Enable Thumbnails for EPub / MOBI eBooks in Ubuntu 22.04 & 24.04

Got some ePub and/or MOBI books in your PC? Debian / Ubuntu has recently includes a package in their repository for generating thumbnails for these files.

As you may know, Linux Mint 21 was released recently with a thumbnail generators for AppImage, ePub, MP3 and RAW files. Debian/Ubuntu now has similar tool called gnome-epub-thumbnailer, though it’s only for ePub and MOBI books.

With the package installed, the default file manager will no longer display the universal “e” image with green background for all ePub files. Instead, it shows thumbnail book covers.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Ubuntu 24.04

For Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the package has been made into the system repositories.

Simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. When it opens, run the command below to install the package:

sudo apt install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

NOTE: the package is only for the default GNOME Desktop! Install the Foliate eBook reader from system repository will also install it as recommend dependency package.

After that, just close Nautilus file manager and re-open it. Or, run nautilus -q command in terminal to apply.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

For the previous Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, user can either build the package from source code, or use this unofficial PPA that supports only AMD/Intel computers.

To add the PPA and install the package, press Ctrl + Alt +T on keyboard to open terminal and run 3 commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

NOTE: The first command will asks for password authentication, though there’s no asterisk feedback. Just type in mind and hit Enter to continue.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Fedora, Arch, SUSE Linux

Most other recent Linux systems have also added the package into their official repositories. If you want to get it, open terminal and run command:

For Fedora, use command:
```
sudo dnf install gnome-epub-thumbnailer
```
Arch and Manjaro Linux can install it via:
```
sudo pacman -S gnome-epub-thumbnailer
```

And, openSUSE user may run command:

sudo zypper install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

Uninstall the Thumbnails

Thumbnails generate automatically once you installed the package. If somehow you want to get rid of them, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove gnome-epub-thumbnailer

Also remove the PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Replace apt depends your system. For Arch, use sudo pacman -R gnome-epub-thumbnailer.

Removing the package won’t clear existing thumbnail images, until you removed the content under “~/.cache/thumbnails” either from file manager or by running command: