Cover image issues with Sigil 0.6 and Calibre

boatat72 · 11-20-2012, 05:35 AM

There are some extra things you need to do in Sigil 0.6 to get a cover image to display as it did with earlier versions. Otherwise the thumbnail will not appear, or the cover will be duplicated or appear once, but badly cropped. This particularly applies when converting to .epub and .mobi with Calibre.

This is covered by the new user manual for brand new documents but the solution below applies to a document I started in an older version of Sigil and then modified with 0.6
All names are case-sensitive and 0.6 uses .html not .xhtml now.

Go to Book Browser view;
In the "Text" folder make the first file "Cover.xhtml"
Right click on this and look at "Add Semantics", make sure that "Cover" is ticked.
In "Cover.xhtml" insert the image inside a header tag e.g. <h2 title="Cover"><img alt="" src="../Images/cover.jpg"/></h2>
In the "Images" folder make sure you have added "cover.jpg"
(This must be called "cover" but can be .gif or .png or .jpeg, as appropriate)
Right click on this and look at "Add Semantics", make sure that "Cover" is ticked here as well.
Open the "content.opf"
Add this tag to the metadata <meta content="cover.jpg" name="cover" /> just before the </metadata> tag

.epub books will open at the cover. It will also make the cover visible in the TOC for many .epub readers (not iBooks for the iPad) .mobi readers can use the "Go to" function to find the cover. This is as close as you can get to make any Kindle or Kindle app start at the cover.

Further info. "Cover" is a reserved word in the epub spec and for the Kindle. You can only use it to describe the outside front of a book. It is therefore not seen by some e-readers as Content, because it is not inside - unless you tell it that it is. Calibre does this by renaming the Cover.xhtml as titlepage.xhtml but it leaves the filename and the id (name) as "cover" so .epub readers still open at the Cover.

kiwidude · 11-20-2012, 06:06 AM

@boatat72 - I'm sure meme will comment on what is or isn't in the manual, but you should not ever have to go fiddling in the opf file playing with the metadata tags. Just right-click on the cover.jpg image file in Book Browser and choose Add Semantics -> Cover Image.

boatat72 · 11-20-2012, 06:16 AM

Hi kiwidude
I made sure both Add Semantics "Cover" options were ticked but nothing was added to the opf. Adding the tag manually worked for me.
My problem could be that I started with a template created with an earlier version. I will make a new template and see what happens.

ps the new features of 0.6 are wonderful, especially the expanded toolbar and insert special characters. Many thanks.

Kaverin · 01-17-2013, 12:30 AM

I have to say thanks after reading this thread. For the past few weeks I've been reading The Dresden Files, but I'm getting picky about ebook formatting so they all look the same, and decided to force everything to look like I want with Sigil. An annoying problem I kept running into though was that cover images would not show up in Cool Reader on my NST, and affected files would also break CR's current book screen saver feature too. It turns out it's because of a missing <meta content="cover.jpg" name="cover" /> in the OPF file. After adding that in, everything shows up, and I don't have to manually copy in a cover picture on the broken epubs for the screen saver.

11-20-2012, 05:35 AM	#1
boatat72 Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Cambridge UK Device: Kindle, Sony Reader, iPad, Kobo, Nook	Cover image issues with Sigil 0.6 and Calibre There are some extra things you need to do in Sigil 0.6 to get a cover image to display as it did with earlier versions. Otherwise the thumbnail will not appear, or the cover will be duplicated or appear once, but badly cropped. This particularly applies when converting to .epub and .mobi with Calibre. This is covered by the new user manual for brand new documents but the solution below applies to a document I started in an older version of Sigil and then modified with 0.6 All names are case-sensitive and 0.6 uses .html not .xhtml now. Go to Book Browser view; In the "Text" folder make the first file "Cover.xhtml" Right click on this and look at "Add Semantics", make sure that "Cover" is ticked. In "Cover.xhtml" insert the image inside a header tag e.g. <h2 title="Cover"><img alt="" src="../Images/cover.jpg"/></h2> In the "Images" folder make sure you have added "cover.jpg" (This must be called "cover" but can be .gif or .png or .jpeg, as appropriate) Right click on this and look at "Add Semantics", make sure that "Cover" is ticked here as well. Open the "content.opf" Add this tag to the metadata <meta content="cover.jpg" name="cover" /> just before the </metadata> tag .epub books will open at the cover. It will also make the cover visible in the TOC for many .epub readers (not iBooks for the iPad) .mobi readers can use the "Go to" function to find the cover. This is as close as you can get to make any Kindle or Kindle app start at the cover. Further info. "Cover" is a reserved word in the epub spec and for the Kindle. You can only use it to describe the outside front of a book. It is therefore not seen by some e-readers as Content, because it is not inside - unless you tell it that it is. Calibre does this by renaming the Cover.xhtml as titlepage.xhtml but it leaves the filename and the id (name) as "cover" so .epub readers still open at the Cover. Last edited by boatat72; 11-20-2012 at 09:13 AM. Reason: Further investigation gave a new answer.

11-20-2012, 06:16 AM	#3
boatat72 Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Cambridge UK Device: Kindle, Sony Reader, iPad, Kobo, Nook	Hi kiwidude I made sure both Add Semantics "Cover" options were ticked but nothing was added to the opf. Adding the tag manually worked for me. My problem could be that I started with a template created with an earlier version. I will make a new template and see what happens. ps the new features of 0.6 are wonderful, especially the expanded toolbar and insert special characters. Many thanks. Last edited by boatat72; 11-20-2012 at 09:17 AM. Reason: New Template works as expected, 1st post amended.

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11-20-2012, 06:06 AM	#2
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@boatat72 - I'm sure meme will comment on what is or isn't in the manual, but you should not ever have to go fiddling in the opf file playing with the metadata tags. Just right-click on the cover.jpg image file in Book Browser and choose Add Semantics -> Cover Image.

01-17-2013, 12:30 AM	#4
Kaverin Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Device: NST, NSTG, KT, K5 PW	I have to say thanks after reading this thread. For the past few weeks I've been reading The Dresden Files, but I'm getting picky about ebook formatting so they all look the same, and decided to force everything to look like I want with Sigil. An annoying problem I kept running into though was that cover images would not show up in Cool Reader on my NST, and affected files would also break CR's current book screen saver feature too. It turns out it's because of a missing <meta content="cover.jpg" name="cover" /> in the OPF file. After adding that in, everything shows up, and I don't have to manually copy in a cover picture on the broken epubs for the screen saver.

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