Question in regards to modifying the "insert metadata as a page in a book" Layout

[crissman]

I have a question that I have not been able to find an answer to. Is there a way to modify the graphical display of the metadata that is displayed when choosing the option when converting a book "insert metadata as a page at the start of a book" under the structure detection option.

Reason I am asking is that I came across a book that had metadata inserted as a page at the beginning of a book that was more appealing to me. It did not have the big blueish block with the metadata inside it, it used lines like a page breaks and it had a white background. To me it looked more streamlined and part of the actual book, rather than something added. Probably was a different program used to do this but I was wondering if there was a way to do this in Calibre.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by crissman

I have a question that I have not been able to find an answer to. Is there a way to modify the graphical display of the metadata that is displayed when choosing the option when converting a book "insert metadata as a page at the start of a book" under the structure detection option.

Reason I am asking is that I came across a book that had metadata inserted as a page at the beginning of a book that was more appealing to me. It did not have the big blueish block with the metadata inside it, it used lines like a page breaks and it had a white background. To me it looked more streamlined and part of the actual book, rather than something added. Probably was a different program used to do this but I was wondering if there was a way to do this in Calibre.

@crissman - First read this Override resources like icons... and templates for the metadata jacket, catalogs etc

And then a search for 'metadata jacket' in the calibre forum should yield a number of recent threads that discuss the creation of custom jackets.

BR

[kristalana]

When you insert the book jacket during a mobi conversion you get a very simple format, I suppose since mobi can't handle tables, but imo it's way, way better than the version you get with an epub/azw3. That's actually a big part of why I've kept converting to mobi.

[crissman]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@crissman - First read this Override resources like icons... and templates for the metadata jacket, catalogs etc

And then a search for 'metadata jacket' in the calibre forum should yield a number of recent threads that discuss the creation of custom jackets.

BR

Now that I have had some extra time, I looked into this, and came up with the plugin Generate Cover, and Metadata Jackets.

Unless I am not reading the correct forums, I am not seeing what I am interested in doing. From a quick browse of the Generate Cover PI, It generates a custom Book Jacket with whatever information you would like.

What I am looking at trying to do is to keep my downloaded/or Original Book cover and then either before or after as a separate page that is custom made, very much the way the "insert metadata as a page at the start of a book"

Very much the way it is laid out is good I just would like to do away with the border completely around the author, title, rating, tag and remove the color so that the background is white.

Much like it is in the comment area, Making it uniform.

Maybe frame it with a header and footer line as well as the already implemented division line above the comment field

I would like to be able to remove the Publisher info and instead of Tag field use my own Genre Custom column instead (also not sure what it is printing the tags twice once in black and once in white)

I attached a screenshot of what it currently looks like

crissman

[BetterRed]

@crissman - Look in recent threads started by hoods7070 and jecilop - they've been playing with them

Basically you have to copy resources/jacket directory from the install directory to the configuration directory and edit the .css and xhtml files it contains (you'll have to un-readonly them first)

BR

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@crissman - Look in recent threads started by hoods7070 and jecilop - they've been playing with them



Basically you have to copy resources/jacket directory from the install directory to the configuration directory and edit the .css and xhtml files it contains (you'll have to un-readonly them first)

BR

searches expire, I believe they remain valid for about 100 minutes.

The following links actually submit the appropriate fields via POST:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...chuser=jecilop
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...user=Hoods7070

(Thank you for reminding me I once wanted to make a note of this. )

Basically,
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...&searchuser=%s for usernames
and
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...ocess&query=%s for keywords

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

www.mobileread.com/forums/search.php?do=process&searchuser=%s for usernames
and
www.mobileread.com/forums/search.php?do=process&query=%s for keywords

@eschwartz - Didn't know that. Actually, I didn't think about it, but when I do it makes sense.

But my searches were for threads that jecilop & Hoods7070 started, your pattern delivers threads to which they've posted

BR

[crissman]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

searches expire, I believe they remain valid for about 100 minutes.

The following links actually submit the appropriate fields via POST:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...chuser=jecilop
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...user=Hoods7070

(Thank you for reminding me I once wanted to make a note of this. )

Basically,
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...&searchuser=%s for usernames
and
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sea...ocess&query=%s for keywords

Thanks, I will look into these link and see what I can do.. thanks

[Hoods7070]

Yes, I really dislike the table/box thing. (Although they have "squared off" the border corners recently, I think, which does look better.) Editing the metadata is easy enough, as said above, by going into the Calibre Resources folder, removing the read only attributes of the two files and changing them to your satisfaction. (BTW because Calibre overwrites your modifications with each new install, it's best to put your modified files elsewhere - Preferences->Advanced->Miscellaneous. Open calibre configuration directory. In this configuration directory, create a sub-folder called resources and place the files you want to override in it. Maintain the same folder structure as in the Calibre resources folder.)

After fiddling, you can replace/insert the "jacket" and/or cover using either GUI Plugin Modify ePub or the native Calibre equivalent/s.

Having said all that, after my edits I get the really nice (very plain) rendition of the fields I want. This looks really nice in the Calibre ebook viewer: HOWEVER, because I am not conversant enough with xhtml and so on, my efforts don't display correctly on my tablet/s. The fields are populated correctly and show as expected, but I am doing something wrong that causes my CSS formatting to be ignored (in any of the various reader apps) meaning the error is mine. So, I am not going to hold forth about the actual modification of the CSS and XHTML because I am but an ignorant fool in that area. This has prompted me to go back and have a more in depth fiddle.** More below

Hope this is vaguely helpful.

** I uninstalled and reinstalled Calibre, cleaned every trace of it, including User data. There's good news and bad news.

The good news is I don't THINK I'm an idiot any more but am open to suggestion on that point. (My assumption having been that my modifications were to blame for the incorrect display on my devices.)

The bad is that when I run this clean install (ie with the unmodified Calibre template and stylesheet) then use Calibre Polish to replace the jacket in a couple of books the jacket header displayed in both my ereader app (Mantano on Android) and ADE on the PC is not formatted. The header table, background, borders and so on you see in the Calibre viewer do not show at all, and none of the font attributes -- other than the italics in the series field -- are displayed as per the stylesheet.

Can anyone confirm this?