[m1d1]

Prettify
Cover

Scale book-covers proportional to the full screen of your e-reader.
The calibre cover-grid looks even better with all cover-images in the same size.

Scaling book-covers proportional usually adds an empty margin.
With „Prettify Cover“ you can choose how to align the image and how to fill the margin:

• Black
• White
• Custom color
• Cut-out method:
  (Scaling the smallest side of the image to fit the e-reader full screen.)

Usage:

• Add „Prettify Cover“ to your toolbar. (Preferences > Toolbars. )
• Click the arrow next to the „Prettify Cover“ icon in the toolbar and set the default resolution.
• Select one or more books and click the „Prettify Cover“ icon
• Choose the best cover by clicking the image

Now you've generated the new book-cover for calibre, only.

If you want this new cover in your ebook (epub, etc.) use the plug-in „Polish Book“ and make sure the option „update the cover in the book files“ is checked.
Click OK and upload the ebook with the new cover to your e-reader.

Installation Steps:

Download the attached zip file and install the plugin/add to context menu or toolbar/restart Calibre as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.

Paypal Donations:

Feel free to show your appreciation if you like this plug-in

Version History:

Spoiler:

Version 1.6.0 - 2022-07-26
- fixes for calibre 6/qt6
- removed gimp related features

Version 1.5.0 - 2020-04-25
- fixes for calibre 5.0 (python 3 upgrade)

Version 1.0.6 - 2019-12-12
- fixes registry bug

Version 1.0.5 - 2019-12-11
- (win) detect custom gimp installation path using registry
- (win) detect national geographics script installed in %appdata%

Version 1.0.2 - 2019-10-24
- fixes string bug

Version 1.0.1 - 2019-10-23
- fixes version string

Version 1.0.0 - 2019-10-23
- fixes for Calibre 4.x
- QWebPage, QWebView depreciation fix.
Removed internal html help dialog -
Help btn opens mobileread webpage in browser.

Version 0.9.12 - 2017-08-20
- NG Filter (National Geographics) available on Windows version

Version 0.9.11 - 2017-08-13
- bugfix for windows version

Version 0.9.10 - 2017-08-06
- GIMP fixes for Calibre 3.x

Version 0.9.9 - 2017-05-17
- windows bugfix release
- added version number in dialog title

Version 0.9.8 - 2017-04-17
- responsive ui. only show features (GIMP) that are available.
- code cosmetics (PEP 8 styleguide) and minor changes.
- new button to apply GIMP's National Geographic filter (linux only).
(can improve the cover visibilty on 16 color b/w devices.)

Version 0.9.7 - 2016-09-14
- add: GIMP button to edit the content-aware cover.
- bugfix: alignment buttons, when changing cover format in GIMP session.

Version 0.9.6 - 2016-08-22
- now you can edit the original cover with GIMP (mac is not supported, yet)
- improved GUI

Version 0.9.5 - 2016-03-24
- added easteregg feature ctrl+click image to show fullsize cover

Version 0.9.4 - 2016-01-11
- bugfix: cover generation with custom color from colorpicker didn't work

Version 0.9.3 - 2015-12-17
- added color palette widget with a colorpicker.
"most used color" groupbox is renamed to "custom color"
on start it's still set to the most used color.
open the widget by clicking the button labeled "change color"
- alignment buttons show current state
- timeout period for content-aware background rendering has been increased
from 99 to 120sec (some covers took more than 99sec on my end)
- moved help button below content-aware options
- updated help
- optimized code

Version 0.9.2 - 2015-12-07
- fixed the content-aware bg. preview.
it didn't match the final result because a thumbnail was rendererd for the preview.
now the full-size cover is processed for the preview and scaled down to thumbnail size.
the preview operation takes longer (approx. 30sec) but there is no more rendering done when choosing the cover.
- reduced thumbnail height. dialog was to large and some btns unavailable for monitors with 768px height
- Cut-out image preview starts centered
- updated german and english help files
- abbreviated, renamed and simplified text labels to better fit in UI
- optimized code

Version 0.9.1 - 2015-11-26
- renamed "Oversized" image preview to "Cut-Out"
- added alignment buttons for (now) cut-out image option

Version 0.9.0 - 2015-11-16
- add german translation
- more status dialogs
- support for GIMP 2.6 and higher on win
- add abort button to progress dialog
- updated help
- add timeout for GIMP operations
(thumbnail 33s, cover 99s)

Version 0.8.0 - 2015-11-12
Public release