calibre-inserted covers not getting imported by reader after editing with Sigil
 

I used Sigil to get proper chapter breaks on an epub I'd converted using calibre.

During the conversion, I'd inserted the book cover, as normal.

After using Sigil to edit the chapter breaks, when I imported the book to my Android phone (using Aldiko as the reader), the cover doesn't get imported.


Normal calibre conversion have the cover imported properly, so I'm wondering, does Sigil change something in the code about the cover image?


I didn't manually change any of that code, just the chapters.

For reference, I THINK when Aldiko imports a book, it extracts the cover and uses it as a thumbnail for its bookshelf view. When I look at its ebook directory, other books have versions of the cover image, but the ones I edit with Sigil don't.

The cover still appears fine when I use other software to open the book, but it's not getting extracted during the import process, so there's no thumbnail of it.


My overall process:

1. convert book to epub using calibre (inserting cover along the way)
2. add proper chapter breaks with Sigil
3. access calibre's web server with Android browser to d/l the book to phone and import it using Aldiko

I'm going out on a limb here and say Sigil is not changing anything. Calibre itself is the culprit.

It wasn't that long ago that Calibre started using the SVG format for its ePub covers. SVG is not supported by many phone readers. Those using Stanza have the same issue you describe caused because Calibre now uses svg covers by default.

The solution is to go to conversion - EPUB Output and check the No SVG cover option. This will ensure SVG covers will not be generated and JPG files will be used instead.

I guess I can't completely discount that theory, but I converted 3 books in the same session. Two of them I then edited with Sigil for chapters. The third I left as is. Then I transferred them all to my phone.

The one I didn't edit in Sigil has its cover, no problem, but the other two don't.
That's what led me to think it was a Sigil thing, rather than a calibre thing.

Sigil was the only variable in the process for the three books.

When you had the book open in Sigil did you check that the cover.xhtml file (or your equivalent) and the cover image itself had the cover attribute checked in "Add Semantics". I do not know if that is relevant to your case, but that is a check I always make when using Sigil to fix up an EPUB book.

Seems like you covered all bases.

Next time you have Sigil open make sure your cover page is first. After you save the epub file open it in Calibre's viewer and make sure the cover is still shown there. There have been times when a temp file with a ~ in front of its name moved to the front of the list and became the cover upon save/exit. I now make sure any such file is deleted before I save my ePub.

Also another step you can take (within Sigil) is to right click on your cover/title page go to Add Semantics and ensure that cover is checked.

It should be easy looking at the troubled ePub in Sigil to tell why it is giving you problems.

I will, indeed, check these things. Thanks for the pointers.