Renowned eBook management tool Calibre has a new landmark release. Calibre 6.0 makes its bow on Windows (64-bit only), Mac and Linux.

Version 6.0 unveils one major headline new feature – full text search across entire eBook libraries. It’s also the first version to support Apple Silicon and Linux ARM64 architectures, but also drops support for Windows 32-bit users.

By far the most notable new feature in Calibre 6.0 is its new search tool, allowing users to perform full-text searches across all books in their library.

After upgrading to version 6, users should first click the ‘FT’ button to the left of the advanced search tool to index their library. Once the index has been created – around four minutes for 60 books stored on an SSD drive – then clicking ‘FT’ will bring up the full-text search tool.

Other visible changes include the ability to set Calibre’s dark mode theme via 'Preferences > Look & feel' – in previous versions users had to set this via an environment variable. Also added to the Look & feel dialog is an option to choose different icon themes for light and dark mode.

Version 6 also sees calibre upgraded to use the Qt 6 API – this update is the reason why Windows 32-bit is no longer supported. Those still running 32-bit Windows can still download the previous version, Calibre 5.44.0. This contains all updates released during the 5.x lifecycle, and is also the recommended release for machines running Windows 8.

The move to Qt 6 may also break compatibility with some existing plugins, although most of those still maintained should have been ported across.

Version 6 also includes all updates added since version 5.0 was released back in September 2020. For a full list, see the program’s changelog.

Calibre 6.0 is available now as an open-source, freeware download for Windows 10/11 64-bit, Mac, and Linux. A 64-bit portable build is also available for Windows users.