Book Covers - how generated? where stored? - Page 2

eschwartz · 12-16-2014, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSpider

And how do you change the home screen covers for PDF files?

You don't.

Yet Another Instance of PDF being a really, really, REALLY horrible ebook format.
But that should not be a surprise to anyone.

DSpider · 12-17-2014, 06:05 AM

PDF is not that horrible. I "obtained" a copy of all of the Harry Potter books that were OCR'ed and proofread 3 times, faithful to the originals, and they were a beauty to look at. I really found myself ogling at them.

Amazon is just being silly. If they wanted to, they could've easily tweaked the firmware on their devices to grab the first page (which is usually the cover) and display it on the home screen. Same for Mobi/AZW3.

I wonder if Duokan or KOreader displays the covers without doing anything silly (like searching Amazon's website for the books' ASIN) or without even using 3rd party software like Calibre... Hmmm...

HarryT · 12-17-2014, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSpider

PDF is not that horrible.

PDF is great for the purpose it was designed for: which is to be a digital representation of a piece of paper. Where it falls down is when people attempt to use it as a reflowable format for display on a screen that's smaller than the page size of the original document. As its name suggests, it's a document format, not a book format.

eschwartz · 12-17-2014, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSpider

PDF is not that horrible. I "obtained" a copy of all of the Harry Potter books that were OCR'ed and proofread 3 times, faithful to the originals, and they were a beauty to look at. I really found myself ogling at them.

Amazon is just being silly. If they wanted to, they could've easily tweaked the firmware on their devices to grab the first page (which is usually the cover) and display it on the home screen. Same for Mobi/AZW3.

I wonder if Duokan or KOreader displays the covers without doing anything silly (like searching Amazon's website for the books' ASIN) or without even using 3rd party software like Calibre... Hmmm...

No, you are the silly one for reading PDFs on an ereader.

It may hve been OCRed and proofread, who cares? As a PDF it might as well be faithful images, and on an ereader it's still going to reflow like ****.

And it has NO benefits over the gorgeous EPUBs at Pottermore.

DSpider · 12-23-2014, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doitsu

On an eInk Kindle, book covers are stored in the hidden /system/thumbnails folder on the Kindle. I. e. if you manually transfer books that have an ASIN, you'll get the generic cover unless you copy the corresponding thumbnail image. (Calibre does this automatically.)

The thumbnail file name must contain the ASIN number. For example:

Code:

thumbnail_B01234567_EBOK_portrait.jpg

How do I find out the ASIN number from the *.azw3 file itself?

I've got a "cover.jpg" and a "metadata.opf". What do I do with these? Where do these fit in?

Why is this shit so complicated? Oh, My, GOD!

Doitsu · 12-23-2014, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSpider

How do I find out the ASIN number from the *.azw3 file itself?

If you manage your books with Calibre, you could use the Edit Metadata dialog. The ASIN, will be displayed in the Ids: field after mobi-asin. However, if you're using Calibre, you might as well install the Quality Check Calibre plugin, use the Fix ASIN for Kindle Fire option and have Calibre generate and transfer the thumbnails to your Kindle.

If you don't use Calibre, you could use the Java Mobi Metadata Editor to display the ASIN and/or use quiris's ExtractCoverThumbs tool.

eschwartz · 12-23-2014, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSpider

How do I find out the ASIN number from the *.azw3 file itself?

I've got a "cover.jpg" and a "metadata.opf". What do I do with these? Where do these fit in?

Why is this shit so complicated? Oh, My, GOD!

cover.jpg and metadata.opf are calibre data files, nothing to do with the Kindle.

As Doitsu said, ASIN is a metadata field and you will need a program like JMME which reads mobipocket database metadata.

When messing around with actual files and not using programs to abstract away knowledge, things are bound to get complicated.

rosebud34 · 01-23-2015, 06:38 PM

Just joined and this is my first post. Don't know how to start a new thread so I apologize if this is a little off topic. Sometimes when I download a book from Amazon on my Kindle Fire, I get a gray linen cover with the book title missing. Lately I have made sure my Kindle Fire is turned on before buying the books online, and that way I have been getting the actual book covers. Have I found the answer to avoiding the gray blank covers, or have I merely been lucky lately?

eschwartz · 01-24-2015, 09:50 PM

This is because calibre cannot add the thumbnails to a Kindle tablet app.

The covers MUST be downloaded from Amazon's servers -- and match the book's metadata exth 113 field containing the ASIN, which is not a problem unless you converted the book.

I have found with my Kindle Touch that it does not always download the cover if the book is already on the device. Why do I know this, if I advocate letting calibre handle everything?

Because at one point I had a specific reason for messing with the files themselves.
Naughty me.

It is possible if you leave it syncing long enough, the Kindle may catch on that it is missing a cover. I'd just sync first anyway, it can't hurt.

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12-17-2014, 06:05 AM	#17
DSpider Evangelist Posts: 450 Karma: 343115 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Romania Device: PW2 2014	PDF is not that horrible. I "obtained" a copy of all of the Harry Potter books that were OCR'ed and proofread 3 times, faithful to the originals, and they were a beauty to look at. I really found myself ogling at them. Amazon is just being silly. If they wanted to, they could've easily tweaked the firmware on their devices to grab the first page (which is usually the cover) and display it on the home screen. Same for Mobi/AZW3. I wonder if Duokan or KOreader displays the covers without doing anything silly (like searching Amazon's website for the books' ASIN) or without even using 3rd party software like Calibre... Hmmm...

01-23-2015, 06:38 PM	#23
rosebud34 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Kindle Fire	Just joined and this is my first post. Don't know how to start a new thread so I apologize if this is a little off topic. Sometimes when I download a book from Amazon on my Kindle Fire, I get a gray linen cover with the book title missing. Lately I have made sure my Kindle Fire is turned on before buying the books online, and that way I have been getting the actual book covers. Have I found the answer to avoiding the gray blank covers, or have I merely been lucky lately?

01-24-2015, 09:50 PM	#24
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	This is because calibre cannot add the thumbnails to a Kindle tablet app. The covers MUST be downloaded from Amazon's servers -- and match the book's metadata exth 113 field containing the ASIN, which is not a problem unless you converted the book. I have found with my Kindle Touch that it does not always download the cover if the book is already on the device. Why do I know this, if I advocate letting calibre handle everything? Because at one point I had a specific reason for messing with the files themselves. Naughty me. It is possible if you leave it syncing long enough, the Kindle may catch on that it is missing a cover. I'd just sync first anyway, it can't hurt.

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