Epub on IPad: no frontcover in bookshelf

[eping]

Daddy Warpig has showed the way to define the cover for iPad.

I think we are suffering from disunity among companies just like different browsers do to the same HTML and CSS standard.
Adobe and Apple implement and render ePub in different ways, cover is one case.
Adobe(and all devices based on its SDK) will ignore those code about cover and get cover from the first page automatically,
and they recommend user using SVG as cover image.
While Apple and some other devices only recognize just a defined cover picture(not a page).

So if you define the cover in <meta> tag, iPad will show it, but ADE not,
if you define the cover in the first page, iPad will not show it.
So you have to define the cover in both <meta> and the first page, but some eReader then will show the cover twice. a very annoying problem.

And I think ePub standard doesn't state a clear, unique way of defining the cover, why just put cover so important a thing into a confusing <meta> tag, why not a tag like <cover src="cover.htm/cover.jpg" type="page/image"/>

[kjk]

Originally Posted by eping

And I think ePub standard doesn't state a clear, unique way of defining the cover, why just put cover so important a thing into a confusing <meta> tag, why not a tag like <cover src="cover.htm/cover.jpg" type="page/image"/>

You know, the IDPF is working on the next ePub revisions right now-anyone who is interested in giving feedback should definitely get involved! http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/epub...2010_v.11.html

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eping

I think we are suffering from disunity among companies just like different browsers do to the same HTML and CSS standard.
Adobe and Apple implement and render ePub in different ways, cover is one case.
Adobe(and all devices based on its SDK) will ignore those code about cover and get cover from the first page automatically,
and they recommend user using SVG as cover image.
While Apple and some other devices only recognize just a defined cover picture(not a page).

So if you define the cover in <meta> tag, iPad will show it, but ADE not,
if you define the cover in the first page, iPad will not show it.

Could you take a look at one of my ePub books and see what it does? It works correctly in both ADE and iBooks.

[Daddy Warpig]

Originally Posted by eping

And I think ePub standard doesn't state a clear, unique way of defining the cover,

You're correct. The ePub standard, AFAIK, doesn't specify a way to define a cover.

More on this here: IDPF Screws Up ePub eBook Covers For Everyone!

[eping]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Could you take a look at one of my ePub books and see what it does? It works correctly in both ADE and iBooks.

Glad to, would you please give a link?

[HarryT]

This one, for example:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54886

All my ePub books are converted from Mobi, so perhaps it's something about the way that Mobi displays covers that makes a difference. All I can say is that the cover's only in the book once, and it definitely displays fine on both ADE and iBooks.

[eping]

Harry,Thank you very much.
I checked your ePub, it did define the cover twice both
in meta info and a titlepage.
This kind of cover must show twice on eReaders such as Mobilepocket,
but when I try to open it by Mobilepocket, it failed, please check.
I am afraid there's no other way to fulfill both eReader types.
If iBook show the cover once, means it's better than Mobilepocket.

[HarryT]

That's an ePub book, so certainly it won't open in MobiPocket. I think you may have misunderstood me; I said that it had been converted from a MobiPocket book. The MobiPocket version is in the appropriate forum section for that format. Thank you for looking at it.

[kovidgoyal]

Just clarify the issue:

The EPUB standard has no support for image based covers. Instead EPUB software is supposed to render the first "screefull" of the epub and use that as a cover.

However, calibre for years and now itunes/ibooks use the following convention:

If in the <metadata> section of the OPF file there is a line that looks like

<meta name='cover" content="someid"/>

where someid is the id of an image file in the <manifest> of the OPF, it will be used as the cover.

When you use calibre to create an EPUB is adds this line automatically (assuming the EPUB has an image based cover).

[reuben]

Hi,

How do I show EPUB books in their default cover on iPad? I just want them to be displayed in their default cover with their simple Book Title and Author. Is their any HTML code for it?Does creating a cover HTML with no cover images in it do the trick?I don't have an iPad so I can't test it. Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance,
ben

[georg3200]

If you do not have a cover image for your epub, the iPad should show the standard-view with author and title.

This was the problem that I had. I saw only the standard-book-cover though my epub contained a cover.jpg.
I had to do a workaround to make the iPad show the cover.
So I assume, if you do not have a cover, the iPad should automatically show the standard cover with author and title.

BTW: the workaround was the following line in the metadata section of the content.opf:

<meta name="cover" content="image_cover_jpg" />

where the value "image_cover_jpg" is the id of the cover-image in manifest-section.

[reuben]

Hi georg3200,

Thank you for pointing that out..so I guess I'll just make an EPUB without the cover..maybe iPad just reads the metadata info from the OPF file to retrieve the Title and Author Info and then displays it as the default cover (I think?)..

Anyway, thanks a lot..

[ksng]

Hi,
I used Calibre to add my book cover (600x800px 72dpi as advised by Adobe), it shows perfectly on iBook ereader but when i load it in Stanza, the first cover page is blank. Any idea what's wrong?

[tyche]

Originally Posted by ksng

Hi,
I used Calibre to add my book cover (600x800px 72dpi as advised by Adobe), it shows perfectly on iBook ereader but when i load it in Stanza, the first cover page is blank. Any idea what's wrong?

Are you using svg for the image type? I don't think Stanza supports that format for a cover.

[reuben]

Originally Posted by georg3200

if you do not have a cover, the iPad should automatically show the standard cover with author and title.

I've tested it now with my new iPad and it worked! Thanks george!