New cover for a pdf book

Bosse · 10-15-2023, 01:34 PM

Hello!

I have just splitted a big pdf file, containing many books, into separate pdf files, one for each book, in a pdf editor. I then found a new cover for one of the books via the individual Edit Metadata dialogue and pressed OK. The book, with the new cover then showed up in the main Calibre window. Fine so far.

But when I then uploaded the file with the new cover to my Pocketbook online reader the file showed up without the new cover. Can´t you do this with a pdf file in Calibre or did I do something wrong?

As a work around I then inserted the new cover in the original pfd file. It then showed up in the reader as it should. But I suspect it then didn´t show up as a cover but as page 1 in the file.

I would be very grateful for some clarifying input!

Wiggo · 10-15-2023, 02:02 PM

The cover in calibre is...the cover in calibre. Like a picture on an index card.
And yes, in PDF the "cover" is always the first page.

As I don’t know Pocketbook, I don’t know if it’s possible to import calibre‘s covers as thumbnails

kovidgoyal · 10-15-2023, 10:32 PM

The PDF format has no concept of cover. calibre will automatically use the first page as its cover image, but it cannot change the cover in a PDF as there is no way to know if th efirst page is an actual cover that should be replaced or not.

ownedbycats · 10-26-2023, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The PDF format has no concept of cover. calibre will automatically use the first page as its cover image, but it cannot change the cover in a PDF as there is no way to know if th efirst page is an actual cover that should be replaced or not.

Would it be possible to insert the cover image as a new page at the beginning of the PDF? This would likely result in double-covers a lot though that can be fixed by removing the old page with pdftk.

kovidgoyal · 10-26-2023, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Would it be possible to insert the cover image as a new page at the beginning of the PDF? This would likely result in double-covers a lot though that can be fixed by removing the old page with pdftk.

That is precisely why calibre doesnt do this. Because it cannot know if the first page is a cover inserting one will alway risk creating a double cover. For example, if you use the embed metadata tool twice ona pdf book you end up with two covers.

10-15-2023, 01:34 PM	#1
Bosse Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2023 Device: Pocketbook Reader app	New cover for a pdf book Hello! I have just splitted a big pdf file, containing many books, into separate pdf files, one for each book, in a pdf editor. I then found a new cover for one of the books via the individual Edit Metadata dialogue and pressed OK. The book, with the new cover then showed up in the main Calibre window. Fine so far. But when I then uploaded the file with the new cover to my Pocketbook online reader the file showed up without the new cover. Can´t you do this with a pdf file in Calibre or did I do something wrong? As a work around I then inserted the new cover in the original pfd file. It then showed up in the reader as it should. But I suspect it then didn´t show up as a cover but as page 1 in the file. I would be very grateful for some clarifying input!

10-15-2023, 02:02 PM	#2
Wiggo Leftutti Posts: 549 Karma: 1717097 Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: Bavaria Device: iPad Pro, Kobo Libra 2	The cover in calibre is...the cover in calibre. Like a picture on an index card. And yes, in PDF the "cover" is always the first page. As I don’t know Pocketbook, I don’t know if it’s possible to import calibre‘s covers as thumbnails Last edited by Wiggo; 10-15-2023 at 02:05 PM.

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10-15-2023, 10:32 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,246 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The PDF format has no concept of cover. calibre will automatically use the first page as its cover image, but it cannot change the cover in a PDF as there is no way to know if th efirst page is an actual cover that should be replaced or not.

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