Why are my book covers sometimes so small?

radius · 10-18-2019, 01:26 PM

In the "My Book" library view, I have many books with covers that are displayed at different scale. See the attached photo for an example.

Does anybody know why that is? I read pretty much exclusively sideloaded epubs and Overdrive epub loans.

ZodWallop · 10-18-2019, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radius

In the "My Book" library view, I have many books with covers that are displayed at different scale. See the attached photo for an example.

Does anybody know why that is? I read pretty much exclusively sideloaded epubs and Overdrive epub loans.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but do they show that way in Calibre? Sometimes when I pull a cover last night, the image will have a white border around it like that. If I don't manually edit the image, that white border is seen as part of the cover.

JSWolf · 10-18-2019, 02:07 PM

Sometimes older eBooks have thumbnail images of the cover and maybe these do and the cover being read as the thumbnail.

If you are using Calibre and you are side loading, have a look at what the cover looks like that Calibre has. Select the eBook and press e to get to the Edit metadata requester. Also, go to the Plugins preferences and find the KoboTouch drier and configure it to upload covers. I have black & white covers on.

Also, if any of those books are in Calibre with the correct size cover, you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to send the cover to your Kobo.

tourneur · 10-18-2019, 02:08 PM

Yeah, it seems like the white part is actually part of the image. You can crop the image, but you could end up with a low resolution image. If that's the case its worth replacing it with a high resolution cover art (use the image search of your search engine).

JSWolf · 10-18-2019, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tourneur

Yeah, it seems like the white part is actually part of the image. You can crop the image, but you could end up with a low resolution image. If that's the case its worth replacing it with a high resolution cover art (use the image search of your search engine).

Better yet, try the download cover option of the Edit metadata requester to try to get a hi-res image.

geek1011 · 10-18-2019, 04:55 PM

No, this isn't due to an issue with the epub itself. This is due to a firmware change in the latest firmware, which seems to now generate covers from the first page rather than getting it from the package document. I haven't tested this much, and it may not apply in all cases. I'm planning to write a cover extractor later to work around this issue (probably next time I import a bunch of books).

Update: I just read back through this thread, and what Jon mentioned about enabling cover uploading in Calibre would have the same result, assuming you use Calibre for your ebooks.

JSWolf · 10-18-2019, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek1011

No, this isn't due to an issue with the epub itself. This is due to a firmware change in the latest firmware, which seems to now generate covers from the first page rather than getting it from the package document. I haven't tested this much, and it may not apply in all cases. I'm planning to write a cover extractor later to work around this issue (probably next time I import a bunch of books).

Update: I just read back through this thread, and what Jon mentioned about enabling cover uploading in Calibre would have the same result, assuming you use Calibre for your ebooks.

Which explains why I never saw the bug. But then, I make sure I have a hi-res cover or the largest cover I can find if not. And I do use Calibre. So the covers get sent to the Kobo dithered in B&W.

davidfor · 10-18-2019, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek1011

No, this isn't due to an issue with the epub itself. This is due to a firmware change in the latest firmware, which seems to now generate covers from the first page rather than getting it from the package document. I haven't tested this much, and it may not apply in all cases. I'm planning to write a cover extractor later to work around this issue (probably next time I import a bunch of books).

That isn't what I am seeing.

Firstly, the cover image for epubs has always been the first page of the book. The RMSDK is used to render it and take it as the cover. This is at least partly because for books with DRM, the image marked as the cover is encrypted and this is the simplest way to get something. The same goes for PDFs.

Kepubs uses the image that is marked as the cover. This might have changed somewhere. In the past, it had to be marked in the OPF as 'properties="cover-image"'. Now it looks like only the cover meta item needs to point to it correctly. Without either of these, I get the default cover with the title and format on it.

geek1011 · 10-19-2019, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Firstly, the cover image for epubs has always been the first page of the book. The RMSDK is used to render it and take it as the cover. This is at least partly because for books with DRM, the image marked as the cover is encrypted and this is the simplest way to get something. The same goes for PDFs.

That would have explained part of what I was seeing, as I noticed this when testing seriesmeta, and for that, I tried epubs for the first time in a while.

Quote:

Kepubs uses the image that is marked as the cover. This might have changed somewhere. In the past, it had to be marked in the OPF as 'properties="cover-image"'. Now it looks like the cover meta item needs to point to it correctly. Without either of these, I get the default cover with the title and format on it.

That would explain the other part of what I was seeing, and I probably thought it was the first page because the half-cover looked a lot like that.

I guess I was partly misguided about this, but there still seems to be a need for a cover-image fixer, as a few of my books that used to import correctly now have an ugly cover, so I'm working on that now. I'll also look into the second thing you said, as that's probably something I can fix in kepubify.

davidfor · 10-20-2019, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek1011

That would have explained part of what I was seeing, as I noticed this when testing seriesmeta, and for that, I tried epubs for the first time in a while.

You're going to have to read my posts a bit more thoroughly

I've made this statement about how the cover images in epubs and kepubs are generated quite a few times over the years.

Quote:

That would explain the other part of what I was seeing, and I probably thought it was the first page because the half-cover looked a lot like that.

I guess I was partly misguided about this, but there still seems to be a need for a cover-image fixer, as a few of my books that used to import correctly now have an ugly cover, so I'm working on that now. I'll also look into the second thing you said, as that's probably something I can fix in kepubify.

I just read what you quoted, and I missed the word "only". It should have been:

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Kepubs uses the image that is marked as the cover. This might have changed somewhere. In the past, it had to be marked in the OPF as 'properties="cover-image"'. Now it looks like only the cover meta item needs to point to it correctly. Without either of these, I get the default cover with the title and format on it.

The cover image was always identified with that property. But, I it looks like it can also be identified using the meta item for the cover. I don't know if this is new, or has been around for a while.

geek1011 · 10-20-2019, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

You're going to have to read my posts a bit more thoroughly

I've made this statement about how the cover images in epubs and kepubs are generated quite a few times over the years.

You do make quite a few posts, and they tend to be quite long

. But yes, I'll try not to miss things when skimming posts.

Quote:

The cover image was always identified with that property. But, I it looks like it can also be identified using the meta item for the cover. I don't know if this is new, or has been around for a while.

About the meta, I'm certain that wasn't possible in 4.12.12111, which was the last time I did anything out of the ordinary with covers.

Otherwise, it seems I was mistaken about some of the things I perceived as changes, which may have been there for longer without me noticing.

Anyways, I've almost finished my covergen tool (see the PR for kepubify), and it does fix (no, I'm not implying it is a bug, just a preference) these issues. It's also quite a bit faster.

radius · 10-21-2019, 01:05 AM

Ah, I thought the library view would pick out the cover image and use that. I didn't know that it was actually based on a render of the first page. I'm going to play around with ithe code in the epubs then.

I'm not a really a Calibre user (and wouldn't sideload with it anyways as I don't like all the folders it creates on device)

geek1011 · 10-21-2019, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radius

Ah, I thought the library view would pick out the cover image and use that. I didn't know that it was actually based on a render of the first page. I'm going to play around with ithe code in the epubs then.

You'd probably be better off playing around with covergen, which I'll be releasing with the next version of kepubify sometime next week. Then you don't have to modify the epub itself.

JSWolf · 10-21-2019, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radius

Ah, I thought the library view would pick out the cover image and use that. I didn't know that it was actually based on a render of the first page. I'm going to play around with ithe code in the epubs then.

I'm not a really a Calibre user (and wouldn't sideload with it anyways as I don't like all the folders it creates on device)

You can easily do away with Calibre creating all of those directories.

Go to Properties > Plugins > Sending books to devices and edit the template. Remove the template code for the directories and you will then be able to side load without any of those directories being created. Simple really.

davidfor · 10-21-2019, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can easily do away with Calibre creating all of those directories.

Go to Properties > Plugins > Sending books to devices and edit the template. Remove the template code for the directories and you will then be able to side load without any of those directories being created. Simple really.

That's the default save template, but as soon as you change anything in the driver configuration, you need to edit the save template there.

10-18-2019, 01:26 PM	#1
radius Lector minore Posts: 649 Karma: 1738720 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Aura One, Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, Google Pixel Slate	Why are my book covers sometimes so small? In the "My Book" library view, I have many books with covers that are displayed at different scale. See the attached photo for an example. Does anybody know why that is? I read pretty much exclusively sideloaded epubs and Overdrive epub loans. Attached Thumbnails

10-18-2019, 04:55 PM	#6
geek1011 Wizard Posts: 2,730 Karma: 6675565 Join Date: May 2016 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Mini, Aura Edition 2 v1, Clara HD	No, this isn't due to an issue with the epub itself. This is due to a firmware change in the latest firmware, which seems to now generate covers from the first page rather than getting it from the package document. I haven't tested this much, and it may not apply in all cases. I'm planning to write a cover extractor later to work around this issue (probably next time I import a bunch of books). Update: I just read back through this thread, and what Jon mentioned about enabling cover uploading in Calibre would have the same result, assuming you use Calibre for your ebooks. Last edited by geek1011; 10-18-2019 at 05:06 PM.

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10-18-2019, 02:07 PM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,866 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Sometimes older eBooks have thumbnail images of the cover and maybe these do and the cover being read as the thumbnail. If you are using Calibre and you are side loading, have a look at what the cover looks like that Calibre has. Select the eBook and press e to get to the Edit metadata requester. Also, go to the Plugins preferences and find the KoboTouch drier and configure it to upload covers. I have black & white covers on. Also, if any of those books are in Calibre with the correct size cover, you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to send the cover to your Kobo.

10-18-2019, 02:08 PM	#4
tourneur Zealot Posts: 110 Karma: 385602 Join Date: Aug 2019 Location: The Netherlands Device: Kobo Libra	Yeah, it seems like the white part is actually part of the image. You can crop the image, but you could end up with a low resolution image. If that's the case its worth replacing it with a high resolution cover art (use the image search of your search engine).

10-21-2019, 01:05 AM	#12
radius Lector minore Posts: 649 Karma: 1738720 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Aura One, Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, Google Pixel Slate	Ah, I thought the library view would pick out the cover image and use that. I didn't know that it was actually based on a render of the first page. I'm going to play around with ithe code in the epubs then. I'm not a really a Calibre user (and wouldn't sideload with it anyways as I don't like all the folders it creates on device)

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