Quote:
Originally Posted by compurandom
Or maybe a way to search for (to eliminate from editing) epubs containing a single html file (which actually don't need an html cover apparently).
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Once again, in the epub 2 or 3 specification, there is no such thing as a HTML cover. The cover image
must be an image file in a supported format. Designating any other file as the cover image is an error and will be flagged as such.
My personal approach to epubs that contain a single HTML file is very simple. They get at least two HTML files. If it is a short story such as
Block Party by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller where I generate the epub from the web page (see
Block Party on Baen's web site) so I can read it on my ereaders, I generate a cover.xhtml and a content.xhtml file. Otherwise, I split at chapter breaks or in the case of some books where the author choose to handle the book as a single text flow (the edition I purchased of Robert Silverberg's
Starborne as an example), I split at what I consider to be appropriate points.
Again, if the manifest entry for an image file correctly designates it as the cover image in content.opf, it does not need to be displayed so no HTML file needs to reference it. The ability to use the first HTML file as the cover image was, in my opinion, an attempt to handle the situation where no cover image is designated or a designated cover image did not exist and like most kludges, is neither pretty nor elegant.