which do you prefer

[LH07]

Afternoon all I was wondering what peoples preference were when looking at their books/collection. Do you prefer to see your book covers in colour or do you prefer the text /black white view as in ereaders .

[HarryT]

I never see book covers on my Kindle PW, so they are irrelevant to me. I have my Kindle configured to display a text list of titles, which I find more useful than covers.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by LH07

Afternoon all I was wondering what peoples preference were when looking at their books/collection. Do you prefer to see your book covers in colour or do you prefer the text /black white view as in ereaders .

I don't mind the black and white for the covers. For me, colour is not worth the downsides with current tech (weight, battery life, overly bright 'n' blue-toned screens).

When we live in the age of cheap high-res colour e-ink without any of those downsides: sure, I'll take it.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by meeera

I don't mind the black and white for the covers. For me, colour is not worth the downsides with current tech (weight, battery life, overly bright 'n' blue-toned screens).

When we live in the age of cheap high-res colour e-ink without any of those downsides: sure, I'll take it.

Ditto on the above, plus not being able to even see the color covers (or anything else) in daylight when outdoors in sun. If it's ever available at a reasonable price (ie, equal to what e-ink displays are now), I might get it, but I'm perfectly happy with black and white covers on my reading devices and could just as easily pass on it. There's really no advantage for me.

Seriously, how much time do you spend looking at the cover for it to matter?

I'll second what meeera said, with a caveat: sometimes I'd rather not see the cover at all. Some publishers create covers that are so generic that they are nothing more than their imprint logo. With some ereaders and ereading software this is worse than useless and ugly: it makes it impossible to identify the book since only the cover is displayed.

When it comes to physical books though, I'll take colour any day. Greyscale would make the home a tad too drab.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I'll second what meeera said, with a caveat: sometimes I'd rather not see the cover at all. Some publishers create covers that are so generic that they are nothing more than their imprint logo.

Yep - most notably Penguin, who in the majority (although not all) of their ebooks just have the Penguin logo as the cover image. No title, no author.

[Jessica Lares]

I prefer seeing my covers. Can't waste that nice resolution bump on the Paperwhite 2.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yep - most notably Penguin, who in the majority (although not all) of their ebooks just have the Penguin logo as the cover image. No title, no author.

I understand the rights issue for the artwork, but I really don't get why some publishers do that. Generating generic covers that include the title and author is pretty easy after all. Some of those generic covers also look pretty good. Even providing a book without a cover would be preferable because the ereader or ereading software could generate something with the necessary information.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by LH07

Afternoon all I was wondering what peoples preference were when looking at their books/collection. Do you prefer to see your book covers in colour or do you prefer the text /black white view as in ereaders .

I prefer colour covers. Although a colour cover done with consideratiuon for what it will look like in greyscale is appreciated.

[Yapyap]

I use cover view in Calibre on my computer, all in lovely full colour, and list view on my Paperwhite.

I tried cover view on the Paperwhite, but having only six covers showing and it being sometimes very difficult to tell them apart or to see the title made me switch back to list view fairly quickly.

[crossi]

The only thing I really miss about paper books are the covers they had. Some were truely grogeous. I liked looking at them before starting reading and it was easier remembering what a book was about by looking at the cover. Sometimes titles alone don't spark my memory quite as well. I wish I could buy downloadable cover pictures of my favorites from the publishers. I'd like a photogallery of them as a screensaver on my computer. I don't miss covers enough however to switch from eink to a tablet.

[NickyWithNook]

I like seeing covers, and I'd like them in color, but it's more important to me to have e-ink for the text. I'll take b/w covers over having to read on a tablet.

I have an easier time remembering which book is which based on the picture of the color than the title so I do prefer pictures of the cover to a simple list of author and title.

[Purple Lady]

I prefer both. I use Calibre Companion and I don't use the cover only view because I don't usually remember the cover, I need both cover and title to remember.

[elemenoP]

I don't understand the question. Are you creating/selling ebooks? You definitely need color covers for whatever website is selling the books. Those who have b&w readers will have to live with b&w covers. I don't think people *prefer* b&w covers. It's just that they prefer a b&w reader for other reasons, and a b&w reader can't display a color cover.

eP

[frahse]

I prefer the "Title Page" in B&W.