Batch remove multiple covers?

johnb0647 · 04-24-2015, 08:14 PM

CALIBRE v2.23
LINUX MINT (CINNAMON) 17.1

I've been collecting ebooks since the "Neuvomedia Rocket" (1998) so I've had to convert format's a number of times which may have contributed to this issue.

Now my "standard" is epub.

I've noticed that I have hundreds of titles that Calibre doe not recognize as having a cover <therefore showing the generic cover> BUT when I open the book there IS a cover image..... in many cases two or more copies of the same image. NOTE: re-checking a representative original MOBI format shows the images already there so they apparently did not appear as an artefact of the CALIBRE MOBI > EPUB conversion.

Opening a representative title with "edit ebook" shows:

1. titlepage.xhtml
2. index_split_000.html
3. index_split_001.html
... <more sections containing text>

Where these first three "sections" contain the same image (with different coding including references to Calibre), yet Calibre shows a generic cover.

SEE BELOW FOR EXAMPLE OF HTML CODING.

In some cases the total (storage) size (in mb) of the covers exceeds the size of the text portion of the document.

I can manually eliminate this by:
A. Open the epub as a zip, extract a copy of the cover and del the image files.
B. In Calibre, "edit ebook" and delete all the "sections" containing cover image references.
C. In Calibre, "edit metadata" and add the extracted cover.
D. In Calibre, "convert" epub to epub (eliminates references to absent images)

This is not practical for hundreds of ebooks.

Any suggestions for an automated way to do this?

NOTE: I have no evidence this is a "bug" in Calibre since the multiple images were present in the original files before conversion (mobi to epub). It's possible the appeared in earlier conversions but since I cannot examine the code I can't verify it.

For now I'm interested in a fix.

EXAMPLE:

titlepage.xhtml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta name="calibre:cover" content="true"/>
<title>Cover</title>
<style type="text/css" title="override_css">
@page {padding: 0pt; margin:0pt}
body { text-align: center; padding:0pt; margin: 0pt }
div { padding:0pt; margin: 0pt }
img { padding:0pt; margin: 0pt }
</style>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<img src="images/calibre_cover.jpg" alt="cover" style="height: 100%"/>
</div>
</body>
</html>

index_split_000.html

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Die Trying - Reacher 02</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
<link href="page_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body class="calibre">
<div class="calibre1">
<p class="calibre_"><img src="images/00002.jpg" class="calibre_1"/></p>
<div class="calibre1"></div>
<div class="mbp_pagebreak" id="calibre_pb_0"></div>
</div>
</body></html>

index_split_001.html

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Die Trying - Reacher 02</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
<link href="page_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body class="calibre">
<div class="calibre1">
</div>
<div class="calibre1">
<p class="whitespace"> </p>
<a></a>
<p class="whitespace"> </p>
<a></a>
<p class="calibre_"><img src="images/00001.jpg" class="calibre_2"/></p>
<div class="calibre1"></div>
<div class="mbp_pagebreak" id="calibre_pb_1"></div>
</div>
</body></html>

kovidgoyal · 04-24-2015, 10:42 PM

If you wish to set the cover in calibre form that within the ebook simply select all books, click edit metadata and use the set cover from ebook file option.

Miriam English · 12-08-2018, 01:44 AM

I know this is a really old thread, but I've been trying to do exactly the same thing and had hoped to find a solution here. Well, I believe I've solved it, so I figure it's only right to share the solution.

To remove the cover from an ebook I've successfully used Calibre's ebook-meta command like this:

Code:

ebook-meta "some ebook.epub" --cover="/dev/null"

It isn't suggested anywhere in the documentation. I tried all sorts of other things which failed. It feels like a bit of a hack, but it really does seem to work. If someone finds a better way please let us know.

If you want this to ripple through a directory of epub ebooks, you could do something like this:

Code:

for f in *.epub ; do ebook-meta "$f" --cover="/dev/null" ; done

-----------------------

Edited later:

Oh dear... I just found at least one ebook that won't let me remove the cover by the above method.

04-24-2015, 08:14 PM	#1
johnb0647 Nameless Being	Batch remove multiple covers? CALIBRE v2.23 LINUX MINT (CINNAMON) 17.1 I've been collecting ebooks since the "Neuvomedia Rocket" (1998) so I've had to convert format's a number of times which may have contributed to this issue. Now my "standard" is epub. I've noticed that I have hundreds of titles that Calibre doe not recognize as having a cover <therefore showing the generic cover> BUT when I open the book there IS a cover image..... in many cases two or more copies of the same image. NOTE: re-checking a representative original MOBI format shows the images already there so they apparently did not appear as an artefact of the CALIBRE MOBI > EPUB conversion. Opening a representative title with "edit ebook" shows: 1. titlepage.xhtml 2. index_split_000.html 3. index_split_001.html ... <more sections containing text> Where these first three "sections" contain the same image (with different coding including references to Calibre), yet Calibre shows a generic cover. SEE BELOW FOR EXAMPLE OF HTML CODING. In some cases the total (storage) size (in mb) of the covers exceeds the size of the text portion of the document. I can manually eliminate this by: A. Open the epub as a zip, extract a copy of the cover and del the image files. B. In Calibre, "edit ebook" and delete all the "sections" containing cover image references. C. In Calibre, "edit metadata" and add the extracted cover. D. In Calibre, "convert" epub to epub (eliminates references to absent images) This is not practical for hundreds of ebooks. Any suggestions for an automated way to do this? NOTE: I have no evidence this is a "bug" in Calibre since the multiple images were present in the original files before conversion (mobi to epub). It's possible the appeared in earlier conversions but since I cannot examine the code I can't verify it. For now I'm interested in a fix. EXAMPLE: titlepage.xhtml <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> <head> <meta name="calibre:cover" content="true"/> <title>Cover</title> <style type="text/css" title="override_css"> @page {padding: 0pt; margin:0pt} body { text-align: center; padding:0pt; margin: 0pt } div { padding:0pt; margin: 0pt } img { padding:0pt; margin: 0pt } </style> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> </head> <body> <div> <img src="images/calibre_cover.jpg" alt="cover" style="height: 100%"/> </div> </body> </html> index_split_000.html <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Die Trying - Reacher 02</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <link href="page_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </head> <body class="calibre"> <div class="calibre1"> <p class="calibre_"><img src="images/00002.jpg" class="calibre_1"/></p> <div class="calibre1"></div> <div class="mbp_pagebreak" id="calibre_pb_0"></div> </div> </body></html> index_split_001.html <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Die Trying - Reacher 02</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <link href="page_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </head> <body class="calibre"> <div class="calibre1"> </div> <div class="calibre1"> <p class="whitespace"> </p> <a></a> <p class="whitespace"> </p> <a></a> <p class="calibre_"><img src="images/00001.jpg" class="calibre_2"/></p> <div class="calibre1"></div> <div class="mbp_pagebreak" id="calibre_pb_1"></div> </div> </body></html> Last edited by johnb0647; 04-24-2015 at 08:17 PM.

12-08-2018, 01:44 AM	#3
Miriam English Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2018 Device: Android	I know this is a really old thread, but I've been trying to do exactly the same thing and had hoped to find a solution here. Well, I believe I've solved it, so I figure it's only right to share the solution. To remove the cover from an ebook I've successfully used Calibre's ebook-meta command like this: Code: ebook-meta "some ebook.epub" --cover="/dev/null" It isn't suggested anywhere in the documentation. I tried all sorts of other things which failed. It feels like a bit of a hack, but it really does seem to work. If someone finds a better way please let us know. If you want this to ripple through a directory of epub ebooks, you could do something like this: Code: for f in .epub ; do ebook-meta "$f" --cover="/dev/null" ; done ----------------------- Edited later: Oh dear... I just found at least one ebook that won't let me remove the cover by the above method. Last edited by Miriam English; 12-08-2018 at 06:01 AM.*

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04-24-2015, 10:42 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	If you wish to set the cover in calibre form that within the ebook simply select all books, click edit metadata and use the set cover from ebook file option.

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