Can't make image into cover

[TheHendrik]

Hello. I am trying to learn how to make ebooks in Sigil. I'm having trouble defining a image as cover to my ebook. I know you can have a cover without creating a .xhtml file, just using the manifest file.
From what I understand, after adding the image to the ebook, I should add some information to the metadata and manifest sections of the .opf file, which should end like this:

<metadata>
<meta content="cover_id" name="cover" />
</metadata>
<manifest>
<item id="cover_id" href="images/cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image" role="doc-cover"/>
</manifest>

I tried changing and rewriting a bunch of times, but neither Calibre, Moon reader or my kindle recognize a cover. What I'm doing wrong? I'm using Epub3.
Thank you.

[DNSB]

I have the following in one epub3 and it seems to work with epub3 aware applications:

<item id="cover_id" href="Images/cover.jpeg" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image"/>

Note that this is an epub3 only construct and Moonreader as an example does not handle epub3. As for your Kindle? Amazon has been changing how covers are handled on a regular basis. See the number of complaints about Send to Kindle (email, web page, whatever) having issues with covers doing now you see me, now you don't.

Edit: Also you can't use role="doc-cover" in an .opf file. Epubcheck will flag it as an error.

[DiapDealer]

You only have to manually set the cover semantic in the opf if you want to. Otherwise, you simply right click on the image in Book Browser and set the proper cover semantic. That will automatically create the metadata and manifest entries in the opf.

I've no idea which apps or readers actually honor the cover semantic, however.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by TheHendrik

Hello. I am trying to learn how to make ebooks in Sigil. I'm having trouble defining a image as cover to my ebook.

All you have to do is:

• Tools > Add Cover
• Select your image.
• Press OK.

That will automatically add a cover file + do all the EPUB metadata stuff needed.

Originally Posted by TheHendrik

I know you can have a cover without creating a .xhtml file, just using the manifest file.

Why are you trying to add a cover without the XHTML file?

If you needed that, then after the steps above:

• Right-Click > Delete on the cover.xhtml file.

That will still:

• leave the proper "cover" metadata on your image
• but remove the XHTML cover file from your book

That's the quickest/easiest way to do what you want to accomplish.

Originally Posted by TheHendrik

I tried changing and rewriting a bunch of times, but neither Calibre, Moon reader or my kindle recognize a cover. What I'm doing wrong? I'm using Epub3.

I wouldn't manually mess around in the content.opf unless you know exactly what you're doing. That's advanced stuff, very easy to mess up... and your typical user will NEVER have to manually go in there to tweak anything.

That's why Sigil has the easy-to-use menus to accomplish whatever is needed:

• Tools > Add Cover for covers.
• Tools > Table of Contents > Generate Table of Contents for TOCs.
• Tools > Metadata Editor for messing with Title/Author/Publisher stuff.
• And various Right-Clicking on files to add Cover/Table of Contents metadata.

[TheHendrik]

Thanks for the replies. I know I shouldn't me messing around in the content until I know more about ebooks, but I wanted to know why it was working in some ebooks and not others. It turned out to be the fact that some were epub 2 and other epub 3. I changed the ones with version 3 to version 2 and know the cover is recognized in all devices.
I didn't want to create a cover using a .xhtml file because it usually gets the bottom part cut when I try to read in some devices.

[Turtle91]

The bottom part being cut is purely the device/app assigning improper real estate (screen space)…. The device is trying to reserve space for headers and/or footers, or some such.

You can try getting around that by using a svg wrapper and assigning the height to something smaller than 100%… try 95vh or something.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by TheHendrik

Hello. I am trying to learn how to make ebooks in Sigil. I'm having trouble defining a image as cover to my ebook. I know you can have a cover without creating a .xhtml file, just using the manifest file.
From what I understand, after adding the image to the ebook, I should add some information to the metadata and manifest sections of the .opf file, which should end like this:

<metadata>
<meta content="cover_id" name="cover" />
</metadata>
<manifest>
<item id="cover_id" href="images/cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg" properties="cover-image" role="doc-cover"/>
</manifest>

I tried changing and rewriting a bunch of times, but neither Calibre, Moon reader or my kindle recognize a cover. What I'm doing wrong? I'm using Epub3.
Thank you.

What's with all the[indent]? It seems to make the code block not display properly. I suggest you delete all of those indents in any code blocks you've used them.