Not all covers show up in new iOS5-compatible Stanza

[PatNY]

Amazon finally released an iOS5-compatible version of Stanza yesterday. Unfortunately, not all the covers of my epubs are showing up. Instead I am getting a blank page in some books where the cover should be. These are epubs that worked on the previous version of Stanza so the problem evidently lies in this new Stanza version. It is not a Calibre issue. However, since there are a lot of smart people who hang out here in this forum, I thought maybe someone might have some ideas on how to troubleshoot this.

All the epub covers show up fine in thumbnail view. It's just in book view where some of the covers don't show up.

What I noticed is that all the epubs which have the issue have their html files on the first level when you explode the epub using Calibre's tweak epub function.

As far as I can tell, all the epubs in my library that have their html files in an OEBPS folder inside the epub are fine on the Stanza version. Their covers show up as expected.

In one instance, I went back to the original and re-converted epub-to-epub in Calibre and that fixed the issue so the cover shows up normally. The file structure still has its html files on the primary level (no OEBPS folder). So not all epubs without an OEBPS folder have the problem.

So is there any way to force an epub into an OEBPS structure? Is there another way to fix this? I have no idea where to look.

Any ideas?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by PatNY

In one instance, I went back to the original and re-converted epub-to-epub in Calibre and that fixed the issue so the cover shows up normally. The file structure still has its html files on the primary level (no OEBPS folder). So not all epubs without an OEBPS folder have the problem.

Have you tried simply deleting the epubs on the phone and resending them?

Originally Posted by PatNY

So is there any way to force an epub into an OEBPS structure?

As you noted above this has nothing to do with your problem.

I don't know if the following applies but it is worth a try. In the Preferences - Output options - ePub output there is a No SVG cover option. The guidance for this option is:

Do not use SVG for the book cover. Use this option if your epub is going to be used on a device that does not support SVG, like the iPhone or the Jetbook lite. Without this option, such devices will display the cover as a blank page.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Have you tried simply deleting the epubs on the phone and resending them?

Yes. Didn't make a difference.

It's possible there is something leftover from t he previous version, which was never deleted. So last resort is to entirely delete the Stanza app and all its books and try reinstalling everything. I was holding off on that because I'm not sure how to retrieve for backup some of the books in the reader that were previously downloaded through sources in the old version.

As you noted above this has nothing to do with your problem.

But I think it does. ePubs that have the structure with the internal OEBPS folder don't exhibit the problem. The new Stanza can read the covers. So I figured if I can force the problematic epubs into this structure the problem would go away. So, is there a way to force this? Maybe some setting in Calibre before I do a conversion?

And why do some epubs have this internal structure and some don't? What is the main differentiating factor?

I don't know if the following applies but it is worth a try. In the Preferences - Output options - ePub output there is a No SVG cover option. The guidance for this option is:

The option to convert with "No SVG Cover" is always checked when I convert.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by PatNY

YBut I think it does. ePubs that have the structure with the internal OEBPS folder don't exhibit the problem. The new Stanza can read the covers. So I figured if I can force the problematic epubs into this structure the problem would go away.

The structure has nothing to do with your problem. Look at the html for the title page if you want to see what the difference is.

Originally Posted by PatNY

And why do some epubs have this internal structure and some don't?

I don't know and don't care. I don't believe it is germane to this issue.

Originally Posted by PatNY

The option to convert with "No SVG Cover" is always checked when I convert.

That's good, convert the books with blank covers and resend them to your device.

[paulfiera]

Not to be off topic, but seeing that you have a iOS5 device, why don't you use iBooks?

It's a very cool ebook reader and covers show up fine - both SVG and not SVG.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The structure has nothing to do with your problem. Look at the html for the title page if you want to see what the difference is.

You're right. I went back and checked an additional dozen or so books that were on Stanza and found that some with the OEBPS folder were also having the issue.

I saved the title pages from 2 epubs -- one with the problem and one without -- and opened them up side by side in Notepad++ and could not see any difference between the content of the two. If you'd like to take a look at them, I can post their contents here.

I even looked at the resolutions of the cover jpegs and could see no distinction between those in the problem epubs and those from the OK epubs. My cover jpegs by the way are all various sizes.

That's good, convert the books with blank covers and resend them to your device.

LOL, well I wasn't converting with "blank" covers. I have had that option checked since I first started using Calibre (well over a year ago?) and have converted literally hundreds of books this way. I believe I originally checked it because I was getting either dupe covers or a blank page (can't remember which) after the first cover on my iPod Touch. At any rate, checking that option gave me perfect epub covers for those hundreds of books on both my Sony PRS-350 ... and iPod Touch previous to i0S5 and the new version of Stanza.

Even now, most of the epubs converted with that option checked are still showing up fine on my iPod Touch in Stanza. So I don't know what is going on.

Apple must have changed something in iOS5 ... or Stanza changed something with this new version ... so that epub covers are now rendered in a slightly different way.

If you will note, the instructions in Calibre are to check the box for "No SVG Cover" if you have an iPhone. The iPod Touch is essentially the same as an iPhone in terms of its apps and they use the same iOS.

The good news is that unchecking the box seems to have fixed the issue for those problem epubs. So I thank you for putting me on the right path.

All is good now, though I still wonder why some of the older converted epubs show up fine and some do not.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by paulfiera

Not to be off topic, but seeing that you have a iOS5 device, why don't you use iBooks?

It's a very cool ebook reader and covers show up fine - both SVG and not SVG.

When iOS5 broke Stanza, I looked into various alternatives. iBooks was one of the finalists (along with Bluefire and MegaReader) but came up short in two areas -- It doesn't interface directly with Calibre over wi-fi like Stanza does, so loading books is not as easy ... and there is much less customization of the reading page. Much less. But it's a good alternative and since Amazon says this latest Stanza version will be the last, I may end up one day having to go to iBooks or something else.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by PatNY

LOL, well I wasn't converting with "blank" covers. I have had that option checked since I first started using Calibre (well over a year ago?) and have converted literally hundreds of books this way. I believe I originally checked it because I was getting either dupe covers or a blank page (can't remember which) after the first cover on my iPod Touch. At any rate, checking that option gave me perfect epub covers for those hundreds of books on both my Sony PRS-350 ... and iPod Touch previous to i0S5 and the new version of Stanza.
...

If you will note, the instructions in Calibre are to check the box for "No SVG Cover" if you have an iPhone.

Blank covers .... blank page, same difference we are referring to the same thing.

Originally Posted by PatNY

The good news is that unchecking the box seems to have fixed the issue for those problem epubs. So I thank you for putting me on the right path.

At least you came up with something that works.