Beta testers for calibre 9 needed

[jackie_w]

@un_pogaz,

Following @DisabledReader's experiences with emblems I thought I'd add the following...

I also had trouble getting emblems to appear when I first created a rule. No matter what I did no emblems showed.

At the time I was testing several other things so decided to come back to it later. When I did get back to it (after lots of work including multiple calibre restarts) everything was working OK so I assumed it must have been user-error on my part.

Since then I have had several intermittent problems with emblems. I'm afraid I can't be more specific than this but the problem has appeared when the only thing I'm trying to change is emblem position. Once it starts to happen, no matter what new position I choose, then Apply, the emblem is not repositioned. I have checked gui.json and the value stored in "bookshelf_emblem_position" has not changed, or, maybe it did get changed but "something else" immediately overwrote the new value with the old value.

So far, I've been able to make the problem go away by restarting calibre. After that, a simple change emblem position/Apply works OK again and gui.json is updated correctly ... and I'm left wondering whether I imagined the whole thing.

ETA: It seems I can reproduce the error after all:

1. Go into Settings. If you've got multiple emblem rules move a different one to the top and Apply. Everything appears to work OK.
2. Go back into Settings. Just change emblem position and Apply. Emblem doesn't move.
3. Restart calibre and repeat step 2. All OK again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Thanks Kovid, for the option to choose the font of the spine.

Was working on it too, overtaked.

Thank you both for the choice of font on the spine.

[ownedbycats]

Just out of curiosity, i tested shelf view with the longest title in my library

[kovidgoyal]

Released version 8.99.10 with changes:

* Bookshelf: Allow specifying a custom font for spines
* Bookshelf: Option to draw an outline around the spine text
* Bookshelf: The default font used for spine text is now bold
* Bookshelf: Improve performance by caching rendering of spine text
* Only show the sort button on the searchbar if the sort button was not added to the search bar already by the user
* Various minor bug fixes

[JSWolf]

Found another bug. I started calibre 8.99.10, loaded my library, went to the bookshelf view, and no text is showing up in the spine. I'm set for Use default font. I've also changed the font to Arial, restarted, and still nothing.

Line 1 is {title} and line 2 is {author}.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Found another bug. I started calibre 8.99.10, loaded my library, went to the bookshelf view, and no text is showing up in the spine. I'm set for Use default font.

Line 1 is {title} and line 2 is {author}.

Works for me with the only changed bookshelf setting being line 2 of {author}. Are you sure that's all you changed?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Works for me with the only changed bookshelf setting being line 2 of {author}. Are you sure that's all you changed?

All I changed was the font. I had line 1 and line 2 already filled in. I've not changes those. I did have bold selected previously. I've also tried with no plugins and still nothing.

Here is the debug log. It shows no errors.

ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
ApplicationPaletteChange event received
calibre_plugins.favourites_menu.common_menus:50: SyntaxWarning: "\g" is an invalid escape sequence. Such sequences will not work in the future. Did you mean "\\g"? A raw string is also an option.
calibre_plugins.find_duplicates.common_menus:50: SyntaxWarning: "\g" is an invalid escape sequence. Such sequences will not work in the future. Did you mean "\\g"? A raw string is also an option.
calibre_plugins.hyphenatethis.hyphenator.hutils:13: SyntaxWarning: "\s" is an invalid escape sequence. Such sequences will not work in the future. Did you mean "\\s"? A raw string is also an option.
calibre_plugins.hyphenatethis.hyphenator.hutils:14: SyntaxWarning: "\s" is an invalid escape sequence. Such sequences will not work in the future. Did you mean "\\s"? A raw string is also an option.
calibre_plugins.textdiff.main:722: SyntaxWarning: "\s" is an invalid escape sequence. Such sequences will not work in the future. Did you mean "\\s"? A raw string is also an option.
EpubMerge: DEBUG: 2026-01-22 11:52:39,480: calibre_plugins.epubmerge.epubmerge_plugin(156): macmenuhack file_path:C:\Calibre Portable\Calibre Settings\plugins\fanficfare_macmenuhack.txt
calibre Debug log
calibre 8.99.10 Portable embedded-python: True
Windows-11-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '11', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.14.2
Windows: ('11', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Calibre Portable\Calibre\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeACSM (0, 0, 16) && Gather KFX-ZIP (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 15) && Package KFX (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && Apple Books covers (1, 1, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 7) && BookFusion Plugin (0, 8, 1) && Count Pages (1, 14, 5) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 5, 0) && EpubCheck (0, 2, 6) && EpubMerge (3, 2, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 12, 0) && Favourites Menu (1, 3, 1) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Hyphenate This! (0, 1, 4) && KFX metadata reader (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && From KFX (2, 28, 0) && KFX Input (2, 28, 0) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 18, 0) && KFX Output (2, 18, 0) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 8) && Kobo Metadata (1, 12, 0) && Kobo Utilities (2, 25, 0) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 8) && Quality Check (1, 14, 6) && Reading Goal (2, 0, 7) && Reading List (1, 15, 6) && ScrambleEbook (0, 6, 0) && StoryGraph (2, 0, 7) && TextDiff (1, 3, 1)
calibre 8.99.10 Portable embedded-python: True
Windows-11-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '11', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.14.2
Windows: ('11', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Calibre Portable\Calibre\calibre-debug.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeACSM (0, 0, 16) && Gather KFX-ZIP (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 15) && Package KFX (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && Apple Books covers (1, 1, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 7) && BookFusion Plugin (0, 8, 1) && Count Pages (1, 14, 5) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 5, 0) && EpubCheck (0, 2, 6) && EpubMerge (3, 2, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 12, 0) && Favourites Menu (1, 3, 1) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 9) && Hyphenate This! (0, 1, 4) && KFX metadata reader (from KFX Input) (2, 28, 0) && From KFX (2, 28, 0) && KFX Input (2, 28, 0) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 18, 0) && KFX Output (2, 18, 0) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 8) && Kobo Metadata (1, 12, 0) && Kobo Utilities (2, 25, 0) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 8) && Quality Check (1, 14, 6) && Reading Goal (2, 0, 7) && Reading List (1, 15, 6) && ScrambleEbook (0, 6, 0) && StoryGraph (2, 0, 7) && TextDiff (1, 3, 1)
QPA platform: windows
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 120.0 x 120.0
physicalDpi: 170.2198952879581 x 170.12093023255815
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Showing splash screen...
[1.16] splash screen shown
[1.16] Initializing db...
[1.17] db initialized
[1.17] Constructing main UI...
[1.88] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.config:<module>:72] CreateNewCustomColumn is supported
qt.webengine.QWebEngineView OK
[2.45] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.action:KoboUtilitiesAction.genesis:117] Running in optimized mode
Textdiff: self.menu:
[2.84] GUI main window shown
[2.97] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.config:get_library_config:635] library_config: {
    "SchemaVersion": 1,
    "profiles": {},
    "readingPositionChangesStore": {
        "selectBooksInLibrary": false,
        "updeateGoodreadsProgress": false
    },
    "shelvesColumn": null
}
[2.97] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.action:KoboUtilitiesAction.device_driver_name:772] could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
[2.97] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.action:KoboUtilitiesAction.set_toolbar_button_tooltip:177] setting to text='Utilities to use with Kobo ereaders

Driver: KoboTouch'
[3.06] main UI initialized...
[3.06] Hiding splash screen
[3.06] splash screen hidden
[3.06] Started up in 3.06 seconds with 0 books
stdout+stderr from file dialog helper: [b'', b'']
piped data from file dialog helper: [b"D.r\xe7'\x92\x9b\xfbV\x07\xe6\xbf5ul\x01&KG\x81\x9dO8\x11\x8b\xc1\r\xb4BtQ\xd8", b'C:\\Calibre Portable\\Calibre Library\\Jon2']
[16.82] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.config:get_library_config:635] library_config: {
    "SchemaVersion": 1,
    "currentReadingLocationColumn": "",
    "lastReadColumn": "",
    "precentReadColumn": "",
    "profiles": {
        "Jon Libra 2": {
            "customColumnOptions": {
                "currentReadingLocationColumn": "#current",
                "lastReadColumn": "#last",
                "percentReadColumn": "#percent",
                "ratingColumn": "",
                "restOfBookEstimateColumn": "",
                "timeSpentReadingColumn": ""
            },
            "forDevice": "N4181A0100162",
            "profileName": "Jon Libra 2",
            "storeOptionsStore": {
                "doNotStoreIfReopened": true,
                "promptToStore": true,
                "storeIfMoreRecent": true,
                "storeOnConnect": true
            },
            "updateOptionsStore": {
                "doEarlyFirmwareUpdate": false,
                "doFirmwareUpdateCheck": false,
                "firmwareUpdateCheckLastTime": 0
            }
        }
    },
    "ratingColumn": "",
    "readingPositionChangesStore": {
        "selectBooksInLibrary": true,
        "updeateGoodreadsProgress": false
    },
    "shelvesColumn": null
}
[16.82] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.action:KoboUtilitiesAction.device_driver_name:772] could not load extended driver. Exception= No module named 'calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended'
[16.82] [DEBUG] [koboutilities.action:KoboUtilitiesAction.set_toolbar_button_tooltip:177] setting to text='Utilities to use with Kobo ereaders

Driver: KoboTouch'
[62.80] Shutdown starting...
[62.84] Shutdown message shown...
[62.85] Grid view shutdown
[62.85] Bookshelf view shutdown
[62.85] Actions shutdown
[63.05] Various services shutdown
[63.05] Metadata backup shutdown
[63.06] Current database closed
[63.07] Windows hidden
[63.09] Waiting for overseers and live to shutdown
[63.09] Shutdown complete in 0.28, quitting...

[un_pogaz]

Huh, okay, that weird.

When I run Calibre from the binariy, the emblem don't show up, but if I run from source, that work fine.

And I'm on the last beta, 8.99.10

[JSWolf]

Here is a view of my bookshelf settings and the blank books. I also set the colors back to default. If I go back to 8.99.9, I see the text on the spine. I also turned off the GPU and still nothing.

[un_pogaz]

Okay, from binarie, it seem that only the image from calibre are accepted. User can overide them, but additional custom images are not accepted.

It seem that the first rules to match on the entire library is the only one apply, and not by book.

Source behave differently for additional custom images, but the "first rules to match on the entire library" issue is still present.

[JSWolf]

I found the problem. If I uncheck Spine text downwards, the text shows. If I check it, the text on the spine does not show.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found the problem. If I uncheck Spine text downwards, the text shows. If I check it, the text on the spine does not show.

I'm seeing the same problem.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found the problem. If I uncheck Spine text downwards, the text shows. If I check it, the text on the spine does not show.

https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...f600eb381137aa

[BetterRed]

Windows 10 Pro, calibre portable 8.99.10

Switching L&F->User interface layout: from Wide to Narrow is broken, instead of moving the BD panel from right edge to bottom edge it disappears.

Pretty sure it worked in earlier beta releases.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

Okay, from binarie, it seem that only the image from calibre are accepted. User can overide them, but additional custom images are not accepted.

It seem that the first rules to match on the entire library is the only one apply, and not by book.

Source behave differently for additional custom images, but the "first rules to match on the entire library" issue is still present.

The emblem code had several bugs, I have cleaned it up in https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...90bf09615f49f3 but I leave testing it to you as emblems are your thing.