Calibre 9.14 adds AI-generated ebook covers
The new editor tool can build custom covers through external AI providers, and the release drops GitHub support after GitHub Models was retired.
Calibre 9.14, released on 28 August, added an "AI Generate" button to the book editor that can create new ebook covers and apply them to existing titles. The feature depends on an external image-generation provider with an API key.
According to Calibre's release notes, the workflow starts by selecting a book, opening "Edit metadata" and then clicking "AI Generate". The first time a user uses it, the program opens a setup screen to configure a provider.
The supported services listed in coverage of the release include Google AI, Grok, OpenAI and OpenRouter. The new tool also comes with preset styles such as romance, sci-fi and pulp fiction, while users can define their own styles as well.
The change broadens Calibre's long-running cover-maker idea, which had relied on more formulaic templates.
Calibre 9.14 also added Anthropic and Grok backends for Claude and Grok models, while removing the GitHub backend because GitHub Models was retired at the end of July. GitHub said that retirement took away the playground, model catalog, inference API and bring your own key access for all customers.
Beyond the AI tools, the release notes also point to fixes for a long-standing Linux build issue where links in some dialog boxes did not always open, including on AI provider setup pages and update notifications. The update also included security fixes for the content server, among them vulnerabilities that could allow arbitrary file writes, remote code execution for authenticated users and cross-site scripting on the legacy book details page.