calibre V1.2 is out, with better support for MTP and minor bug fixes

[Alexander Turcic]

Heads up, fellow calibre fans: The latest version of calibre has just been released which includes better support for MTP devices. MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is a bit different from the normal USB Mass Storage protocol in that it doesn't show the native filesystem to the computer; rather, in order to preserve compatibility across different filesystems, it uses a file hierarchy simulated by the MTP driver. With calibre 1.2, you can now ignore any folders within that hierarchy.

New Features

• Conversion: Add support for the CSS3 rem font size unit
• MTP devices, such as Android tablets/phones: Allow ignoring any folder on the device, not just top level folders. For newly connected devices, also scan /Android/data/com.amazon.kindle for books by default (newer versions of the Kindle app place downloaded files there)
• Speed up sorting when the book list is showing a restricted set of books, such as when the results of a search are displayed or a virtual library is used
• Edit metadata dialog: Add an undo option for the Trim cover button

Bug Fixes

• Amazon metadata download: Update to handle website changes at amazon.com
• PDF Output: Workaround a bug in the library calibre uses to render HTML to PDF that caused text in some documents that used small-caps fonts to not render correctly
• Kobo driver: When a sideloaded kepub is added from a Kobo device to the calibre library, it is added as an epub, but the file copied is corrupt
• Fix changing the user interface language in the welcome wizard causing some parts of the interface to remain in the old language until calibre is restarted
• Fix regression in 1.0 that broke setting author names with the | character in them
• Content server: When running from inside the main calibre program, do not restrict the books shown based on the current virtual library in the main program. If you wish to restrict the books shown in the content server, use Preferences->Sharing over the net
• Output dates in the local timezone instead of UTC when generating CSV catalogs
• Library maintenance: When doing a check library instead of dumping the database to SQL and restoring it, run a VACUUM. This works around various bugs in the dump and restore capabilities of apsw
• Edit metadata dialog: Fix adding an image to an empty comments block not working
• Conversion: Fix font declarations with invalid font-family values causing conversion to abort when subsetting is enabled
• MOBI Output: Fix conversion of some super/sub scripts failing if they are the first or last element in a paragraph
• New database backend: Various improvements to make the backend more robust against databases with invalid/corrupt data in them

New and improved news sources

• Countryfile

As usual, if you need help or if you have any suggestions, don't be shy and join the discussions in the calibre forums.

[holymadness]

The biggest change I've noticed is that book covers load much, much faster in cover grid view. You can scroll through thousands of titles without having to wait for the engine to catch up and deliver the art.

[samy2]

Originally Posted by holymadness

The biggest change I've noticed is that book covers load much, much faster in cover grid view. You can scroll through thousands of titles without having to wait for the engine to catch up and deliver the art.

That was changed a view version early. Maybe you did not every update.

[m31starman]

I have a transformer prime and cannot connect it directly to the computer for Calibre because of the "get list" job that immediately begins to run and errors out after about 1 hr. forcing caliber to close. The mtp device plugin does not give you the option to not get medadata from the device or change what folders it scans while connected. You also cannot stop the job while it is running. I just want to download books to my device not manage it. The only way I can do that is through a wireless connection using an android app at this time.