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Old 12-25-2012, 08:28 PM   #1
petiole
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Question [SOLVED] newbie question -- no cover art for free ebooks?
Hopefully, I'm in the correct forum for my question -- if not, please move this thread to where it should be located.

This could be an exceedingly stupid question, but I can't seem to find the answer. Please keep in my I am a novice -- just got my first ereader about 6 hours ago, just installed Calibre about an hour ago, lol.

I am having an issue getting the cover art for ebooks to display on my reader.

I have a new Kobo Glo. I used Calibre to download and place a copy of Sense and Sensibility onto the reader. I've also manually placed copies of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. All DRM free, Project Gutenberg. I downloaded and edited the metadata for S&S, via Calibre, including a different piece of cover art.

The books all appear on the reader fine, but the cover art is lacking in all -- _including_ the one I attached the new artwork to in Calibre. Is it supposed to be there? Or, does cover art only display in Calibre? Is it a matter of it being a free ebook -- do they lack embedded cover art? Could it be some glitch with the reader or having the epubs in the incorrect folders?

If anyone could clarify, I'd appreciate it -- I have no idea if the problem is the file, software, reader or none of the above, lol...
Last edited by petiole; 12-26-2012 at 07:27 AM. Reason: answer solved
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Old 12-25-2012, 08:45 PM   #2
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If you *added* a cover to the ebook with metadata edit, the cover is yet added to the ebook. You need to either do an epub->epub conversion or use the "Update Epub" plugin to add the cover.
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Old 12-25-2012, 10:14 PM   #3
davidfor
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As jgaiser said, you probably need to do a epub->epub conversion to get the cover added to the file. Or use the "Modify ePub" plugin. Once you do this, you should delete the book from the device and resend. That way the device will reprocess the book and create the cover images.

Just so you know, the cover image used on the Kobo devices is the first page of the book. If you open the book in the calibre viewer and the first page is the cover you want, the device should be able to use this.
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Old 12-26-2012, 05:38 AM   #4
petiole
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Originally Posted by jgaiser View Post
If you *added* a cover to the ebook with metadata edit, the cover is yet added to the ebook. You need to either do an epub->epub conversion or use the "Update Epub" plugin to add the cover.
I figured it was some step I missed, though the video tutorial was quite excellent.

How strange -- having to "convert" the epub to an epub, lol. Editing ebook data seems a bit different then from editing album data for mp3s for example.

Thanks for the information, both of you. I'll try this in a bit and see how it goes.
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Old 12-26-2012, 06:26 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by petiole View Post
How strange -- having to "convert" the epub to an epub, lol.
You can use the Modify ePub plugin to add the cover to the book file.

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Originally Posted by petiole View Post
Editing ebook data seems a bit different then from editing album data for mp3s for example.
In calibre you edit the data in the library and the metadata is inserted into the ePub when you use calibre to export the ePub from the library. Save to disk and Send to Device are two examples of exporting an ePub from the library. During the export process the metadata and cover are updated with the metadata and cover from calibre's library. The exception to this rule is if the cover in the ePub is not properly identified within the book. When this happens the cover isn't updated in the ePub.

The only way around a cover not getting updated is an aPub to ePub conversion or using the Modify ePub plugin which will insert the cover without having to do a conversion.
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Old 12-26-2012, 07:26 AM   #6
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You can use the Modify ePub plugin to add the cover to the book file.
Yep -- figured this out a bit ago, and found the plug-in repository on the forums, as well.

I now have 2 ebooks on the new Kobo Glo with covers :]

It took just a little bit of fiddling to get the aspect ratio of the covers correct, and I think I just need some additional practice on getting the most out of the metadata features. For example, browsing for covers always brings up multiple copies of the same single design, so I'm having to search the web manually and drag and drop the cover of my choice. In addition, for works that are translated or have an editor listed, I'd like the metadata to reflect the actual edition I have, which doesn't seem to be necessarily what the program pulls.

At any rate, I should have it all figured out soon, and it's wonderful to see there are such active forums for this.

Thanks again!
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Old 12-26-2012, 10:10 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by petiole View Post
I now have 2 ebooks on the new Kobo Glo with covers :]
Good to hear.
Quote:
It took just a little bit of fiddling to get the aspect ratio of the covers correct, and I think I just need some additional practice on getting the most out of the metadata features. For example, browsing for covers always brings up multiple copies of the same single design, so I'm having to search the web manually and drag and drop the cover of my choice. In addition, for works that are translated or have an editor listed, I'd like the metadata to reflect the actual edition I have, which doesn't seem to be necessarily what the program pulls.
If I have a paper version of a book, I try to find that cover. If Goodreads has the edition, I take the id for that edition (the number in the URL) and put that into the id field. That does two things: downloading the cover and metatdata will choose this edition, and clicking on the goodreads link in the book details will open to this edition.
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Old 12-26-2012, 11:54 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by petiole View Post
For example, browsing for covers always brings up multiple copies of the same single design, so I'm having to search the web manually and drag and drop the cover of my choice.
The cover search can depend on what is in the Ids: metadata. I generally do a Download Metadata first and select an option with a cover and a good description. If there are multiple results with a cover you may need to try more than one to get the cover you want. If you have already found a cover you you like, use its ISBN or ASIN in the Ids field but still do a Download Metadata to get the description.
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