BookShelves reads a book’s details from the file when you import it. When they’re wrong or missing, you can change them. Your edits sync to your other devices with iCloud Sync, and you can always go back to what the file said.
Open the editor
Right-click (Mac) or long-press (iPhone and iPad) a book and choose Edit Metadata.
The Mac inspector (⌘ I) and the Information view show details but don’t edit them; use Edit Metadata for that.
What you can change
| Section | Fields |
|---|---|
| Cover | The cover image |
| Book | Title, Subtitle, Author (separate several authors with commas) |
| Description | A synopsis or your own notes |
| Publication | ISBN, Publisher, Language, Published Date |
Tap Save when you’re done.
Undo changes
- Each edited field has a revert button that puts back the value from the file.
- Reset All to Original restores every field at once.
Change the cover
Mac:
- Click Choose Image and pick a file, or
- choose Paste from Clipboard, or
- drag an image onto the cover.
JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, TIFF, GIF and BMP work. Images up to 2400 pixels on the long side look best.
iPhone and iPad: tap Choose Image and pick a photo.
Reset to Original Cover brings back the cover from the file. If a cover is missing or broken, Regenerate Cover in the book’s right-click or long-press menu removes any custom cover and fetches the cover again, from the file or from where the book was downloaded.
Note: For PDFs, comics and other formats that aren’t EPUB, a custom cover is shown in BookShelves only; it isn’t written into the file.
When you send a book to an e-reader (by email or with the Calibre Wireless Server), the file carries your edited title, authors and cover.