Kindle cover as screensaver works for magazines but not newspapers

[Buscemi]

This is about getting covers for Calibre news items to display as screensavers on Kindle. It always works for some recipes and never for others.

The problem is not with the image for the publication, because this is displayed in menus when the Kindle is turned on. I also tried changing and resizing the image.

I think it's down to whether the Kindle recognises the publication as a magazine or newspaper.

Kindle automatically generates a thumbnail for every new item in the "amazon-cover-bug" folder. If the thumbnail filename ends with MAGZ_portrait or EBOK_portrait, the cover will display as screensaver. If it ends with NWPR_portrait, the screensaver will always revert to the built-in images.

The two examples are both magazines, but the thumbnail suggests a difference.

• MAGZ example: Wired (monthly)
• thumbnail_7f8037f9-c974-4b6d-b9ef-84e771f554f8_MAGZ_portrait.jpg
• NWPR example: Scientific American
• thumbnail_71923adf-545f-408f-9aa4-696740c3302c_NWPR_portrait.jpg

Just renaming the thumbnail makes no difference. I checked the tags and file format. It is presumably something to do with the recipe, but I compared these two and a few others and but can't see anything obvious to change, in terms of whether a recipe is categorised as magazine or newspaper.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[JSWolf]

delete post

[kovidgoyal]

You can control this by setting publication_type in the recipe.

[Buscemi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Newspapers don't have a cover.

Both of the examples (and others) are magazines

[Buscemi]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can control this by setting publication_type in the recipe.

Where should I add it? I tried under class (publication_type = 'magazine')

[Buscemi]

I tried a few others.

Harper's Magazine
Cover is Calibre-generated
MAGZ thumbnail
Cover screensaver
No publication_type in recipe
Cover works as screensaver

Spectator Magazine
Cover downloaded
NWPR thumbnail
No publication_type in recipe
Cover does not work as screensaver

LRB
Cover downloaded
MAGZ thumbnail
Cover screensaver
publication_type = 'magazine'
Cover works as screensaver

[kovidgoyal]

There are many existing recipes with it, for example: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/calibr...es/scmp.recipe

add it the same way in any recipe you want to customize

[unkn0wn]

why not make publication_type = 'magazine' as default for all recipes (by changing things in mobi output plugin) without the need to mention it in recipes, now that new kindles support cover as screensaver.

I didn't see any difference in the way a mobi file is shown with different publication types., other than the cover not showing up as screensaver.

if people don't want it, they can always change settings on their device.

[kovidgoyal]

aamzon has decided they want x behavior for magazines and y for newspapers. those determinations will change with time. it is not the right way to make calibre liea bout what kind of publication something is. if you wnt newspaper covers as screensavers you should convince amazon to allow it or failing that customize the recipes yourself. Changing it globally would have unknowable effects, not just now but in the future.

[JSWolf]

Besides, newspapers don't have a cover.

[unkn0wn]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

aamzon has decided they want x behavior for magazines and y for newspapers. those determinations will change with time. it is not the right way to make calibre liea bout what kind of publication something is. if you wnt newspaper covers as screensavers you should convince amazon to allow it or failing that customize the recipes yourself. Changing it globally would have unknowable effects, not just now but in the future.

I checked by adding publication_type as magazine to the recipe, it still doesn't work.

I think I found a pattern here.. If the MOBI file has only a single section or is based on a single feed(same thing), it is automatically determined by kindle as a magazine and cover shows up as screensaver. If it has multiple sections its a newspaper and many magazines have lots of sections so screensaver wont work.

I think it also explains why wired and harpers showed up as magazine for op and not scientific american.