IDEA: Add Cover as 1st Page of book (PDF in particular)

[cgrapski]

I had an idea I figure I would toss out there.

It would be nice if I could click on a button to add the cover image as the first page in a book file - in particular PDF's (where I find the need more often then epub or mobi etc - those tend to have the covers more often already - whereas PDFs quite often don't).

This won't make a difference within calibre - but it will on devices where the first page is shown (and thus the cover makes it more easy to see and find).

So I was just thinking out loud here - if anyone has any thoughts.

[BetterRed]

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BR

[kovidgoyal]

PDF files dont have cover metadata, therefore adding a cover first page is not really safe. Doing it twice would end up with two cover pages and so on.

[cgrapski]

I see your point. Although what I am talking about is when I KNOW that the PDF does not have a cover. And I want to add a cover.

I understand it has no metadata to CHECK on whether there is an existing cover or not.

But I personally am not worried about having duplicate covers - as those with an existing cover would not be included in the use of this feature - for me. But I am not trying to do it "universally" (to the whole set of PDF files or to a selected set) - but only on INDIVIDUAL PDFs.

It would thus be convenient if - when I come across a PDF that does not have the cover embedded - I could do so with the click of a button. Rather than having to open up Acrobat, getting the image file, and adding a first page with that image.

But I see what your concern is - in terms of developing the software. I understand. Given that - am I not thinking of a quicker possible way to do this? How would you recommend I approach this issue ... from within the Calibre framework.

SO if I come across a PDF that I have a cover file for - but it is not the first page of the PDF file - would you see a quick (or quicker) way to accomplish this, without adding a function to specifically do this? I guess I could use the Open With to open the file (well or just open it) - and the Open Containing Folder from Calibre. Then manually add the jpg to the first page of the PDF. But still that is almost doing it without the convenience of doing it within the program. Not sure if there is any other way you can see that would make it simpler.

But as always I truly appreciate your work - this is probably better than any commercially available program in any category - in terms of its functionality and use - and it's continual growth and development.

[Quoth]

You can use a PDF pseudo printer driver to add covers:
1) Print image from ANY application to it
2) Print the PDF to it.
3) Go "printer" and end session, save with desired filename
4) Add PDF to Calibre. If needed delete the older PDF first.

[kovidgoyal]

It will be a pretty trivial plugin to write to insert an image as the first page of a pdf on the users instruction. However, I dont believe such a feature belongs in core calibre since it cant be implemented robustly, for th ereason I described above.

[cgrapski]

Yes, I understand. That being such - I do hope someone will write a (simple) plugin to do this. If anyone is listening. I just don't know the programming language well enough to do it. As you say - it would be trivial (if you know what you are doing ).