Is the Book Cover Dead?

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by calibrated

One of the things I love about Calibre is that you can use it to give books like that the cover of your choice. All my ebooks now have appropriate cover art.

One of the great advantages of me having an older reader without wifi (my Sony PRS-505) is that I have to download everything to my computer first and then load it through Calibre. I usually also convert to LRF since the 505's firmware doesn't support full justification with ePub. Since I am doing all that already, i usually reset the cover if I didn't like the one they used.

Most recently my wife expressed some curiosity about Ender's Game, a book I probably haven't read in 15 years (and I for sure couldn't remember where my copy was). So I bought the ebook version... but I hate, hate, hate the new cover... especially since the original cover was/is iconic. Calibre searched the web and presented me with some covers I could use .

--
Bill

[seajewel]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Nostalgic lamenting from even the decidedly non-Luddite sector, MIT's Technology Review.


http://www.technologyreview.com/blog...27783/?ref=rss

Much ado about little, but I too do miss book cover art. When reading pBooks, I'll often pause in my read to refer to the cover, especially when a passage or phrase relates back to what the artist was no doubt conceptualizing when creating the artwork.

Yea, it's there at the beginning but it in an eBook, it isn't something to which you can so casually and easily refer; it takes more than a degree of time and effort.

Maybe I should print out the cover art and tape it to the inside front on the cover!

I have to say that I love my Sony PRS-950's ability to use covers as the standby image. I can always move the slider to refer back to cover art if I wish.

[calibrated]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

One of the great advantages of me having an older reader without wifi (my Sony PRS-505) is that I have to download everything to my computer first and then load it through Calibre. I usually also convert to LRF since the 505's firmware doesn't support full justification with ePub. Since I am doing all that already, i usually reset the cover if I didn't like the one they used.

--
Bill

I could download everything to my device if I wanted to, but I always download to the computer and run everything through Calibre first so I can tweak it to my satisfaction--cover image, margins, justification, fonts, etc. Makes a huge difference in my reading experience.

[Jozawun]

Ebook "covers" are a complete waste of space.
It's like putting a saddle on the seat of your car.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by JOZAWUN

Ebook "covers" are a complete waste of space.
It's like putting a saddle on the seat of your car.

They do influence people's buying decisions.

[calibrated]

Originally Posted by JOZAWUN

Ebook "covers" are a complete waste of space.
It's like putting a saddle on the seat of your car.

Not at all. When viewing a collection in a user interface where each book is represented by a thumbnail image using a bookshelf metaphor, it makes it much easier to pick out the right book.

[Jozawun]

Originally Posted by calibrated

Not at all. When viewing a collection in a user interface where each book is represented by a thumbnail image using a bookshelf metaphor, it makes it much easier to pick out the right book.

Yes, but that's a defect of the interface.

[DiapDealer]

I can't even make out any detail on a greyscale "thumbnail image." On a six-inch eInk screen, a list of titles is much more useful (useful for me; I wouldn't dream of speaking for anyone else) than 6-8 thumbnails—that I'd be lucky to even be able to read the title on—could ever be.

[whitearrow]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

They do influence people's buying decisions.

I agree. If I'm poking around low-cost or even free books, especially indie books, covers do make a difference. A cover that looks like it's from the 1950's, like my 6 year old niece drew it, or no cover at all? I'm pretty likely to decide the author ish't very serious and move on.

[crossi]

A colorful and interesting cover is more likely to spur my memory of the book subject/plot than the title alone. Especially in series or if the title is not very distictive.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

One thing I dislike about a lot of big 6 books is that the cover art isn't even there at the beginning of the ebook file. Instead they use the cover art to market the book and then give us some crappy placeholder instead in the actual file.

And the price fix six still charge us as if there was the proper cover in the eBook.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Wait a bit.
Once ePub3 takes hold, we'll have animated and video covers!
With audio!

HELL NO!

[calibrated]

Originally Posted by JOZAWUN

Yes, but that's a defect of the interface.

One man's bug is another man's feature.

[JSWolf]

I try to find a high resolution cover image to use and then I scale it down to 1024 lines (if it's larger). I do this in case the book gets read on an iPad. I do like having proper covers in Calibre.

[calibrated]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I can't even make out any detail on a greyscale "thumbnail image." On a six-inch eInk screen, a list of titles is much more useful (useful for me; I wouldn't dream of speaking for anyone else) than 6-8 thumbnails—that I'd be lucky to even be able to read the title on—could ever be.

I agree that on e-ink devices, the only sensible thing is a list of titles. I use a full-color LCD tablet, where it's much more useful to have the thumbnails.