[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Wondering purpose of option to convert covers to black&white before upload. Was put in when Kobo just BW anyways.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Just to save space. Might speed loading slightly?

The B&W covers option is not just about saving space. It's also a prerequisite for other KU (and KoboTouch driver) cover options:

• Upload dithered covers
• Save covers as PNG

which enable much improved cover image dithering, i.e. reducing the ugly "banding" seen on the sleep screensaver for some books.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Ah, was wondering if maybe it rendered different.

It may dither better then Kobo did back when the option was created.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

which enable much improved cover image dithering, i.e. reducing the ugly "banding" seen on the sleep screensaver for some books.

Ah, the effect you get when you reduce number of colours in image? I not see it, maybe newer firmware handles better.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

The B&W covers option is not just about saving space. It's also a prerequisite for other KU (and KoboTouch driver) cover options:

• Upload dithered covers
• Save covers as PNG

which enable much improved cover image dithering, i.e. reducing the ugly "banding" seen on the sleep screensaver for some books.

I've never dithered cover image, so never seen banding.
Used covers "as is" on Kobo Touch, Original Aura H2O, Libra, Libra2, Sage and Elipsa.

Dithered would want to be PNG, as JPEG can make a mess of dithering anyway. A dithered image is a disaster to rescale, so a dithered image only suits something than can do the source to display pixels 1:1.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Ah, the effect you get when you reduce number of colours in image? I not see it, maybe newer firmware handles better.

No, "banding" in display of a dithered image isn't due to reducing number of colours (though badly done that can create posterisation effects). Dithering allows using less display colours (or 1 bit black & white) to show all the source shades. Banding is a Moire effect due to not displaying the dithered image pixels 1:1 with display pixels.

[JSWolf]

As my Kobos are not color, I'll leave this option check to pre-dither the cover images. I've not seen any issues.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've never dithered cover image, so never seen banding.
Used covers "as is" on Kobo Touch, Original Aura H2O, Libra, Libra2, Sage and Elipsa.

Dithered would want to be PNG, as JPEG can make a mess of dithering anyway. A dithered image is a disaster to rescale, so a dithered image only suits something than can do the source to display pixels 1:1.

It's a long time since @NiLuJe/@davidfor explained this but IIRC...

If your calibre covers are colour (almost certainly), even if you 'do nothing', dithering happens somewhere along the line between calibre send-to-device and the Kobo displaying the sleep screen cover because the Kobo device itself will dither images whenever it thinks it needs to. @NiluJe's opinion (he was/is very picky about cover image quality) was that leaving it up to the Kobo device gave the worst end results. Hence he supplied the code for the extra cover options in KU/KoboTouch driver and @davidfor implemented them.

Enabling ALL the cover options (Keep aspect ratio, Letterbox fullscreen covers, Send B&W, Upload dithered covers, Save covers as PNG) ensures that all dithering for the sleep fullscreen image happens at the calibre end prior to sending, rather than leaving it to the tender mercies of the Kobo device. I believe using the PNG format allows dithering to the correct eink 16-colour grayscale palette, whereas JPG does not.

In summary:
If before it's sent, the fullscreen image:

• is already B&W using only the 16-colour eink grayscale palette
• already has the 2 vertical padding sidebars added in your colour of choice
• is already the exact dimensions for the Kobo model it's being sent to

then the Kobo will not need to do any further dithering.