Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Formats > Kindle Formats

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 03-08-2019, 11:57 AM   #1
Arty08
Junior Member
Arty08 began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Mar 2019
Device: kindle paperwhite
Kindle cover problem

Hello everyone! I am new here so not sure if this is correct category.

Anyway...

I am formatting books for living. For print and ebooks. So far I didn't had problems with any of my clients, but...

One client is asking that I make kindle cover with black background.

It is mobi file and cover is uploaded with correct kindle size. So when you open book in kindle device (paperwhite) you need to "slide" to the left to see cover. And that "screen" has left and right white bar, or to say margins. Now, I know how to stretch cover to fill full screen on kindle, but in this case, that is not possible (client don't want it). Now, my question is, is there any way to change "white bars" to black? That is what my client asking. I saw some books have black "bars" on cover screen, but mostly of them are white.

I used different softwares for converting to mobi, and none of them work. Not sure if that is just kindle option and not actually in mobi file

thank you and nice to be here
Arty08 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 07:03 AM   #2
AlanHK
Guru
AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.AlanHK ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
AlanHK's Avatar
 
Posts: 667
Karma: 929286
Join Date: Apr 2014
Device: PW-3, iPad, Android phone
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arty08 View Post
I saw some books have black "bars" on cover screen, but mostly of them are white.
Kindle front covers are simply images, no code. If you submit a file with a cover html page, it will be omitted from the mobi -- you can see a notice about that in the output from kindlegen.

If the image isn't the same ratio as the screen, Kindle will show white bars beside it. If you see black bars, they were in the cover image.

You can quickly confirm if it's all in the image by changing the view to landscape mode, then you must see white bars beside whatever was the actual image.

The thumbnail cover shown on the Kindle "grid view" booklist will be made from the cover image, so you would see black around that if there were bars in the image.

I never distort a cover to make it Kindle 4:3 ratio, but often crop and/or rearrange elements it if it's too tall.

Last edited by AlanHK; 03-11-2019 at 07:58 AM.
AlanHK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2019, 08:50 AM   #3
jhowell
Grand Sorcerer
jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jhowell ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
jhowell's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,470
Karma: 84000001
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida
Device: Kindles
In my testing using a Kindle Oasis 2 with 5.10.3 firmware, books in KF8 (azw3) format are shown with a white border around the cover and books in KFX (enhanced typesetting) format are shown with a black cover border.

These samples are in landscape mode. The first book is KF8 and the second is KFX.

------

Added: This is basically out of your control. The various Kindle apps, devices and firmware versions may produce different results.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	screenshot_2019_03_11T08_45_05-0400.png
Views:	386
Size:	188.9 KB
ID:	170184   Click image for larger version

Name:	screenshot_2019_03_11T08_39_22-0400.png
Views:	310
Size:	296.4 KB
ID:	170185  

Last edited by jhowell; 03-11-2019 at 10:08 AM.
jhowell is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-14-2019, 10:58 PM   #4
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Hitch's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,447
Karma: 157030631
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arty08 View Post
Hello everyone! I am new here so not sure if this is correct category.

Anyway...

I am formatting books for living. For print and ebooks. So far I didn't had problems with any of my clients, but...

One client is asking that I make kindle cover with black background.

It is mobi file and cover is uploaded with correct kindle size. So when you open book in kindle device (paperwhite) you need to "slide" to the left to see cover. And that "screen" has left and right white bar, or to say margins. Now, I know how to stretch cover to fill full screen on kindle, but in this case, that is not possible (client don't want it). Now, my question is, is there any way to change "white bars" to black?
No.


Hitch
Hitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2019, 03:50 AM   #5
Arty08
Junior Member
Arty08 began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Mar 2019
Device: kindle paperwhite
Thank you all for you answers.

I did bunch of research on this and downloaded some free sample books on my kindle, and some of them had black "bars" or "backgrounds" on cover screen.

Spent so many hours to figure it out and last thing I did is to uploaded the book to KDP and download it again. It had black bars lol.

So to make it short, KDP is adding black or white "bars" based on cover itself. If cover is light, then it will be white and if cover it black, then "bars" will be black. They are adding it automatically...

Thank you all again!
Arty08 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2019, 01:14 PM   #6
DaleDe
Grand Sorcerer
DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DaleDe ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
DaleDe's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,470
Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
The bars are necessary to maintain the aspect ratio of the cover. To remove the bars you would have to stretch the image to take up the space.

Dale
DaleDe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2019, 10:04 AM   #7
Notjohn
mostly an observer
Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,515
Karma: 987654
Join Date: Dec 2012
Device: Kindle
I never include a cover in an epub, because that can (but not always) result in there being two covers, both in the downloaded book and the Look Inside sample. The first is Amazon's conversion from the separately uploaded product image, and it fills the screen. The second is my included cover, and it does not fill the screen.

I never experienced this when uploading html files to the DTP/KDP. Indeed, Amazon would not only suppress an included cover, but also a frontispiece is there was one. So I learned to move the "frontispiece" to follow the table of contents.
Notjohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2019, 10:52 AM   #8
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Hitch's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,447
Karma: 157030631
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by Notjohn View Post
I never include a cover in an epub, because that can (but not always) result in there being two covers, both in the downloaded book and the Look Inside sample. The first is Amazon's conversion from the separately uploaded product image, and it fills the screen. The second is my included cover, and it does not fill the screen.

I never experienced this when uploading html files to the DTP/KDP. Indeed, Amazon would not only suppress an included cover, but also a frontispiece is there was one. So I learned to move the "frontispiece" to follow the table of contents.
NJ, I'm sorry, but the dreaded "double cover" hasn't happened with a "covered" ePUB file in dog's years. Amazon sorted that some years back, assuming that the cover is properly created. That being said, we (at my shop) do remove the html cover "page" (the cover.html section), leaving the meta-tagged cover image in the file and indicated appropriately where necessary. Just out of an abundance of caution.

What can still happen, though, as far as I know, is that Word-file uploaders that leave cover images inserted into their Word files can indeed still encounter the dreaded double-cover scenario. But ePUBs? No, not really.

Hitch
Hitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2019, 10:34 AM   #9
JAFrancis
Junior Member
JAFrancis began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Apr 2018
Device: Kindle
I agree with Notjohn. I submitted an epub (May 2019) from Sigil with a cover and wound up with two covers. I resubmitted it with no cover and it solved the problem.
JAFrancis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-20-2019, 07:15 PM   #10
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Hitch's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,447
Karma: 157030631
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAFrancis View Post
I agree with Notjohn. I submitted an epub (May 2019) from Sigil with a cover and wound up with two covers. I resubmitted it with no cover and it solved the problem.
Well, HOW was the cover included? In a cover.html file?

If you leave the cover.jpg in the file, but remove the cover.html file, ensuring that the cover.jpg is correctly semantically identified as the cover, that won't happen.

Hitch
Hitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-24-2019, 09:02 AM   #11
JAFrancis
Junior Member
JAFrancis began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 5
Karma: 10
Join Date: Apr 2018
Device: Kindle
The cover, cover.jpg, was included in a separate Amazon-specific step, separate from the epub upload.
I did try to identify semantically the cover. In Sigil, I right clicked on cover.xhtml, selected add semantics, then selected cover. It did not work.
Sigil does allow me to specify cover.jpg as 'cover image.' I tried deleteing cover.xhtml and specifiying cover.jpg as cover, but it threw a "Warning OPF resource in manifest not reachable" error with the FlightCrew plug in. It's possible the epub would have worked on Amazon in spite of the error.
JAFrancis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-24-2019, 09:08 AM   #12
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Hitch's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,447
Karma: 157030631
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAFrancis View Post
The cover, cover.jpg, was included in a separate Amazon-specific step, separate from the epub upload.
I did try to identify semantically the cover. In Sigil, I right clicked on cover.xhtml, selected add semantics, then selected cover. It did not work.
Sigil does allow me to specify cover.jpg as 'cover image.' I tried deleteing cover.xhtml and specifiying cover.jpg as cover, but it threw a "Warning OPF resource in manifest not reachable" error with the FlightCrew plug in. It's possible the epub would have worked on Amazon in spite of the error.
Because you're trying to hang onto an ePUB-checkable ePUB. That won't work.

You have to remove the cover.xhtml file, but LEAVE the cover.jpg or png or whatever you have, Right click the jpg and semantically identify it as the cover image. Save.

Yes, that will not epubcheck, but it will build a proper MOBI without issues.

Hitch
Hitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-24-2019, 01:02 PM   #13
j.p.s
Grand Sorcerer
j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.j.p.s ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 5,263
Karma: 98804578
Join Date: Apr 2011
Device: pb360
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch View Post
Because you're trying to hang onto an ePUB-checkable ePUB. That won't work.

You have to remove the cover.xhtml file, but LEAVE the cover.jpg or png or whatever you have, Right click the jpg and semantically identify it as the cover image. Save.

Yes, that will not epubcheck, but it will build a proper MOBI without issues.

Hitch
That is just sad.

Is that epubcheck being overly restrictive or the kindlegen design/implementation overly lazy?
j.p.s is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-24-2019, 06:07 PM   #14
Hitch
Bookmaker & Cat Slave
Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Hitch ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Hitch's Avatar
 
Posts: 11,447
Karma: 157030631
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Device: K2, iPad, KFire, PPW, Voyage, NookColor. 2 Droid, Oasis, Boox Note2
Quote:
Originally Posted by j.p.s View Post
That is just sad.

Is that epubcheck being overly restrictive or the kindlegen design/implementation overly lazy?
It's neither. They're kissing cousins, not twins.

Hitch
Hitch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2019, 01:00 PM   #15
Notjohn
mostly an observer
Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Notjohn ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,515
Karma: 987654
Join Date: Dec 2012
Device: Kindle
All very interesting, but I shall stick with deleting the included cover (and cover image) from the epub I upload to the KDP. Why not? It also reduces the size of the file, hence the download fee.

(The double cover last happened to me [REDACTED] That doesn't seem all that long ago to me....)

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa: it was 2014. How time flies when you're having fun!

Last edited by Notjohn; 06-06-2019 at 01:39 PM.
Notjohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Mysterious Cover problem on a Kindle AlexBell Workshop 16 09-15-2016 01:35 AM
Sell Nook Glowlight + cover, PRS600, Kindle 3 m-edge cover, K2 cover Waba Flea Market 3 10-12-2014 10:36 AM
Ended SOLD: Kindle Keyboard (K3) WiFi SO with Kindle Leather Lighted Cover plus 2nd cover jswinden Flea Market 1 05-18-2012 03:43 PM
Kindle Cover Replaced; Kindle Lighted Cover Still Stinks DaronFraley Amazon Kindle 15 01-13-2011 03:11 PM
Accessories Kindle cover problem gpflum Amazon Kindle 2 10-09-2010 12:57 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:51 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.