[GUI Plugin] Generate Cover

[kiwidude]

You should be using the Series column in calibre, rather than lengthening your title. That allows the series information to appear separately displayed on the generated cover.

Then use a metadata plugboard (see the sticky in the Library Management forum) so that your internal metadata combines series and title when the book is sent to the Kindle (to give you the sorting on the Kindle you desire with a combined series volume title name).

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by hfpop

There is a reason to do this: the mobi files metadata does not hold series and volumes. On the other side, the series and volumes cannot be displayed on kindle. So I am forced to include more information in the title, and I would like it to be formatted nicely on the cover.

People get around this limitation my using metadata plugboards to insert the series into the title upon send to device. Read this sticky thread.

[iatheia]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@iatheia - dwanthny has been spot on with all his comments. There is absolutely no difference between using this plugin to generate a cover versus downloading a cover via metadata or from other sources. It is manipulating a cover.jpg file that you can view in calibre, nothing more, nothing less. It has nothing to do with what you do or do not see on your Kindle when you open the book.

Just like any other cover you associate with your calibre library, the jpg image will not get inserted into your mobi file until you do a conversion. Or in very special circumstances during send to device/save to disk (where recognises how to automatically update the cover, such as a calibre conversion being done on that format in the past).

Actually, no, I did find the difference in the Calibre itself, too, which is probably the source of this confusion. Even just for epub files.

When you double-click on the book that hasn't been opened before, first thing you see is the cover, and then you can scroll down to begin reading. This plugin does generate a physical jpeg file for the cover, but it doesn't insert it back into the book like the other methods do.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by iatheia

Actually, no, I did find the difference in the Calibre itself, too, which is probably the source of this confusion. Even just for epub files.

When you double-click on the book that hasn't been opened before, first thing you see is the cover, and then you can scroll down to begin reading. This plugin does generate a physical jpeg file for the cover, but it doesn't insert it back into the book like the other methods do.

No method that changes the cover in calibre automatically inserts the cover into the book. It just doesn't happen. Here is an explanation I wrote a while back regarding ePub books and covers.

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The covers you see in the calibre library may possibly be embedded in the ePub using one of the below features.

1. Use the Save to disk feature to export the book from calibre.
2. Use the Send to device to export the book from calibre.
3. Use the Connect to folder (iTunes) feature to export the book from calibre.
4. Use the Content server to export the book from calibre.
5. Use the modify ePub plugin to update the cover in the book.
6. Convert the file from on format to another, ePub to ePub would work.

Covers will only get inserted into the ePub with the first 5 options above if there is an existing cover in the ePub that is properly structured and identified as a cover.

Currently if a cover doesn't already exist in the ePub or if the cover is not properly identified the only way to insert the cover is via a conversion, once more for the record a ePub - ePub conversion would work to embed the cover.

[kiwidude]

@iaetheia - there seems to be multiple things you are throwing into the mix here. These are the facts:

(1) The calibre ebook viewer will display from the very start of the book (be it epub or whatever other format like mobi it converted to epub to display it). So if the first page in that book is a cover image, that will get displayed.

(2) Mobi formats on a Kindle device do not display the cover image when you first open the book. It intentionally skips past such covers, as Amazon ideally want the user to be able to start reading straight away. Some people fudge this using duplication (so a content page following the official cover page and duplicates the cover image). But that is a silly thing to do in my opinion in that it bloats the book and you can't easily replace the "inner" cover. As dwanthny said initially, if you want to see the cover on a Kindle device just click the left button after opening the book.

(3) Both of those facts bear absolutely no relation to what this plugin does. Calibre stores in its library folders for each book a cover.jpg file for display on the book details panel. This plugin modifies that jpg only, nothing else. As does drag/dropping an image onto that cover in the book details or edit metadata window. As does downloading a cover using metadata download. As does using the "extract cover from ebook" feature. Not one of those approaches will change the cover inside the book itself in isolation.

(4) If you then want that cover.jpg which you have sourced/generated to be *inside* your book (so it can be displayed in the calibre ebook viewer or on your device), then the post above from dwanthny lists all of your options for making that happen.

Hope that clears things up for you...

[hfpop]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

People get around this limitation my using metadata plugboards to insert the series into the title upon send to device. Read this sticky thread.

Yes, indeed. Thank you for the lesson. There is, however, yet another problem that needs some tweaking:
(a) A book in three parts, that are also members of a series. For example, Winnetou has three volumes, each with a different name. The title of each book would be "Winnetou 1. Title" and so on. The right formatting on the cover would be to break the line at dot and not write the dot, and write the title as "Title<br>Winnetou 1".

(b) A different example, two books, the second being the continuation of the first. However, they have different titles. Here I am still thinking at a logical naming scheme: "First title 1" and "First title 2. Second title".

It would be logical to use the custom text field, but (a) I did not find yet the right pattern to be used in both dot titles and dotless titles, and (b) I did not find a way to use ONLY the custom text field as the cover, and include the image as part of the custom text field.

Thank you for the help.

[kiwidude]

@hfpop - why would you not just use the series name column for both those examples?
e.g.
title: Apache Gold
series: Winnetou [1]

And a "second book being a continuation of the first" is surely just another series?

Then with a metadata plugboard your book can appear as "Winnetou 1 - Apache Gold" or formatted however differently you like. And this cover plugin already displays the series name on a separate line so you don't have to do anything special with it.

Personally I won't be making a modification to the plugin to try to split on "dots", there are way too many cases where it would go wrong (Mr. & Dr. etc). However you have the plugin source code, so if you want to make the changes yourself for your own personal usage then go for it (bearing in mind you will have to continually integrate with any future plugin updates). A warning that it is not quite trivial though, there is a lot of "nasty" code to do with sizing things in there which you will have to "break" to compensate for a title taking multiple lines.

[Wyndham]

Is there a way to use data from Calibre in the Custom text field?

The error message I got when I tried, implied that it is possible, so I am hoping I just need to find out the right syntax.

I am thinking or, for example, the Series column, or a custom column I have set up which displays the status (completed or in progress) of an eBook (story).



This has the potential to be really useful, especially to be able to display series info...

[kiwidude]

You can put whatever text you like in there that the calibre template language supports. For your screenshot don't forget to put a # in front of any custom column names, so #status not status.

You mention series a couple of times - you don't need to use the custom text feature to display series, it is already displayed (as ticked in your screenshot - just that your book selected does not have the series populated). If you mean to show a secondary series column, then yes that is certainly possible like any other custom column.

[Wyndham]

Thank you - much appreciated.

[paegan]

Kudos on such a great plugin that enhances calibre's rather dull atomatic cover creator.

I usually use calibre to manage the fanfiction I read, especially now in combiation with that other wonderful plugin FanFictionDownLoader.

Well I got bored and made a few generic covers for my fanfic sites cuz it's really hard to find coers to match the stories I read and I thought I'd share em in case any1 else might want em.



Oh and here are some font links to give things a bit more pizazz:
Harry Potter Logo Font
Harry Potter Title Font
Naruto Logo Font
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Font

[kiwidude]

Hi paegan, thanks for sharing those, I am sure others will find them useful. I will add some index links to the first post as there are a few users now who have kindly added their images throughout this thread.

[paegan]

Sure, no problem. I can do other sites by request so ppl can put a msg in the thread & can do those up quick ...

[Vaesse]

If someone wants the settings I used for my "script" covers, I'd be happy to provide. I uploaded examples and images for my Roswell and Firefly scripts here, I've also got covers for Buffy, Angel, and Doctor Who (one for each incarnation). And I'm thinking about a few other similar shows. They'd probably work beautifully for fanfic as well.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Vaesse

If someone wants the settings I used for my "script" covers, I'd be happy to provide. I uploaded examples and images for my Roswell and Firefly scripts here, I've also got covers for Buffy, Angel, and Doctor Who (one for each incarnation). And I'm thinking about a few other similar shows. They'd probably work beautifully for fanfic as well.

I'd love to get the ones for Buffy and Angel.

@kiwidude
Just a thought, perhaps an import/export layout option may be added to the plugin to make sharing layouts easier? Maybe create a ZIP file containing the JSON for that layout and the custom image/background if applicable.