[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by slowsmile

* Kindle does not fully support SVG.

That's technically correct, because according to the Kindle Publishing Guidelines (9.4.12 Use Supported SVG Tags and Elements), not all SVG tags are supported, however, it doesn't really matter, because KindleGen doesn't support cover pages at all. If you nevertheless include one, KindleGen will usually display the following warning message.

Info(prcgen):I1052: Kindle support cover images but does not support cover HTML. Hence using the cover image specified and suppressing cover HTML in content.     URL: \OEBPS\Text\cover.xhtml

If you're lucky, Kindlegen will suppress the HTML code and just use the cover image, if not you might end up with two cover images. For more information, see this thread.

When it comes to cover images, the only thing that matters to KindleGen is that cover images are semantically tagged in the .opf file. (Sigil will do this automatically, whenever a new cover image is generated via Tools > Add Cover...) I.e., there's absolutely no need to add a special cover page format for Kindles.

Originally Posted by slowsmile

* Both iBooks and B & N do not allow SVG images in any of their ebooks.

The iBooks Asset Guide indeed advises against using the svg:img tag for images, however, Sigil generated epub3 cover pages usually work fine with iBooks and other epub3 apps. Moreover, the majority of eInk epub readers come with an RMSDK (=ADE) based app and Sigil generated cover pages work with ADE 1.7 and higher.

Originally Posted by slowsmile

My suggestion is to add an option like a Use SVG Image checkbox at the bottom of the current Tools > Add Cover dialog in Sigil. And if this option is not ticked then just use plain old html image formatting for the ebook cover. Is this possible?

Since the cover pages generated by Sigil will work with ADE 1.7 and higher, don't interfere with KindleGen and work with the iBooks app, IMHO, it'd overkill to add a special menu option just for iBooks and B&N. If you prepare books for these vendors, you could easily add your preferred cover page HTML code as a custom clip or plugin.

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

I'm afraid the fact that your ebooks (and mine), although designed in EPUB will probably have their main distribution in Kindle format has to be a guilty secret. The Sigil community ethos is that Kindle is outside the pale and not to be pandered to.

That is simply not true. The Sigil developers added at least two features that are only required for Kindle books based on feedback from Kindle book designers:

1. Generating an HTML TOC from the NCX file. (HTML TOCs are not required for the majority of eInk readers.)
2. Adding a special epub2 <meta content="cover.png" name="cover" /> entry that only KindleGen uses. (This metadata entry is not required for valid epubs.)

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

In my opinion, we've basically "pandered" to every ebook creator out there by creating a plugin framework for Sigil which allows any and all vendor quirks and proprietary additions/modifications to be accomodated.

I'd also like to point out that the Sigil plugin API is much easier to use than the admittedly more powerful Calibre plugin API. (I found this out the hard way when I converted my relatively simple Sigil epubcheck plugin to Calibre.)