Expected cover dimension for browser?

[capidamonte]

I make 600x800 pixel covers, generally, for my books.

I notice when they're displayed in the cover browser that they're being distorted slightly. They seem to be narrowed, but not shortened, if that makes any sense. Squished is the technical term, I believe.

What dimensions or height/width ratio would work best with Calibre?

Thanks,

cap

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by capidamonte

I make 600x800 pixel covers, generally, for my books.

I'm guessing 600x800 should be ideal.

I can't find the reference but I recall Kovid saying if covers are too large they are resized to 600x800 for display in the cover browser.

Update: In the changelog for 0.7.3 under Bug Fixes

Cover cache: Resize covers larger than 600x800 in the cover cache to reduce memory consumption in the GUI

[capidamonte]

Well, they're definitely getting distorted. I'm going to go prowl around the calibre tickets pages and see if there's more info there.

cap

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by capidamonte

Well, they're definitely getting distorted. I'm going to go prowl around the calibre tickets pages and see if there's more info there.

To start with I don't have my cover browser open in a separate window and I'm running Win XP sp3.

That said, the covers in my cover browser look great. Of course as some folk are tone deaf I may be aspect ratio blind.

[Poppa1956]

You need to remember the ratio of width:height of the original graphic. If your original graphic is something other than 3:4, then one of your dimensions is being either stretched or squished more than the other, causing distortion.

[capidamonte]

I generally run a separate window, on Xubuntu 10.04. But I restarted with it embedded -- same thing. I went back to separate window to take the screenshot.

Look at this book that has a cover at exactly 600x800 -- compare it to the book information cover image. (You can find this book here on MobileRead...) You'll see that the image in the browser is being squashed into a narrower ratio i.e. making it skinnier. It makes the lettering jagged, if you look closely. The book info image is fine, no matter what size it is scaled to (I scaled it here to have the same height as the cover browser.)

cap

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by capidamonte

You'll see that the image in the browser is being squashed into a narrower ratio i.e. making it skinnier. It makes the lettering jagged, if you look closely. The book info image is fine, no matter what size it is scaled to (I scaled it here to have the same height as the cover browser.)

In my original reply to you I started to mention the book detail view as being distorted, but that wasn't what you were talking about so I removed the comment. I think the cover browser has the correct aspect ratio but the book detail pane might be squashing things slightly.

Like I said previously I might be aspect ratio blind.

[kovidgoyal]

Its a bug (the ratio is set to 2:3 instead of 3:4. Will be fixed in next release.

[capidamonte]

Awesome!

Thanks!

cap

[capidamonte]

0.7.5 did fix this. My covers look great! (Maybe it's the anti-aliasing, too.)

The release notes say that larger covers will be cropped, which is indeed happening, and I have no objection to this, it seems reasonable.

Have you noticed that the reflection, however, hasn't been adjusted to match the crop? ie: it is still reflecting the true bottom of the cover image.

Another positive: with the proper 3:4 ratio, my computer isn't working as hard to show the pics -- it browses faster.

Thanks for all the hard work, and your generosity in sharing it.

cap

EDIT: check out what happens to a generic book cover (the brown book icon) -- it's getting resized upward and cut off on the right side.

[kovidgoyal]

Interesting, that's what I get for tinkering in other people's code that I don't fully understand. Open a ticket about the reflections, I'll have a look. Note that larger covers are not cropped, only covers whose aspect ratio is not 3:4 have a little bit or margin cropped so as to make their aspect ratio 3:4

[capidamonte]

Sure thing.

cap

EDIT: Ticket #5980

[Sigwolf]

I am surprised this hasn't affected anyone else, but this change has made the cover browser virtually useless for me. 90-95% of my books now have a significant portion of the lower cover missing in the cover browser, with more than three quarters of those now missing all or part of the title of the book itself. I understand not wanting the aspect ratio distorted, but lopping off a significant portion of the cover is not really an improvement, at least in my case. Even the default, generic book cover automatically generated by calibre is chopped off, though that one is awkwardly cut off at the right side.

I think a large part of the problem stems from the fact that hardback and paperback covers obviously do not have the same aspect ratio, and the majority of my collection has the paperback cover.

Could something be added into the preferences? The cover browser was a really nice feature, and it is a real shame to lose it.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Sigwolf

virtually useless for me...
not really an improvement...
awkwardly cut off...
The cover browser was a really nice feature, and it is a real shame to lose it.

You haven't lost anything, it's likely you've found a bug that wasn't seen during development. Calibre is improving every day, and you're running free software that hasn't even reached version 1 yet. If you don't want to take the chance of finding a bug, don't upgrade. Please - cut the developers some slack here. Not every improvement can be tested 100% against all possible scenarios it will encounter in the field. Just politely post what your symptoms are, preferably in the bug tracker and the problem will be fixed.

[Sigwolf]

Originally Posted by Starson17

You haven't lost anything, it's likely you've found a bug that wasn't seen during development. Calibre is improving every day, and you're running free software that hasn't even reached version 1 yet. If you don't want to take the chance of finding a bug, don't upgrade. Please - cut the developers some slack here. Not every improvement can be tested 100% against all possible scenarios it will encounter in the field. Just politely post what your symptoms are, preferably in the bug tracker and the problem will be fixed.

Nice job pulling out only negative words in my post, very clever...

I have lost something... I have lost the practical use of the cover browser for *my* collection. Perhaps the way my collection is set up is unusual, hence no one else has reported this. It is not likely to be a bug, as it is performing exactly as described in the changelog. It would appear the aspect ratio chosen by the developers is not compatible with my collection.

I am also well aware of the development status, pace and price of calibre, and the fact that it is not reached version 1. I have more than 20 previous versions of calibre sitting in my download directory, all of which were installed when released.

"If you don't want to take the chance of finding a bug, don't upgrade." Now there's a very helpful attitude and piece of advice.

Cut the developers some slack? What are you even going on about? Is no one supposed to report negative experiences? Reporting my symptoms was exactly what I was doing. I tried to do so as clearly and with as much detail as possible. I also included details on what I suspected was causing the problem. How was I not polite?

A major function that I used in calibre was made unusable *for me* by a design decision made by the developer. That is not a bug, as as far as I know. I have not seen anyone else report this problem, so I posted here to see if anyone responded with the same type of issue. If it appears that others are also experiencing this issue, then I can submit an enhancement request via the bugtracker.

I am not going to waste the developers time submitting requests for problems that only I am experiencing, or if I am the one doing something wrong. I use this forum to see if there are others with the same issue. This is the same method I used with two previous problems with earlier versions, and in both cases after confirming the issue, I submitted a report on the bug tracker. In both cases, Kovid had the problem fixed by the next release.

Maybe you could follow your own advice and cut users reporting problems some slack. It would also help to tone down the condescending attitude. Don't assume someone with a low post count is a noob that has no idea how things work around here.