-convert command line option,
ebook-convert-pdf-input command 295
line option, 305 ebook-edit command line option, 318
--upgrade-book ebook-meta command line option, 319
ebook-polish command line option, ebook-polish command line option,
321 321
--url-prefix ebook-viewer command line option,
--use-auto-toc option, 322
ebook-convert command line option, lrf2lrs command line option, 323
300 lrfviewer command line option, 323
--use-existing-cover lrs2lrf command line option, 324
calibredb-catalog command line web2disk command line option, 325
option, 289 --viewer
--use-profile-size calibre-debug command line option,
line option, 314 --visual-debug
--userdb lrfviewer command line option, 323
calibre-server command line option, --white-background
279 lrfviewer command line option, 323
--username --wide
calibre-smtp command line option, ebook-convert-comic-input command
372 Index
line option, 303 web2disk command line option, 324

--width -e
calibredb-list_categories command calibre-debug command line option,
--with-library calibre-smtp command line option,
calibre command line option, 274 281
command line option, 282 calibredb-add command line option,
--wordspace 284
ebook-convert-lrf-output command calibredb-check_library command
--worker-count ebook-polish command line option,
279 -f
-a calibre-debug command line option,
calibre-customize command line 276
option, 274 calibre-smtp command line option,
280 calibredb-embed_metadata command
calibredb-add command line option, line option, 293
284 calibredb-list command line option,
calibredb-set_custom command line 283
option, 291 calibredb-remove_custom_column
ebook-meta command line option, 318 command line option, 290
fetch-ebook-metadata command line calibredb-set_metadata command
-b ebook-convert-pdb-output command
calibre-customize command line line option, 313
-c 320
calibre-debug command line option, ebook-viewer command line option,
275 321
calibredb-add command line option, -g
284 calibre-debug command line option,
calibredb-check_library command 275
line option, 291 -h
calibredb-list_categories command calibre command line option, 273
ebook-meta command line option, 318 option, 274
ebook-polish command line option, calibre-debug command line option,
320 276
fetch-ebook-metadata command line calibre-server command line option,
option, 322 278
-d calibre-smtp command line option,
calibredb-add command line option, ebook-convert command line option,
284 295
calibredb-custom_columns command ebook-edit command line option, 318
ebook-convert command line option, ebook-polish command line option,
302 320
ebook-meta command line option, 318 ebook-viewer command line option,
fetch-ebook-metadata command line 321
option, 322 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
Index 373

lrf2lrs command line option, 323 320
lrfviewer command line option, 323 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
lrs2lrf command line option, 324 option, 322
web2disk command line option, 324 lrf2lrs command line option, 323
-i lrs2lrf command line option, 324
calibre-debug command line option, -p
276 calibre-smtp command line option,
calibredb-catalog command line ebook-polish command line option,
option, 288 320
calibredb-list_categories command fetch-ebook-metadata command line
ebook-meta command line option, 319 -r
ebook-polish command line option, calibre-customize command line
320 option, 274
fetch-ebook-metadata command line calibre-debug command line option,
option, 322 276
-j calibre-smtp command line option,
-k 285
ebook-meta command line option, 318 calibredb-check_library command
-l line option, 291
calibre-customize command line calibredb-list_categories command
calibre-smtp command line option, calibredb-restore_database command
calibredb-add command line option, ebook-meta command line option, 319
284 web2disk command line option, 325
calibredb-search command line -s
option, 293 calibre command line option, 273
calibredb-set_metadata command calibre-debug command line option,
ebook-meta command line option, 319 calibre-smtp command line option,
-m 280
calibre-debug command line option, calibredb-add command line option,
276 284
calibredb-add command line option, calibredb-catalog command line
284 option, 288
ebook-convert command line option, calibredb-list command line option,
301 283
-n ebook-meta command line option, 319
calibredb-check_library command -t
line option, 316 calibre-smtp command line option,
ebook-convert-txtz-output command 280
web2disk command line option, 325 284
-o ebook-meta command line option, 319
calibre-smtp command line option, fetch-ebook-metadata command line
280 option, 322
374 Index
web2disk command line option, 325 action_spec (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at-

-u tribute), 256
calibre-smtp command line option, action_type (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at-
281 tribute), 257
ebook-convert-pdf-output command add_annotation_to_library() (cali-
line option, 314 bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
320 add_book() (calibre.devices.interface.BookList
-v method), 251
calibre command line option, 274 add_books() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 335
calibre-smtp command line option, add_books_to_metadata() (cali-
280 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin class
calibredb-catalog command line method), 248
option, 288 add_books_to_metadata() (cali-
ebook-convert command line option, bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method),
302 255
fetch-ebook-metadata command line add_custom_book_data() (cali-
option, 322 bre.db.cache.Cache method), 335
-w add_file() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
calibre-debug command line option, method), 342
276 add_format() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 335
calibredb-list command line option, add_name_to_manifest() (cali-
283 bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
calibredb-list_categories command method), 342
line option, 292 add_or_replace_jacket() (in module cali-
-x bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket), 346
calibre-debug command line option, add_properties() (cali-
method), 342
A add_savepoint() (cali-
abort_article() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method),
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), 350
33 add_toc_thumbnail() (cali-
abort_recipe_processing() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
33 adeify_images() (cali-
abspath_to_name() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe class
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container method), 33
method), 341 all_book_ids() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
accept_drag_move_event() (cali- 335
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method), all_field_for() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
257 335
accept_enter_event() (cali- all_field_ids() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method), 335
257 all_field_keys() (cali-
accepts_drops (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
attribute), 257 method), 188
action_add_menu (cali- all_field_names() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction attribute), method), 335
256 all_non_none_fields() (cali-
action_menu_clone_qaction (calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction attribute), method), 188
256 allowed_in_menu (cali-
bre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool attribute),
Index 375
348 books_in_virtual_library() (cali-

allowed_in_toolbar (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 336
bre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool attribute), Boss (class in calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss), 350
348 boss() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool property),
API, 355 348
apply_container_update_to_gui() (cal- BuiltinAdd (class in cali-
ibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method), bre.utils.formatter_functions), 172
350 BuiltinAnd (class in cali-
apply_unique_properties() (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 173
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container BuiltinAnnotationCount (class in cali-
method), 342 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 175
articles_are_obfuscated (cali- BuiltinApproximateFormats (class in cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.utils.formatter_functions), 175
tribute), 37 BuiltinArguments (class in cali-
ASK_TO_ALLOW_CONNECT (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 187
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), BuiltinAssign (class in cali-
245 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 184
author (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234 BuiltinAuthorLinks (class in cali-
author_data() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), bre.utils.formatter_functions), 175
336 BuiltinAuthorSorts (class in cali-
author_sort_from_authors() (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 336 BuiltinBooksize (class in cali-
auto_cleanup (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- BuiltinCapitalize (class in cali-
tribute), 37 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 185
auto_cleanup_keep (cali- BuiltinCeiling (class in cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.utils.formatter_functions), 172
tribute), 37 BuiltinCheckYesNo (class in cali-
auto_repeat (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at- bre.utils.formatter_functions), 179
tribute), 256 BuiltinCmp (class in cali-
auto_trim_covers (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 184
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source BuiltinConnectedDeviceName (class in cali-
attribute), 238 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
BuiltinConnectedDeviceUUID (class in cali-
B bre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
BasicNewsRecipe (class in calibre.web.feeds.news), BuiltinContains (class in cali-
BCD (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), BuiltinCount (class in cali-
book_class (calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS at- BuiltinCurrentLibraryName (class in cali-
tribute), 254 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
book_type (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.ContainerBuiltinCurrentLibraryPath (class in cali-
attribute), 342 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 176
BookList (class in calibre.devices.interface), 250 BuiltinDaysBetween (class in cali-
booklist_class (calibre.utils.formatter_functions), 173
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS attribute), BuiltinDivide (class in cali-
books() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin BuiltinEval (class in cali-
books() (calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS BuiltinField (class in cali-
books_for_field() (calibre.db.cache.Cache BuiltinFieldExists (class in cali-
BuiltinFinishFormatting (class in cali-
376 Index
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 174 bre.utils.formatter_functions), 183

BuiltinFirstMatchingCmp (class in cali- BuiltinListUnion (class in cali-
BuiltinFirstNonEmpty (class in cali- BuiltinLookup (class in cali-
BuiltinFloor (class in cali- BuiltinLowercase (class in cali-
BuiltinFormatDate (class in cali- BuiltinMod (class in cali-
BuiltinFormatNumber (class in cali- BuiltinMultiply (class in cali-
BuiltinFormatsModtimes (class in cali- BuiltinNot (class in cali-
BuiltinFormatsPaths (class in cali- BuiltinOndevice (class in cali-
BuiltinFormatsSizes (class in cali- BuiltinOr (class in calibre.utils.formatter_functions),
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 177 173
BuiltinFractionalPart (class in cali- BuiltinPrint (class in cali-
BuiltinHasCover (class in cali- BuiltinRatingToStars (class in cali-
BuiltinHumanReadable (class in cali- BuiltinRawField (class in cali-
BuiltinIdentifierInList (class in cali- BuiltinRawList (class in cali-
BuiltinIfempty (class in cali- BuiltinRe (class in calibre.utils.formatter_functions),
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 179 185
BuiltinInList (class in cali- BuiltinReGroup (class in cali-
BuiltinIsMarked (class in cali- BuiltinRound (class in cali-
BuiltinLanguageCodes (class in cali- BuiltinSelect (class in cali-
BuiltinLanguageStrings (class in cali- BuiltinSeriesSort (class in cali-
BuiltinListCountMatching (class in cali- BuiltinSetGlobals (class in cali-
BuiltinListDifference (class in cali- BuiltinShorten (class in cali-
BuiltinListEquals (class in cali- BuiltinStrcat (class in cali-
BuiltinListIntersection (class in cali- BuiltinStrcatMax (class in cali-
BuiltinListitem (class in cali- BuiltinStrcmp (class in cali-
BuiltinListRe (class in cali- BuiltinStrInList (class in cali-
BuiltinListReGroup (class in cali- BuiltinStrlen (class in cali-
BuiltinListRemoveDuplicates (class in cali- BuiltinSubitems (class in cali-
BuiltinListSort (class in cali- BuiltinSublist (class in cali-
BuiltinListSplit (class in cali- BuiltinSubstr (class in cali-
Index 377
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 186 calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base

BuiltinSubtract (class in cali- module, 238
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 173 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container
BuiltinSwapAroundArticles (class in cali- module, 341
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 187 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover
BuiltinSwapAroundComma (class in cali- module, 347
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 187 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css
BuiltinSwitch (class in cali- module, 347
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 180 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket
BuiltinTemplate (class in cali- module, 346
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 184 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty
BuiltinTest (class in cali- module, 346
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 179 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace
BuiltinTitlecase (class in cali- module, 345
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 185 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split
BuiltinToday (class in cali- module, 346
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 174 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc
BuiltinTransliterate (class in cali- module, 348
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 187 calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss
BuiltinUppercase (class in cali- module, 350
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 185 calibre.utils.formatter_functions
BuiltinUserCategories (class in cali- module, 171
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 178 calibre.web.feeds.news
BuiltinVirtualLibraries (class in cali- module, 33
bre.utils.formatter_functions), 179 calibre-customize command line option
--add-plugin, 274
C --build-plugin, 274
Cache (class in calibre.db.cache), 335 --customize-plugin, 274
cached_cover_url_is_reliable (cali- --disable-plugin, 274
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source --enable-plugin, 274
attribute), 238 --help, 274
calibre command line option --list-plugins, 274
--detach, 273 --remove-plugin, 274
--help, 273 --version, 274
--ignore-plugins, 273 -a, 274
--no-update-check, 273 -b, 274
--shutdown-running-calibre, 273 -h, 274
--start-in-tray, 274 -l, 274
--verbose, 274 -r, 274
--version, 274 calibre-debug command line option
--with-library, 274 --add-simple-plugin, 275
-h, 273 --command, 275
-s, 273 --debug-device-driver, 275
-v, 274 --default-programs, 275
calibre.customize --diff, 275
module, 233 --edit-book, 275
calibre.customize.conversion --exec-file, 275
module, 241 --explode-book, 275
calibre.db.cache --export-all-calibre-data, 275
module, 335 --fix-multiprocessing, 275
calibre.devices.interface --gui, 275
module, 244 --gui-debug, 275
calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base --help, 276
module, 187 --implode-book, 276
378 Index
--import-calibre-data, 276 --ignored-fields, 278

--inspect-mobi, 276 --listen-on, 278
--paths, 276 --log, 278
--reinitialize-db, 276 --manage-users, 278
--run-plugin, 276 --max-header-line-size, 278
--shutdown-running-calibre, 276 --max-job-time, 278
--subset-font, 276 --max-jobs, 278
--test-build, 276 --max-log-size, 278
--version, 276 --max-opds-items, 278
--viewer, 276 --max-opds-ungrouped-items, 278
-c, 275 --max-request-body-size, 279
-d, 275 --num-per-page, 279
-e, 275 --pidfile, 279
-f, 276 --port, 279
-g, 275 --search-the-net-urls, 279
-h, 276 --shutdown-timeout, 279
-i, 276 --ssl-certfile, 279
-m, 276 --ssl-keyfile, 279
-r, 276 --timeout, 279
-s, 276 --trusted-ips, 279
-t, 275 --url-prefix, 279
-w, 276 --userdb, 279
-x, 275 --version, 279
calibre-server command line option --worker-count, 279
--access-log, 277 -h, 278
--ajax-timeout, 277 calibre-smtp command line option
--auth-mode, 277 --attachment, 280
--auto-reload, 277 --cafile, 281
--ban-after, 277 --dont-verify-server-certificate,
--ban-for, 277 281
--book-list-mode, 277 --encryption-method, 281
--compress-min-size, 277 --fork, 280
--custom-list-template, 277 --help, 280
--daemonize, 277 --localhost, 280
--disable-allow-socket-preallocation, --outbox, 280
277 --password, 281
--disable-auth, 277 --port, 281
--disable-fallback-to-detected-interface,--relay, 281
277 --subject, 280
--disable-local-write, 277 --timeout, 280
--disable-log-not-found, 278 --username, 281
--disable-use-bonjour, 278 --verbose, 280
--disable-use-sendfile, 278 --version, 280
--displayed-fields, 277 -a, 280
--enable-allow-socket-preallocation, -e, 281
277 -f, 280
--enable-auth, 277 -h, 280
--enable-fallback-to-detected-interface, -l, 280
277 -o, 280
--enable-local-write, 277 -p, 281
--enable-log-not-found, 278 -r, 281
--enable-use-bonjour, 278 -s, 280
--enable-use-sendfile, 278 -t, 280
--help, 278 -u, 281
Index 379
-v, 280 --genre-source-field, 289

calibredb-add command line option --header-note-source-field, 289
-1, 285 --ids, 288
-I, 284 --merge-comments-rule, 289
-S, 284 --output-profile, 289
-T, 284 --prefix-rules, 289
--add, 285 --preset, 289
--authors, 284 --search, 288
--automerge, 284 --thumb-width, 289
--cover, 284 --use-existing-cover, 289
--duplicates, 284 --verbose, 288
--empty, 284 -i, 288
--identifier, 284 -s, 288
--ignore, 285 -v, 288
--isbn, 284 calibredb-check_library command line
--languages, 284 option
--one-book-per-directory, 285 --csv, 291
--recurse, 285 --ignore_extensions, 291
--series, 284 --ignore_names, 291
--series-index, 284 --report, 291
--tags, 284 -c, 291
--title, 284 -e, 291
-a, 284 -n, 291
-c, 284 -r, 291
-d, 284 calibredb-custom_columns command line
-e, 284 option
-i, 284 --details, 290
-l, 284 -d, 290
-m, 284 calibredb-embed_metadata command line
-r, 285 option
-s, 284 --only-formats, 293
-t, 284 -f, 293
calibredb-add_custom_column command calibredb-export command line option
line option --all, 287
--display, 290 --dont-asciiize, 287
--is-multiple, 290 --dont-save-cover, 287
calibredb-add_format command line --dont-update-metadata, 287
option --dont-write-opf, 287
--dont-replace, 285 --formats, 287
calibredb-backup_metadata command line --progress, 287
option --replace-whitespace, 287
--all, 292 --single-dir, 287
calibredb-catalog command line option --template, 287
--catalog-title, 288 --timefmt, 287
--cross-reference-authors, 288 --to-dir, 287
--debug-pipeline, 288 --to-lowercase, 287
--exclude-genre, 288 calibredb-list command line option
--exclusion-rules, 288 --ascending, 283
--generate-authors, 288 --fields, 283
--generate-descriptions, 288 --for-machine, 283
--generate-genres, 288 --limit, 283
--generate-recently-added, 288 --line-width, 283
--generate-series, 288 --prefix, 283
--generate-titles, 289 --search, 283
380 Index
--separator, 283 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),

--sort-by, 283 246
-f, 283 can_handle_windows() (cali-
-s, 283 bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
-w, 283 253
calibredb-list_categories command line CAN_SET_METADATA (cali-
option bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
--categories, 292 244
--csv, 292 canonicalize_internal_url() (cali-
--dialect, 292 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
--item_count, 292 33
--width, 292 capabilities (cali-
-c, 292 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
-i, 292 attribute), 238
-r, 292 card_prefix() (cali-
-w, 292 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
calibredb-remove command line option 247
--permanent, 285 card_prefix() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device
calibredb-remove_custom_column command method), 252
line option CatalogPlugin (class in calibre.customize), 237
--force, 290 category (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin at-
-f, 290 tribute), 259
calibredb-restore_database command category_order (cali-
line option bre.customize.PreferencesPlugin attribute),
--really-do-it, 291 259
-r, 291 center_navbar (cali-
calibredb-search command line option bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
--limit, 293 tribute), 37
-l, 293 change_font() (in module cali-
calibredb-set_custom command line bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.fonts), 347
option changed_signal (cali-
--append, 291 bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
-a, 291 attribute), 259
calibredb-set_metadata command line clean_downloaded_metadata() (cali-
option bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
--field, 286 method), 239
--list-fields, 286 cleanup() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
-f, 286 method), 34
-l, 286 CLI (class in calibre.devices.usbms.cli), 254
calibredb-show_metadata command line cli_main() (calibre.customize.Plugin method), 235
option cli_options (calibre.customize.CatalogPlugin
--as-opf, 286 attribute), 237
can_be_disabled (calibre.customize.Plugin at- clone_browser() (cali-
tribute), 234 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
CAN_DO_DEVICE_DB_PLUGBOARD (cali- 34
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), close_editor() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
244 method), 350
can_get_multiple_covers (cali- command line option
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source --help, 282
attribute), 238 --library-path, 282
can_handle() (cali- --password, 282
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), --timeout, 283
246 --username, 283
can_handle_windows() (cali- --version, 283
Index 381
--with-library, 282 convert() (calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin

-h, 282 method), 242
commit() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container convert() (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
method), 342 method), 243
commit() (calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetBase copy_cover_to() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
method), 260 336
commit() (calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterfacecopy_format_to() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
commit_all_editors_to_container() (cal- core_usage (calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
ibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method), attribute), 241
350 cover() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 336
commit_item() (cali- cover_margins (cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
method), 342 tribute), 38
common_options (cali- create_action() (cali-
bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin bre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool method),
attribute), 242 349
common_options (cali- create_inline_toc() (in module cali-
bre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc), 348
attribute), 242 create_menu_action() (cali-
compress_covers() (calibre.db.cache.Cache bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
method), 336 257
compress_news_images (cali- create_widget() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.customize.PreferencesPlugin method),
tribute), 37 259
compress_news_images_auto_size (cali- CSS, 355
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- current_container() (cali-
tribute), 38 bre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool property),
compress_news_images_max_size (cali- 349
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- currently_editing() (cali-
tribute), 38 bre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss property),
config_help_message (cali- 350
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source custom_field_keys() (cali-
attribute), 238 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
config_widget (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin method), 188
attribute), 258 customization_help() (calibre.customize.Plugin
config_widget() (calibre.customize.Plugin method), 235
method), 234 customization_help() (cali-
config_widget() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin class method), 239
method), 248
config_widget() (cali- D
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source data_for_find_identical_books() (cali-
method), 239 bre.db.cache.Cache method), 336
ConfigWidgetBase (class in cali- data_for_has_book() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
bre.gui2.preferences), 260 method), 336
ConfigWidgetInterface (class in cali- debug_managed_device_detection() (cali-
bre.gui2.preferences), 259 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
Container (class in cali- 245
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container), 341 deepcopy() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
contains(), 149 method), 188
conversion_options (cali- default_cover() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
tribute), 38 34
382 Index
delay (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- --disable-delete-blank-paragraphs,

tribute), 38 298
delete_books() (cali- --disable-fix-indents, 298
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), --disable-font-rescaling, 296
248 --disable-format-scene-breaks, 298
delete_books() (cali- --disable-italicize-common-cases,
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method), 298
255 --disable-markup-chapter-headings,
delete_custom_book_data() (cali- 298
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 336 --disable-remove-fake-margins, 299
description (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234 --disable-renumber-headings, 298
description (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin --disable-unwrap-lines, 298
attribute), 259 --duplicate-links-in-toc, 300
description (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe --embed-all-fonts, 296
attribute), 38 --embed-font-family, 296
description() (cali- --enable-heuristics, 298
bre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin --expand-css, 296
property), 243 --extra-css, 296
detect_managed_devices() (cali- --filter-css, 296
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), --font-size-mapping, 296
245 --from-opf, 301
Device (class in calibre.devices.usbms.device), 252 --help, 295
DevicePlugin (class in calibre.devices.interface), 244 --html-unwrap-factor, 298
dirty() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container --input-profile, 295
method), 342 --insert-blank-line, 296
do_user_config() (calibre.customize.Plugin --insert-blank-line-size, 296
method), 235 --insert-metadata, 299
dont_add_to (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at- --isbn, 301
tribute), 256 --keep-ligatures, 297
dont_remove_from (cali- --language, 301
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction attribute), --level1-toc, 300
257 --level2-toc, 300
download() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe --level3-toc, 300
method), 34 --line-height, 297
download_cover() (cali- --linearize-tables, 297
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source --list-recipes, 295
method), 240 --margin-bottom, 297
drop_event() (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction --margin-left, 297
method), 257 --margin-right, 297
--margin-top, 297
E --max-toc-links, 300
ebook-convert command line option --minimum-line-height, 297
--asciiize, 296 --no-chapters-in-toc, 300
--author-sort, 301 --output-profile, 295
--authors, 301 --page-breaks-before, 299
--base-font-size, 296 --prefer-metadata-cover, 299
--book-producer, 301 --pubdate, 301
--change-justification, 296 --publisher, 301
--chapter, 299 --rating, 301
--chapter-mark, 299 --read-metadata-from-opf, 301
--comments, 301 --remove-first-image, 299
--cover, 301 --remove-paragraph-spacing, 297
--debug-pipeline, 302 --remove-paragraph-spacing-indent-size,
--disable-dehyphenate, 298 297
Index 383
--replace-scene-breaks, 298 --input-encoding, 302

--search-replace, 299 --keep-aspect-ratio, 303
--series, 301 --landscape, 303
--series-index, 301 --no-process, 303
--smarten-punctuation, 297 --no-sort, 303
--sr1-replace, 299 --output-format, 303
--sr1-search, 299 --right2left, 303
--sr2-replace, 299 --wide, 303
--sr2-search, 299 ebook-convert-djvu-input command line
--sr3-replace, 299 option
--sr3-search, 299 --input-encoding, 303
--start-reading-at, 300 ebook-convert-docx-input command line
--subset-embedded-fonts, 297 option
--tags, 301 --docx-inline-subsup, 303
--timestamp, 301 --docx-no-cover, 303
--title, 301 --docx-no-pagebreaks-between-notes,
--title-sort, 301 303
--toc-filter, 300 --input-encoding, 303
--toc-threshold, 300 ebook-convert-docx-output command line
--transform-css-rules, 298 option
--unsmarten-punctuation, 298 --docx-custom-page-size, 308
--use-auto-toc, 300 --docx-no-cover, 308
--verbose, 302 --docx-no-toc, 308
--version, 295 --docx-page-margin-bottom, 308
-d, 302 --docx-page-margin-left, 308
-h, 295 --docx-page-margin-right, 308
-m, 301 --docx-page-margin-top, 308
-v, 302 --docx-page-size, 308
ebook-convert-azw3-output command line --extract-to, 309
option --preserve-cover-aspect-ratio, 309
--dont-compress, 308 --pretty-print, 309
--extract-to, 308 ebook-convert-epub-input command line
--mobi-toc-at-start, 308 option
--no-inline-toc, 308 --input-encoding, 304
--prefer-author-sort, 308 ebook-convert-epub-output command line
--pretty-print, 308 option
--share-not-sync, 308 --dont-split-on-page-breaks, 309
--toc-title, 308 --epub-flatten, 309
ebook-convert-azw4-input command line --epub-inline-toc, 309
option --epub-toc-at-end, 309
--input-encoding, 302 --epub-version, 309
ebook-convert-chm-input command line --extract-to, 309
option --flow-size, 309
--input-encoding, 302 --no-default-epub-cover, 309
ebook-convert-comic-input command line --no-svg-cover, 309
option --preserve-cover-aspect-ratio, 309
--colors, 302 --pretty-print, 309
--comic-image-size, 302 --toc-title, 310
--despeckle, 302 ebook-convert-fb2-input command line
--disable-trim, 302 option
--dont-add-comic-pages-to-toc, 302 --input-encoding, 304
--dont-grayscale, 302 --no-inline-fb2-toc, 304
--dont-normalize, 302 ebook-convert-fb2-output command line
--dont-sharpen, 302 option
384 Index
--fb2-genre, 310 --dont-compress, 312

--pretty-print, 310 --extract-to, 312
--sectionize, 310 --mobi-file-type, 312
ebook-convert-htlz-input command line --mobi-ignore-margins, 312
option --mobi-keep-original-images, 312
--input-encoding, 304 --mobi-toc-at-start, 312
ebook-convert-html-input command line --no-inline-toc, 312
option --personal-doc, 312
--breadth-first, 304 --prefer-author-sort, 312
--dont-package, 304 --pretty-print, 312
--input-encoding, 304 --share-not-sync, 312
--max-levels, 304 --toc-title, 312
ebook-convert-html-output command line ebook-convert-odt-input command line
option option
--extract-to, 310 --input-encoding, 305
--pretty-print, 310 ebook-convert-oeb-output command line
--template-css, 310 option
--template-html, 310 --pretty-print, 313
--template-html-index, 310 ebook-convert-pdb-input command line
ebook-convert-htmlz-output command option
line option --input-encoding, 305
--htmlz-class-style, 311 ebook-convert-pdb-output command line
--htmlz-css-type, 311 option
--htmlz-title-filename, 311 --format, 313
--pretty-print, 311 --inline-toc, 313
ebook-convert-lit-input command line --pdb-output-encoding, 313
option --pretty-print, 313
--input-encoding, 304 -f, 313
ebook-convert-lit-output command line ebook-convert-pdf-input command line
option option
--pretty-print, 311 --input-encoding, 305
ebook-convert-lrf-input command line --new-pdf-engine, 305
option --no-images, 305
--input-encoding, 305 --unwrap-factor, 305
ebook-convert-lrf-output command line ebook-convert-pdf-output command line
option option
--enable-autorotation, 311 --custom-size, 313
--header, 311 --paper-size, 313
--header-format, 311 --pdf-add-toc, 313
--header-separation, 311 --pdf-default-font-size, 313
--minimum-indent, 311 --pdf-footer-template, 313
--mono-family, 311 --pdf-header-template, 313
--pretty-print, 311 --pdf-hyphenate, 313
--render-tables-as-images, 311 --pdf-mark-links, 313
--sans-family, 311 --pdf-mono-family, 313
--serif-family, 311 --pdf-mono-font-size, 313
--pdf-odd-even-offset, 313
--text-size-multiplier-for-rendered-tables,
311 --pdf-page-margin-bottom, 314
--wordspace, 311 --pdf-page-margin-left, 314
ebook-convert-mobi-input command line --pdf-page-margin-right, 314
option --pdf-page-margin-top, 314
--input-encoding, 305 --pdf-page-number-map, 314
ebook-convert-mobi-output command line --pdf-page-numbers, 314
option --pdf-sans-family, 314
Index 385
--pdf-serif-family, 314 ebook-convert-tcr-input command line

--pdf-standard-font, 314 option
--pdf-use-document-margins, 314 --input-encoding, 307
--preserve-cover-aspect-ratio, 314 ebook-convert-tcr-output command line
--pretty-print, 314 option
--toc-title, 314 --pretty-print, 316
--uncompressed-pdf, 314 --tcr-output-encoding, 316
--unit, 314 ebook-convert-txt-input command line
--use-profile-size, 314 option
-u, 314 --formatting-type, 307
ebook-convert-pml-input command line --input-encoding, 307
option --markdown-extensions, 307
--input-encoding, 306 --paragraph-type, 307
ebook-convert-pml-output command line --preserve-spaces, 307
option --txt-in-remove-indents, 307
--full-image-depth, 315 ebook-convert-txt-output command line
--inline-toc, 315 option
--pml-output-encoding, 315 --force-max-line-length, 316
--pretty-print, 315 --inline-toc, 316
ebook-convert-rb-input command line --keep-color, 316
option --keep-image-references, 316
--input-encoding, 306 --keep-links, 316
ebook-convert-rb-output command line --max-line-length, 316
option --newline, 316
--inline-toc, 315 --pretty-print, 316
--pretty-print, 315 --txt-output-encoding, 316
ebook-convert-recipe-input command --txt-output-formatting, 316
line option -n, 316
--dont-download-recipe, 306 ebook-convert-txtz-output command line
--input-encoding, 306 option
--lrf, 306 --force-max-line-length, 317
--password, 306 --inline-toc, 317
--test, 306 --keep-color, 317
--username, 306 --keep-image-references, 317
ebook-convert-rtf-input command line --keep-links, 317
option --max-line-length, 317
--ignore-wmf, 306 --newline, 317
--input-encoding, 306 --pretty-print, 317
ebook-convert-rtf-output command line --txt-output-encoding, 317
option --txt-output-formatting, 317
--pretty-print, 315 -n, 317
ebook-convert-snb-input command line ebook-edit command line option
option --detach, 318
--input-encoding, 307 --help, 318
ebook-convert-snb-output command line --select-text, 318
option --version, 318
--pretty-print, 315 -h, 318
--snb-dont-indent-first-line, 315 ebook-meta command line option
--snb-full-screen, 315 --author-sort, 318
--snb-hide-chapter-name, 315 --authors, 318
--snb-insert-empty-line, 315 --book-producer, 318
--snb-max-line-length, 315 --category, 318
--snb-output-encoding, 316 --comments, 318
--cover, 318
386 Index
--date, 318 -u, 320

--from-opf, 318 ebook-viewer command line option
--get-cover, 319 --continue, 321
--help, 319 --detach, 321
--identifier, 319 --force-reload, 321
--index, 319 --full-screen, 321
--isbn, 319 --fullscreen, 321
--language, 319 --help, 321
--lrf-bookid, 319 --open-at, 321
--publisher, 319 --raise-window, 321
--rating, 319 --version, 321
--series, 319 -f, 321
--tags, 319 -h, 321
--title, 319 edit_file() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
--title-sort, 319 method), 350
--to-opf, 319 eject() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin
--version, 319 method), 246
-a, 318 eject() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
-c, 318 253
-d, 318 embed_metadata() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
-h, 319 method), 337
-i, 319 encoding (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
-k, 318 attribute), 38
-l, 319 exists() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
-p, 319 method), 342
-r, 319 extra_css (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
-s, 319 attribute), 38
-t, 319 extract_readable_article() (cali-
ebook-polish command line option bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
-H, 320 34
-U, 321
--add-soft-hyphens, 320 F
--compress-images, 320 fast_field_for() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
--cover, 320 method), 337
--embed-fonts, 320 feeds (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
--help, 320 tribute), 38
--jacket, 320 fetch-ebook-metadata command line
--opf, 320 option
--remove-jacket, 320 -I, 322
--remove-soft-hyphens, 320 --allowed-plugin, 322
--remove-unused-css, 320 --authors, 322
--smarten-punctuation, 320 --cover, 322
--subset-fonts, 320 --help, 322
--upgrade-book, 321 --identifier, 322
--verbose, 321 --isbn, 322
--version, 321 --opf, 322
-c, 320 --timeout, 322
-e, 320 --title, 322
-f, 320 --verbose, 322
-h, 320 --version, 322
-i, 320 -a, 322
-j, 320 -c, 322
-o, 320 -d, 322
-p, 320 -h, 322
Index 387
-i, 322 247

-o, 322 free_space() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device
-p, 322 method), 253
-t, 322 from_files() (in module cali-
-v, 322 bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc), 348
field_for() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 337 from_links() (in module cali-
field_ids_for() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc), 348
337 from_xpaths() (in module cali-
file_type (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc), 348
attribute), 242
file_types (calibre.customize.CatalogPlugin at- G
tribute), 237 generate_item() (cali-
file_types (calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
file_types (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin at- genesis() (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction
tribute), 236 method), 258
file_types (calibre.customize.MetadataReaderPlugin genesis() (calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
file_types (calibre.customize.MetadataWriterPlugin get_all_standard_metadata() (cali-
attribute), 237 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
filename_callback() (cali- method), 188
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method), get_all_user_metadata() (cali-
254 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
filesize() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container method), 188
method), 342 get_annotations() (cali-
FileTypePlugin (class in calibre.customize), 236 bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
filter_css() (in module cali- 254
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css), 347 get_article_url() (cali-
filter_regexps (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- 34
tribute), 39 get_author_tokens() (cali-
find_identical_books() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 337 method), 239
fix_all_html() (in module cali- get_book_url() (cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
fix_html() (in module cali- method), 239
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 get_book_url_name() (cali-
for_viewer (calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
format() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 337 get_book_urls() (cali-
format_abspath() (calibre.db.cache.Cache bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
format_field() (cali- get_browser() (cali-
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
method), 189 34
format_hash() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), get_cached_cover_url() (cali-
337 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
format_metadata() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 240
method), 337 get_categories() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
FORMATS (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), 338
attribute), 244 get_collections() (cali-
formats() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 338 bre.devices.interface.BookList method),
free_space() (cali- 251
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
388 Index
get_cover_url() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 338

bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), get_obfuscated_article() (cali-
34 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
get_custom_book_data() (cali- 35
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 338 get_option() (cali-
get_device_information() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), 250
247 get_proxy_metadata() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
get_device_information() (cali- method), 338
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method), get_recommended_folders() (in module cali-
254 bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace), 345
get_device_uid() (cali- get_standard_metadata() (cali-
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
249 method), 188
get_driveinfo() (cali- get_title_tokens() (cali-
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
247 method), 239
get_extra_css() (cali- get_usage_count_by_id() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), bre.db.cache.Cache method), 338
34 get_user_blacklisted_devices() (cali-
get_feeds() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
method), 34 249
get_file() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin get_user_metadata() (cali-
method), 248 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
get_file_path_for_processing() (cali- method), 188
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container gui() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool property),
method), 342 348
get_id_map() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 338 gui_category (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin
get_identifiers() (cali- attribute), 259
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata gui_configuration_widget() (cali-
method), 188 bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
get_ids_for_custom_book_data() (cali- method), 242
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 338 gui_configuration_widget() (cali-
get_images() (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin method), 243
method), 242 gui_layout_complete() (cali-
get_item_id() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
338 258
get_item_ids() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), gui_name (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin at-
338 tribute), 259
get_item_name() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), guide_type_map() (cali-
get_masthead_title() (cali- property), 342
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
35 H
get_masthead_url() (cali- handle_gzip (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), attribute), 39
35 has_book() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 338
get_metadata() (cali- has_format() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339
bre.customize.MetadataReaderPlugin method), has_html_comments (cali-
237 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
get_metadata() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), attribute), 238
338 has_id() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339
get_next_series_num_for() (cali-
Index 389
has_name() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.ContainerInterfaceAction (class in calibre.gui2.actions), 256

method), 342 InterfaceActionBase (class in calibre.customize),
href_to_name() (cali- 258
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container InternalMetadataCompareKeyGen (class in cal-
method), 343 ibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base), 241
HTML, 355 is_configured() (cali-
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
I method), 238
icon (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin attribute), is_dir (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
259 attribute), 343
icon (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), is_dynamically_controllable() (cali-
244 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
id_from_url() (cali- 249
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source is_image_collection (cali-
method), 240 bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
identify() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source attribute), 241
method), 240 is_link_wanted() (cali-
identify_results_keygen() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source 35
method), 240 is_null() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
ignore_connected_device() (cali- method), 188
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), is_running() (cali-
ignore_duplicate_articles (cali- 250
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- is_usb_connected() (cali-
tribute), 39 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
ignore_ssl_errors (cali- 245
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source iterlinks() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
image_url_processor() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe class K
method), 35 keep_only_tags (cali-
index_to_soup() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), tribute), 39
35
init() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339 L
initialization_complete() (cali- language (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method), attribute), 39
258 library_changed() (cali-
initialize() (calibre.customize.CatalogPlugin bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
method), 237 258
initialize() (calibre.customize.Plugin method), load_actual_plugin() (cali-
234 bre.customize.InterfaceActionBase method),
initialize() (cali- 258
bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetBase load_resources() (calibre.customize.Plugin
initialize() (cali- load_resources() (cali-
bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
method), 259 258
InputFormatPlugin (class in cali- location_selected() (cali-
bre.customize.conversion), 241 bre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
insert_into_xml() (cali- 258
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container LRF, 355
method), 343 lrf2lrs command line option
390 Index
--dont-output-resources, 323 match_regexps (cali-

--help, 323 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
--output, 323 tribute), 39
--verbose, 323 max_articles_per_feed (cali-
--version, 323 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
-h, 323 tribute), 39
-o, 323 MAX_PATH_LEN (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device
lrfviewer command line option attribute), 252
--disable-hyphenation, 323 merge() (in module calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split),
--help, 323 346
--profile, 323 Metadata (class in cali-
--verbose, 323 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base), 187
--version, 323 metadata_for_field() (cali-
--visual-debug, 323 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
--white-background, 323 method), 188
-h, 323 MetadataReaderPlugin (class in cali-
lrs2lrf command line option bre.customize), 237
--help, 324 MetadataWriterPlugin (class in cali-
--lrs, 324 bre.customize), 237
--output, 324 mi() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
--verbose, 324 property), 343
--version, 324 minimum_calibre_version (cali-
-h, 324 bre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234
-o, 324 module
calibre.customize, 233
M calibre.customize.conversion, 241
make_name_unique() (cali- calibre.db.cache, 335
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container calibre.devices.interface, 244
method), 343 calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base,
MANAGES_DEVICE_PRESENCE (cali- 187
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base,
245 238
manifest_has_name() (cali- calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container,
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container 341
method), 343 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover, 347
manifest_id_map() (cali- calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css, 347
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket,
property), 343 346
manifest_items_of_type() (cali- calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty,
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container 346
method), 343 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace,
manifest_items_with_property() (cali- 345
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split, 346
method), 343 calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.toc, 348
manifest_type_map() (cali- calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss, 350
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container calibre.utils.formatter_functions,
property), 343 171
mark_as_cover() (in module cali- calibre.web.feeds.news, 33
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover), 347 multisort() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339
mark_as_titlepage() (in module cali- multisplit() (in module cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover), 347 bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split), 346
masthead_url (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- N
tribute), 39 name (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234
Index 391
name (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction attribute), open() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container

256 method), 343
name (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool attribute), open_book() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
348 method), 350
name(), 149 OPEN_FEEDBACK_MESSAGE (cali-
name_order (calibre.customize.PreferencesPlugin at- bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
tribute), 259 244
name_to_abspath() (cali- opf() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container property), 343
method), 343 opf_get_or_create() (cali-
name_to_href() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
method), 343 opf_version() (cali-
names_that_must_not_be_changed() (cal- bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
ibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container property), 344
property), 343 opf_version_parsed() (cali-
names_that_must_not_be_removed() (cal- bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
ibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container property), 344
property), 343 opf_xpath() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
names_that_need_not_be_manifested() method), 344
(calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container options (calibre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
property), 343 attribute), 242
needs_subscription (cali- options (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- attribute), 243
tribute), 40 options (calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
NEWS_IN_FOLDER (cali- attribute), 238
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device attribute), OSX_MAIN_MEM_VOL_PAT (cali-
252 bre.devices.usbms.device.Device attribute),
no_stylesheets (cali- 252
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- output_encoding (cali-
tribute), 40 bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
normalize_path() (cali- attribute), 241
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS class OutputFormatPlugin (class in cali-
method), 255 bre.customize.conversion), 242
NUKE_COMMENTS (cali-
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute), P
245 parse_feeds() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
O 35
oldest_article (cali- parse_index() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
tribute), 40 35
on_import (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin at- parsed() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
on_postimport (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin at- path_sep (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin at-
tribute), 236 tribute), 244
on_postprocess (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin Plugin (class in calibre.customize), 234
attribute), 236 populate_article_metadata() (cali-
on_preprocess (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin at- bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
tribute), 236 36
open() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin popup_type (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at-
open() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device method), post_yank_cleanup() (cali-
392 Index
246 publication_type (cali-

post_yank_cleanup() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method), tribute), 40
254
postadd() (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin method), R
236 raw_data() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
postimport() (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin method), 344
method), 236 re:test(), 149
postprocess_book() (cali- read_backup() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin 339
method), 242 recipe, 355
postprocess_book() (cali- recipe_disabled (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
36 tribute), 40
postprocess_html() (cali- recommendations (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
36 attribute), 242
pref() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339 recommendations (cali-
prefer_results_with_isbn (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source attribute), 243
attribute), 238 recursions (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe
PreferencesPlugin (class in calibre.customize), attribute), 40
258 refresh_gui() (cali-
prepare_addable_books() (calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), method), 260
249 regexp, 355
preprocess_html() (cali- register() (calibre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetBase
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), method), 260
36 register_shortcut() (cali-
preprocess_image() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool method),
36 relpath() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
preprocess_raw_html() (cali- method), 344
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method), remove_attributes (cali-
36 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
preprocess_regexps (cali- tribute), 40
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- remove_book() (calibre.devices.interface.BookList
pretty_all() (in module cali- remove_books() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method),
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 339
pretty_css() (in module cali- remove_books_from_metadata() (cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin class
pretty_html() (in module cali- method), 248
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 remove_books_from_metadata() (cali-
pretty_xml() (in module calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method),
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.pretty), 346 255
print_version() (cali- remove_empty_feeds (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe class bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
priority (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234 remove_formats() (calibre.db.cache.Cache
priority (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction at- method), 339
tribute), 256 remove_from_spine() (cali-
PRODUCT_ID (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
Index 393
remove_from_xml() (cali- restore_defaults() (cali-

bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetBase
remove_item() (cali- restore_defaults() (cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
remove_items() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), restore_defaults_desc (cali-
339 bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface
remove_jacket() (in module cali- attribute), 259
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.jacket), 346 restore_original_format() (cali-
remove_javascript (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 339
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- reverse_article_order (cali-
tribute), 40 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
remove_stale_user_metadata() (cali- tribute), 41
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata rewind_savepoint() (cali-
method), 189 bre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method),
remove_tags (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe 350
attribute), 40 RSS, 355
remove_tags_after (cali- run() (calibre.customize.CatalogPlugin method), 238
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- run() (calibre.customize.FileTypePlugin method), 236
tribute), 41
remove_tags_before (cali- S
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- safe_read_lock() (calibre.db.cache.Cache prop-
tribute), 41 erty), 339
remove_unused_css() (in module cali- sanitize_callback() (cali-
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.css), 347 bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
rename() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container 254
method), 344 sanitize_path_components() (cali-
rename_files() (in module calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace), 345 254
rename_items() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), save_book() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
339 method), 350
replace() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Containersave_original_format() (cali-
method), 344 bre.db.cache.Cache method), 340
replace_links() (cali- save_settings() (calibre.customize.Plugin
method), 344 save_settings() (cali-
replace_links() (in module calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin class
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.replace), 345 method), 248
requires_version (cali- save_settings() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
reset() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin scale_news_images (cali-
method), 245 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
reset() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device method), tribute), 41
252 scale_news_images_to_device (cali-
resolve_internal_links (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe attribute), 41
tribute), 41 search() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 340
restart_critical (cali- serialize_item() (cali-
bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
restore_book() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), set_all_user_metadata() (cali-
339 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
394 Index
method), 188 350

set_conversion_options() (cali- show_editor() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss
bre.db.cache.Cache method), 340 method), 351
set_cover() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 340 shutdown() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin
set_cover() (in module cali- method), 249
bre.ebooks.oeb.polish.cover), 347 shutting_down() (cali-
set_driveinfo_name() (calibre.gui2.actions.InterfaceAction method),
249 simultaneous_downloads (cali-
set_driveinfo_name() (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method), tribute), 41
254 skip_ad_pages() (cali-
set_field() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 340 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
set_identifier() (cali- 37
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata SLOW_DRIVEINFO (cali-
method), 188 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
set_identifiers() (cali- 245
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata smart_update() (cali-
method), 188 bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
set_library_info() (cali- method), 189
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), sort_index_by() (cali-
249 bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe method),
set_metadata() (cali- 37
bre.customize.MetadataWriterPlugin method), Source (class in cali-
237 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base), 238
set_metadata() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), specialize() (cali-
340 bre.customize.conversion.InputFormatPlugin
set_modified() (calibre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method), 242
method), 350 specialize_css_for_output() (cali-
set_option() (calibre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), method), 243
250 specialize_global_preferences() (cali-
set_plugboards() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
248 specialize_options() (cali-
set_pref() (calibre.db.cache.Cache method), 340 bre.customize.conversion.OutputFormatPlugin
set_progress_reporter() (cali- method), 243
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), spine_items() (cali-
set_progress_reporter() (cali- property), 345
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method), spine_iter() (cali-
set_spine() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container property), 345
method), 345 spine_names() (cali-
set_user_blacklisted_devices() (calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.container.Container
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), property), 345
249 split() (in module calibre.ebooks.oeb.polish.split),
set_user_metadata() (cali- 346
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata split_jobs() (cali-
method), 189 bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
settings() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), 239
class method), 248 standard_field_keys() (cali-
show_current_diff() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
bre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method), method), 188
Index 395
STANDARD_METADATA_FIELDS (in module cali- THUMBNAIL_COMPRESSION_QUALITY (cali-

bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base), 189 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
start_plugin() (cali- 244
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), THUMBNAIL_HEIGHT (cali-
250 bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
startup() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin 244
method), 249 timefmt (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
stop_plugin() (cali- tribute), 41
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), timeout (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
250 tribute), 41
summary_length (cali- title (calibre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe attribute), 41
tribute), 41 to_html() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata
supported_platforms (calibre.customize.Plugin method), 189
attribute), 234 Tool (class in calibre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin), 348
supports_collections() (cali- toolbar_button_popup_mode (cali-
bre.devices.interface.BookList method), bre.gui2.tweak_book.plugin.Tool attribute),
251 348
supports_gzip_transfer_encoding (cal- total_space() (cali-
ibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
attribute), 238 247
supports_restoring_to_defaults (cali- total_space() (calibre.devices.usbms.device.Device
bre.gui2.preferences.ConfigWidgetInterface method), 252
attribute), 259 touched_fields (cali-
sync_booklists() (calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method), attribute), 238
248 type (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234
sync_booklists() (cali-
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method), U
255 upload_books() (cali-
sync_preview_to_editor() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin method),
bre.gui2.tweak_book.boss.Boss method), 247
351 upload_books() (cali-
synchronize_with_db() (calibre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method),
250 upload_cover() (cali-
bre.devices.usbms.driver.USBMS method),
T 255
tag_to_string() (cali- URL, 355
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe class USBMS (class in calibre.devices.usbms.driver), 254
method), 37 use_embedded_content (cali-
tags_older_than() (calibre.db.cache.Cache bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at-
template_css (cali- user_categories_for_books() (cali-
bre.web.feeds.news.BasicNewsRecipe at- bre.db.cache.Cache method), 341
tribute), 41 user_feedback_after_callback (cali-
template_to_attribute() (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
bre.ebooks.metadata.book.base.Metadata 245
method), 189 UserAnnotation (cali-
temporary_file() (calibre.customize.Plugin bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
method), 235 244
test_fields() (cali-
bre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base.Source V
method), 239 VENDOR_ID (calibre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin at-
396 Index
tribute), 244
version (calibre.customize.Plugin attribute), 234
VIRTUAL_BOOK_EXTENSION_MESSAGE (cali-
bre.devices.interface.DevicePlugin attribute),
244
VIRTUAL_BOOK_EXTENSIONS (cali-
244
W
WANTS_UPDATED_THUMBNAILS (cali-
244
web2disk command line option
--base-dir, 324
--delay, 324
--dont-download-stylesheets, 324
--encoding, 324
--filter-regexp, 324
--help, 324
--match-regexp, 324
--max-files, 325
--max-recursions, 325
--timeout, 325
--verbose, 325
--version, 325
-d, 324
-h, 324
-n, 325
-r, 325
-t, 325
WINDOWS_CARD_A_MEM (cali-
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device attribute),
252
WINDOWS_CARD_B_MEM (cali-
252
WINDOWS_MAIN_MEM (cali-
252
windows_sort_drives() (cali-
bre.devices.usbms.device.Device method),
253
Index 397

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calibre User Manual

March 26, 2021

1 The Graphical User Interface 3

2 Adding your favorite news website 25

3 The E-book viewer 43

6 The calibre Content server 101

7 Comparing e-books 109

8 Editing e-book metadata 113

9 Frequently Asked Questions 117

11 The calibre:// URL scheme 229

12 Customizing calibre 233

13 Command Line Interface 273

14 Setting up a calibre development environment 327

15 Digital Rights Management (DRM) 353

Python Module Index 357

THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

• Add books (page 4)

1.1.1 Add books

4 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.1.2 Edit metadata

1.1.3 Convert books

1.1.5 Send to device

6 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.1.6 Fetch news

5. Remove library: Allows you to unregister a library from calibre.

1.1.9 Save to disk

8 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.1.11 Remove books

10 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.4 Search & sort

1.4. Search & sort 11

1.5 The search interface

Asimov Foundation format:lrf

author:Asimov and not series:Foundation

pubdate:>2000-1 Will find all books published after Jan, 2000

12 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

size:>1.1M Will find books with a format larger than 1.1MB

cover:false will give you all books without a cover

1.5. The search interface 13

Fig. 1: Advanced search dialog

– template:"program: select(formats_sizes(), 'EPUB')#@#:n:>1000000" –

14 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

• template:"program: select(formats_modtimes('iso'), 'EPUB')#@#:d:>10daysago"

1.6 Saving searches

1.7 Virtual libraries

1.8 Guessing metadata from ﬁle names

Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov.txt

1.6. Saving searches 15

1.9 Book details

16 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.9. Book details 17

1.10 Tag browser

18 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.10. Tag browser 19

1.11 Cover grid

20 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface

1.12 Cover browser

1.12. Cover browser 21

1.15 Keyboard shortcuts

22 Chapter 1. The Graphical User Interface