GNOME EPub Thumbnailer

GNOME EPub Thumbnailer is an open source command-line software that allows users to generate thumbnails for their digital books. It’s a small command-line program that runs in the background and supports only the GNOME desktop environment.

These days, EPUB and MOBI files are mostly used to deliver e-books or ebooks (electronic books) to ebook reader devices, including Kindle and Nook. When working with such files under an open source desktop environment, users will only see the MIME type of the respective file.

Would be great if there would be an easy way to generate covers of each MOBI or EPUB you own, so you can quickly distinguish your ebooks when you interact with them under a Linux-based operating system that runs a modern desktop environment like GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, or Xfce.

Generates thumbnails for eBooks

The project is designed in such a way that it can automagically generate thumbnails for these kind of files, in the background, simply by trying to find a cover in a MOBI or EPUB file and creating a thumbnail for it. However, keep in mind that it will not work if the ebook files don’t contain a cover.

For example, when the program in installed it will automatically detect ebooks in the EPUB or MOBI formats, generate covers and refresh the files in real-time, allowing users to view thumbnails for their e-books, in the Nautilus (Files) file manager.

It also works directly on the GNOME desktop, which is actually managed by the Nautilus project. The script can be also accessed via a terminal emulator and allows users to manually generate thumbnails for ebooks. Optionally, you can specify the size of the thumbnail in pixels.

Bottom line

All in all, GNOME EPub Thumbnailer is another great example of a minimalistic command-line application that can enhance the user experience of the GNOME desktop environment, enabling thumbnails for digital books in the MOBI and EPUB file formats.

What is new in this release:

• Fix MOBI crasher with malformed or missing EXTH header
• Fix EPub thumbnailing with cover at the root of the archive

What is new in version 1.4:

• Create covers for encrypted MOBI files as well
• Fix crash when there's no cover in MOBI files
• Fix crash when the EPub cover cannot be found
• Print warnings when we cannot find the metafile or when reading empty EPub files
• Fix crash handling files in trash or recent locations

What is new in version 1.3:

• Fix a number of possible crashers in the MOBI thumbnailer.

Requirements:

• GNOME