The Calibre team has released the latest version of its cross-platform ebook management software. Calibre 3.0 comes about three years after Calibre 2.0. The open source ebook manager lets you download, view and convert ebooks, news and magazines from the web.

You can even create eBooks in Linux with it. Calibre is unarguably the best open source ebook management software out there.

Calibre 3.0 comes along with many new features and improvements that will be of benefit to all its users.

Major changes that have featured include the support for high-resolution displays and completely re-written Content Server that allows users to wirelessly browse and read Calibre ebooks on modern phones and tablets. The books could be stored off-line on the phone’s storage and used with or without Internet connection.

New Features & Improvements in Calibre 3.0

Content Server: This feature has seen a total rewrite of the existing feature. The Calibre Content Server lets you have your ebook available within a local area network. This means you can connect to it using a browser on your desktop PC, notebook, phone or tablet by typing http://localhost:8080 in the address bar. This gives you access to ebooks that have been stored on the server from other devices.

It should be noted that the content server is not run by default. To run it, you need to click on the Connect/Share icon and select the Start Content Server option on the context menu. Calibre 3.0 no longer supports the server or database executable files like calibredb.exe, calibre.exe or calibre-server.exe. These files now have the capability of modifying data.

Supports High Resolution Screens: According to the release, this was “a much requested feature”. Calibre 3.0 now supports high resolution (Retina) screens. It can auto-detect the screen resolution and adjusts itself accordingly when it is started up. The screen resolution can also be managed through Preferences where the user goes to Look & feel then Adjust for high resolution screens.

New Default Icon Set and Icon Themes: Calibre 3.0 now supports the possibility of installing different icon themes which users can choose to suit their tastes. To celebrate their tenth birthday, that was in October 2016, calibre changed its default icons. Anyhow, the old icons are still available as an icon theme for users who want to use it. This option can be found under Preferences > Look & Feel > Icon theme.

Microsoft Word (DOCX) Conversion: Another new feature is that you can now convert book formats to Microsoft Word (DOCX) files. It is also possible for users to go back and forth from Word documents to ebook formats.

Calibre 3.0 Bug Fixes:

Some major bug fixes include:

Kobo driver: Fix for detection of some devices, with SD card not working on macOS

Fix for detection of some devices, with SD card not working on macOS CHM Input: Handle CHM files that have missing or empty root files.

Handle CHM files that have missing or empty root files. Tag browser: Fix preservation of state when recounting and the visible categories have changed.

Check out all the bug fixes.

Calibre 3.0 Downloads

You can download Calibre 3.0 from the official website:

Download Calibre 3.0

Have you already tried the latest release of Calibre 3.0? Share your experience with us in the comment section below.