[GUI Plugin] Generate Cover

[dunhill]

Feedback on the attached test version would be appreciated - I will release this as 2.5.0 once the poor translators have stopped swearing at me for making so many changes - thanks all who contribute to that!

This has occupied most of my weekend - if it really does float your boat as I hope it will then please don't forget to donate

Spanish translation complete! It's always a pleasure to help with translations.

[version365]

Hello..
I just came back & started using calibre again after 2 years. Last calibre version I used was 8.9.0. After updating both calibre & the plugins today, I found something odd with the Generate Cover plugin.
Many of the fonts I have used before are not working anymore! For example, I have mostly used a font called Eras ITC. The last time I used in Dec 2024, it worked flawlessly. But now, it's not working anymore. I can choose the font from the dropdown menu, but it's not rendering correctly. I don't know whether this is because of changes in Calibre or changes in the plugin itself.
I am attaching the .ttf font files below so that you can notice the difference when rendering the font in the plugin vs rendering it in a word file.
Please fix this issue if possible.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by version365

Hello..
I just came back & started using calibre again after 2 years. Last calibre version I used was 8.9.0. After updating both calibre & the plugins today, I found something odd with the Generate Cover plugin.
Many of the fonts I have used before are not working anymore! For example, I have mostly used a font called Eras ITC. The last time I used in Dec 2024, it worked flawlessly. But now, it's not working anymore. I can choose the font from the dropdown menu, but it's not rendering correctly. I don't know whether this is because of changes in Calibre or changes in the plugin itself.
I am attaching the .ttf font files below so that you can notice the difference when rendering the font in the plugin vs rendering it in a word file.
Please fix this issue if possible.

Look a few pages back for the issues people had with calibre and fonts. It is nothing to do with this plugin, it is issues with Qt6 that calibre updated to. There was some supposed workaround that could be done proposed in one post but I didn’t personally read the details, its not a plugin issue.

[version365]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Look a few pages back for the issues people had with calibre and fonts. It is nothing to do with this plugin, it is issues with Qt6 that calibre updated to. There was some supposed workaround that could be done proposed in one post but I didn’t personally read the details, its not a plugin issue.

Ohh.. thank you for the advice.
I did look back a few pages & it seems like it's stalled now. I found your thread you opened in the dev section & Kovid replied with a bug report he submitted to Qt. Looks like that bug report got closed as "fixed", but I don't see any change.. it's still not working me in the latest version of Calbre 9.17

I also found slimcat's workaround but unfortunately it didn't work for me either.

Edit: Upon further investigating, it looks like the Qt issue probably got solved (?) because if I choose my font for the calibre interface, it works.. the text font inside any book also works with my font.. only place it doesn't work is inside the Generate Cover plugin!!
@kiwidude, Can you please take a look again with my above font?

[kiwidude]

@version365 - I can see that this is perhaps a different sort of font issue. The problem is that currently the plugin uses a calibre function to return the list of fonts. That function is not returning what I actually need in this case - it coincidentally works for "most" fonts but not for ones like this. That is why it lists the individual fonts of "Eras Bold ITC" instead of the font family which is "Eras ITC" that is needed to actually render correctly.

I have an alternative means of populating the font family dropdown which I have tested locally and works ok for me but it has me wondering why I never used it originally when the plugin was written 15 years ago. I've left a message for Kovid to see if he can tell me any downside of this other approach is, will see what he says. One thing that comes to mind is perhaps the calibre approach allows for fonts to be located in places other than the system fonts for instance - but I would rather something that just works with that limitation than something that doesnt.

[kiwidude]

Release Notes:
https://github.com/kiwidude68/calibr...te_cover-2.5.0

In the absence of any negative reports from those who kindly tried the test version here is the official 2.5.0 release. See my post on the previous page for more detail about it.

Thank you Kovid for confirming my thoughts. I have included the change to the font dropdown with this release.

It is possible you may have "wrong" font family names in your saved settings (more likely you didn't use them as they didn't work) so you will need to select the new font variation if that happens to you.

Not all translations have been updated yet but they can be put in the next release.

I will at some point update the help documentation and examples/screenshots, on the never ending TODO list.

[ovillo]

I could kiss you! Finally I'm able to use the fonts I want. Thanks so much

[version365]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@version365 - I can see that this is perhaps a different sort of font issue. The problem is that currently the plugin uses a calibre function to return the list of fonts. That function is not returning what I actually need in this case - it coincidentally works for "most" fonts but not for ones like this. That is why it lists the individual fonts of "Eras Bold ITC" instead of the font family which is "Eras ITC" that is needed to actually render correctly.

I have an alternative means of populating the font family dropdown which I have tested locally and works ok for me but it has me wondering why I never used it originally when the plugin was written 15 years ago. I've left a message for Kovid to see if he can tell me any downside of this other approach is, will see what he says. One thing that comes to mind is perhaps the calibre approach allows for fonts to be located in places other than the system fonts for instance - but I would rather something that just works with that limitation than something that doesnt.

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Release Notes:
https://github.com/kiwidude68/calibr...te_cover-2.5.0

In the absence of any negative reports from those who kindly tried the test version here is the official 2.5.0 release. See my post on the previous page for more detail about it.

Thank you Kovid for confirming my thoughts. I have included the change to the font dropdown with this release.

Thank you very much for taking the time to look into this problem. Also for publishing the new version quickly.

Here are 2 problems I found with the new version.

1. This is a bit critical issue. Hope it gets solved fast.
I use a 1920x1080 monitor.. but because the text looks so small in this, I always use 150% zoom in windows display settings.
What I noticed is, if this zoom is anything bigger than 100%, the bottom options/buttons (OK, Cancel, Contents field etc.) doesn't show on the screen for the plugin pop-up window. And if I try to resize the window by dragging the sides, it disappears completely & makes whole calibre unresponsive; can't even close calibre except via task manager.
I am no programmer, but I think a simple scrollbar on the side of the options might solve this issue.

2. You were asking about the downside of this new kind of dropdown list. In my opinion, the downside would be not able to choose the different weights of the font family. The new options for any font family right now is bold & italic, but there can be many other font weights in family.
For example.. in my above font Eras ITC, there are 5 font weights.. Light, Medium, Demi, Bold, Ultra. I can't choose any of them after selecting the font family.
While the new system renders the font correctly, you can't choose between different weights.

[ernand]

Question on the new version.
Is there a way to have a list displayed in separate lines instead of a single line???

I have a {#fandoms} that might contain a list of series names. When I use it in the Custom Text section for the covers, I get the following:
NAME_1, NAME_2, NAME_3, NAME_4
I was wondering if there is a way for it to display as:
NAME_1,
NAME_2,
NAME_3,
NAME_4

[MCBastos]

This is such a major overhaul, with so many new features, that it should have been called version 3.0, not 2.5. Excellent job!