Problem with opening an ePub

[WillyA]

I've tried Sigil and Calibre and I can't find how to get this to work on either of them.

I'm creating an ePub 2 book (for my use and a couple of friends) so no, I don't want Amazon to do anything.

I'm trying to get the ePub to always open on the COVER PICTURE. The book always opens somewhere in the middle. It ignores the cover completely. The cover display in Sigil Titlepage and also on Cablibre Editor

I tried using ePub 3, but it's still the same.

It's probably something I'm doing wrong, but I'm going quietly crazy here.

Can anyone PLEASE help?

[Turtle91]

Typically that is a function of the app/device, not of the ePub.

However, you can assign a (semantics) tag to the file designating it as the location to open. Devices/apps that look for, and honor, the tag would open up on that page…. But…. there could just as easily be another feature in play that overrides…such as “open to last location”.

Using Sigil:
To set the samantics tag(s), right-click on the xhtml file in the book browser window and select “semantics”… then select which one you wish to apply. For ePub2 you would select "text" to designate the preferred starting page. Then click OK.

If you don’t set the semantic then it is completely at the discretion of the app/device….. most “should” start on the first page in the book order.

If that doesn’t work… then just check your opf file and make sure the files are listed in order in the spine section…. With the cover first. (Edit: Sigil automatically sorts the spine based on the order of the files in your book browser window)

[Turtle91]

OBTW - Welcome to mR!!

[WillyA]

<meta name="Sigil version" content="2.0.0" />
    <dc:date opf:event="modification" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">2023-08-20</dc:date>
    <dc:identifier id="uuid_id" opf:scheme="uuid">5ba1c38c-c302-4006-be05-56bdb9f1ab19</dc:identifier>
    <meta name="cover" content="cover" />
  </metadata>
  <manifest>
    <item id="page_css" href="Styles/page_styles.css" media-type="text/css"/>
    <item id="css" href="Styles/stylesheet.css" media-type="text/css"/>
    <item id="Table_of_Contents.html" href="Text/Table_of_Contents.html" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>

Then further down the page

xhtml+xml"/>
    <item id="titlepage" href="Text/titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
    <item id="cover.xhtml" href="Text/cover.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
  </manifest>
  <spine toc="ncx">
    <itemref idref="cover.xhtml"/>
    <itemref idref="titlepage"/>
    <itemref idref="Table_of_Contents.html"/>

It LOOKS OK, but it still doesn't work with calibre ePub reader.

Under images there's a file called cover.jpg. It's the correct size and it's ticked in semantics.

[DNSB]

For an ePub2, what do you show in the <guide> section of the .opf file? To designate an open page, you should see something similar to the following:

<reference type="text" title="Startup Page" href="section0001.xhtml"></reference>

For an ePub3 file, the start location is in the landmarks nav section of the navigation document. It would look similar to the following:

<li><a epub:type="bodymatter" href="section0001.xhtml">Start of Content</a></li>

You can check the following pages for more information:

Adding a <guide> to your OPF file

Adding landmarks to your EPUB 3 Nav Document

Two notes is that quite a few renderers do not support these options and will disregard them and that almost all renderers will only use this start page when the ebook is opened as a new file or re-opened as a finished file.

[WillyA]

There is no <Guide> section. I can add one but where exactly do I insert it?

I'm new to Sigil, so be gentle!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by WillyA

There is no <Guide> section. I can add one but where exactly do I insert it?

I'm new to Sigil, so be gentle!

The guide section is part of the .opf file and most often the last entry in the file. A sample from one book I just opened with Sigil is:

  <guide>
    <reference type="toc" title="Contents" href="Text/contents.xhtml"/>
    <reference type="text" title="Beginning" href="Text/chap001.xhtml"/>
    <reference type="copyright-page" title="Copyright" href="Text/copyright.xhtml"/>
    <reference type="cover" title="Cover" href="Text/cover.xhtml"/>
  </guide>

So the book should open at Chapter 1 (assuming that is what chap001.xhtml contains). Again, the risk is that whatever you use to render the ePub will pay no attention to the type="text" line.

[WillyA]

My cover picture is a png file in images. I noticed that a lot of books have 'cover in the index. Mine doesn't It starts on what would be chapter 1The html Table of contents I generated, but it doesn't show.

I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong.

So much for all the 'guides' on the web that says the cover should be an image file and MUST be called cover and it MUST be in images and ALL I need to do is tell Sigil 'Add cover' and voila. Well it doesn't work at all.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The guide section is part of the .opf file and most often the last entry in the file.

If I can just adjust that a bit for the member that may take it too literally...

The guide section is part of the .opf file and most often the last entry in the file before the closing </package> tag.

Originally Posted by WillyA

I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong.

Posting snippets is not really going to help you a lot. Best if we get the full picture by posting the ebook. Is the book in copyright?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by WillyA

My cover picture is a png file in images. I noticed that a lot of books have 'cover in the index. Mine doesn't It starts on what would be chapter 1The html Table of contents I generated, but it doesn't show.

I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong.

So much for all the 'guides' on the web that says the cover should be an image file and MUST be called cover and it MUST be in images and ALL I need to do is tell Sigil 'Add cover' and voila. Well it doesn't work at all.

Adding the cover image to a html file does not automagically add the file to the table of contents in the toc.ncx/nav.xhtml file. That requires you to do some work.

The cover image must be an image file (Doh!). It does not need to be called cover.<image format>, it does not need to be anywhere other than not it MUST NOT be in the META-INF directory. A right click on the image file and clicking on Cover image will give the correct semantics.

If you are using Kobo kepub format, you are pretty much required to have every text file in the nav.xhtml (ePub3) or toc.ncx (ePub2) but otherwise, you could just have a single entry (Start is rather popular).

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Posting snippets is not really going to help you a lot. Best if we get the full picture by posting the ebook. Is the book in copyright?

To hide the substantive text the OP could post the output of the ScrambleEbook calibre plugin, there are instructions in that thread for running it from the command line.

BR

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

To hide the substantive text the OP could post the output of the ScrambleEbook calibre plugin, there are instructions in that thread for running it from the command line.

BR

A similar plug-in is available if you are using Sigil; the Borkify plug-in.

[WillyA]

Adding the cover image to a html file does not automatically add the file to the table of contents in the toc.ncx/nav.xhtml file. That requires you to do some work

Nope, I'm not putting the book on here. scrambled or not. I've been around computers for too long to trust ANYTHING on the web. What one man can scramble another can UNscramble and there are more criminals out there (10,000 blocked hacker IP addresses already on my firewall).

I'm quite happy to "do some work" all you have to do is tell me HOW. I'm an ex-Novell eDirectory Engineer and Delphi Pascal programmer. That doesn't make me an expert in epubs or ePub terminology. If I was, I wouldn't be asking for help.

You glibly speak of 'cover.xhtml' I don't have one. I have a titlepage.xhtml (which I was led to believe is also the cover).

If you are using Kobo kepub format, you are pretty much required to have every text file in the nav.xhtml (ePub3) or toc.ncx (ePub2) but otherwise, you could just have a single entry (Start is rather popular).

I don't believe I ever mentioned ePub3 or Kobo. I thought this forum was for SIGIL I'm not trying to create a new version Doomsday weapon or anything else. It's a simple help guide for myself AND MY FRIENDS (of which I have few) and I don't work for all the people who want to grab a copy of everything in print and give it away for free.

If I start muttering about 'replicas in skulk' or 'unprocessed obituary flags' and 'subordinate references' I would be surprised if anyone understood a word, yet it's OK for you to start on about Kodo kepub format.

I think I came to the wrong forum and asked far too much. You need to have an in-depth knowledge BEFORE you ask for help. I wonder how long I would have lasted with Novell if I'd tried my best to confuse people who knew NOTHING about the product?

[JSWolf]

Nobody is going t bother to try to unscramble your eBooks. No need to be paranoid. Do you want help of not?

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by WillyA

I thought this forum was for SIGIL

Your thread is in the epub forum, so not Sigil related.
If you want Sigil, then you need to post in the Sigil sub-forum.

This entire forum is about ebooks. Sigil, Calibre, all the ereaders are components of the larger forum.

Not really sure why the attitude has arisen in your post. Members are trying to help, you are turning them (me) off.