Since I wrote a QuickLook* plug-in for Mobipocket books, I've become pickier about covers for my eBooks. I've made quite a few covers for various books, in 600x800, <60KiB Jpeg format suitable for use with Mobipocket for CyBook, etc, and probably OK for other formats.

Would there be general interest in a forum for people to upload covers for their favourite eBooks?

I'll admit that the covers I've created are also a bit dull (see attached sample for Ernest Bramah's "Kai Lung's Golden Hours"), if better than nothing, so perhaps this would encourage the more artistically talented among us to try their hand.

Paul

*QuickLook is a technology in Mac OS X 10.5 that enables file previews to be generated for arbitrary formats by the use of a plug-in API. Combined with Mac OS X's CoverFlow views, it makes browsing my eBooks a much more pleasant experience.

I think that is a great idea. Adding covers to eBooks is a good thing.

dale

I've not forgotten the ones you very kindly sent me, Paul. Life is just a bit hectic at the moment; I will use them, I promise you :).

I'm not hassling! :-)

But I did think that there might be people out there interested in producing covers. Also, although eBooks are mostly about the text, I think discussions about covers - styles, preferences, creation methods might be fruitful.

And it might be a good way for people to encourage conversion of a book they want - "Here's a good cover for xxx - can anyone do the conversion?"

Paul

I've not forgotten the ones you very kindly sent me, Paul. Life is just a bit hectic at the moment; I will use them, I promise you :).

But I did think that there might be people out there interested in producing covers. Also, although eBooks are mostly about the text, I think discussions about covers - styles, preferences, creation methods might be fruitful.
I think it's a splendid idea, and will happily contribute both covers and discussion.
______
Dennis

I like the idea ... and I'd be glad to help make covers on request.

This is one thing that has frustrated me for a while. I would gladly contribute some artwork.

I'm glad you like the idea. Please do add a comment to the new thread of this topic at

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29239

and perhaps we'll get enough interest to justify a forum for cover uploads.

Paul

This is one thing that has frustrated me for a while. I would gladly contribute some artwork.

I thought that we could also use abstract or semi-abstract images as cover pictures (and then adding the title and author). So I fiddled a bit with POV-Ray and created this random Julia fractal. Similar images with different shapes and textures can be easily created, I can do more if anyone is interested.

I would be delighted if I had somebody more creative than myself who would make covers for me. Generally, I do not like mine too much as I am a bit clumsy with visual art.

BUT: I do assemble like at least three books a day on bad days and I like to stray around in my subjects.

So someone who'd cooperate with me would have to be rather flexible and available and a fast worker (and all that for nought) or I'd have to change my working style completely.

Cooperation with ravenne for the "Karl Mays" is a dream come through, though, cause the woman's that good.

Anyway. I at least make a cover with every book I assemble.

I thought that we could also use abstract or semi-abstract images as cover pictures (and then adding the title and author). So I fiddled a bit with POV-Ray and created this random Julia fractal. Similar images with different shapes and textures can be easily created, I can do more if anyone is interested.

I thought that was a snake :) Great work, Jellby.

For each ebook I've been posting, I have been adding a simple illustration as a cover image - usually either of the author or one of the illustrations from the book. I never edit these to add, for example, the title and author of the book to the cover image. On my Sony Reader, I select the book I want to read from a list of authors or titles. There is a no display of book covers, as far as I know, from which to select a book. If there was, I can see that having just an illustration (with no title or author on it) as a book cover would be awkward unless you happened to recognize which book it was from. And if that's the case, I should start adding titles and authors to the covers of books I post. Could someone please comment?

On the CyBook it's vitally important to have a recognisable cover - ie at least the book title and preferably the author's name too. That's because the primary means of navigating the CyBook's library is by cover image.

Mobipocket Desktop reader displays the cover images. And books stored on my Mac display the cover images (which look goof in coverflow). I'd definitely recommend adding title and author to cover images -and in large, easily readable type.

For each ebook I've been posting, I have been adding a simple illustration as a cover image - usually either of the author or one of the illustrations from the book. I never edit these to add, for example, the title and author of the book to the cover image. On my Sony Reader, I select the book I want to read from a list of authors or titles. There is a no display of book covers, as far as I know, from which to select a book. If there was, I can see that having just an illustration (with no title or author on it) as a book cover would be awkward unless you happened to recognize which book it was from. And if that's the case, I should start adding titles and authors to the covers of books I post. Could someone please comment?

Thanks for the info. Ouch. Another thing to fix.

It's only Mobi books that it matters for - as you say, it's pretty irrelevent for the Sony.

What I generally do, if I can't find anything nice on the web, is use a graphics package to create a 600x800 graphic, fill it with dark blue or black, and add the title and the author in 36pt white text, and use that as the cover image. That shows up nicely on the CyBook's "thumbnail" view on its library screen.

Attached my cover template (600x800) for the Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) along with two examples.
Maybe somebody will find it useful...

Often you can get covers from the Google Books PDF files. Though you may have to use the clone tool to remove stickers or library bar codes.

LOL, naturally I find the threads about covers after I post my first comment and covers on HarryT's Tom Swift thread. http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13638
:smack:

Since HarryT's Young Adult books are among the first books I ever read I think they should have the original covers (or extrapolations) where ever possible. I can still feel the raised embossing and smell the old book smell they had and seeing the old covers in my MobiPocketReader app fills me with pleasure.

I used mobi2mobi.exe (win32) http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17718 and Mobi2Mobi_GUI.exe http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21763 to attempt to add a cover to HarryT's prc file for the Air Service Boys Omnibus http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21201 with limited success. While the my cover (first below) is displayed in the MobiPocketReader's right side bar HarryT's blue cover still shows up as the icon (?) in the main display. Selecting "Cover" from MobiPocketReader/Contents also displays my cover. All rather odd. :chinscratch:

There's both a full-sized cover and a "thumbnail" - have you replaced both?

There's both a full-sized cover and a "thumbnail" - have you replaced both?

Using the Mobi2Mobi_GUI.exe "Open Image" button I selected the cover image (jpg) and checked both the "Use Image" and "Use as Thumbnail" radio buttons.

Opening the created file with Mobi2Mobi_GUI shows my cover in both the Thumbnail and Cover windows. However in the recently downloaded Mobipocket Reader the created file continues to use your blue screen of death style ;) cover.

Don't know if it is a failure with my technique, your file, or something wacky with the Reader. I am seeing several oddities with the Reader, don't know whether they are flaws or features. :blink:

Quick follow up, I tried my covers with the Tom Swift series with the same result. I also tried the airserviceboys cover on 'Steve and the Steam Engine.prc' from RWood http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13949 and it worked fine.

:chinscratch:

I create my books with Mobi Creator - perhaps it's something specific to that tool?

I'd suggest we move this to the "Mobi" tools forum and ask tompe's help - he's the author of "Mobi2mobi". Would you like to create a new thread there?

Strange. It might be that something is missing in the file that the new Reader requires but that is hard to know since the format is secret.

Maybe you should try to add the thumbnail image separately? Or try to use the command line:

mobi2mobi --addthumbnail image.jpg --outfile res1.mobi in.mobi
mobi2mobi --coverimage image.jpg --outfile res2.mobi res1.mobi