Stretch the cover to fit the screen?

ZodWallop · 06-18-2018, 01:21 PM

Hey guys,

I suspect I'm doing something wrong/missing some setting. But the screensaver on my Aura tends to display the covers with bars on the sides (Pillarboxing). I'm sure it has something to do with the original image resolution, but is there a way to stretch the image to fill the screen?

I sideload all my ePubs as kepubs using Calibre and one of the Kobo Extended plug-ins.

Ripplinger · 06-18-2018, 02:11 PM

The setting is in Calibre. Go to Plugins, under Device Interface Settings, find your Kobo Touch Extended plugin, on the Collections, Covers & Uploads tab, uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio."

jackie_w · 06-18-2018, 02:52 PM

What Ripplinger said followed by - use the Kobo Utilities calibre plugin to resend any/all covers you want to correct.

ZodWallop · 06-18-2018, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

The setting is in Calibre. Go to Plugins, under Device Interface Settings, find your Kobo Touch Extended plugin, on the Collections, Covers & Uploads tab, uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio."

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

What Ripplinger said followed by - use the Kobo Utilities calibre plugin to resend any/all covers you want to correct.

Thanks guys. I'll try it when I get home.

JSWolf · 06-18-2018, 06:03 PM

Why would you want your covers to maybe look distorted?

Ripplinger · 06-18-2018, 09:41 PM

I'm with ZodWallop, I prefer my covers to fill the entire screen as well, the white side bars really bug me, they're just ugly. And it's only a cover, the dimensions are generally close enough that you really don't notice any distortion, and it's not like you're staring at it for hours like when watching a TV screen where the AR is off.

Now that I think about it more, probably if the white side bars were black along the edge of the covers, it wouldn't bother me as much. But that white is just hideous and needs to be hidden.

ZodWallop · 06-18-2018, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why would you want your covers to maybe look distorted?

I abhor beauty

ZodWallop · 06-19-2018, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

...it's only a cover, the dimensions are generally close enough that you really don't notice any distortion, and it's not like you're staring at it for hours like when watching a TV screen where the AR is off.

Yes, exactly. The tiny amount it is stretched likely wouldn't be noticed by someone who didn't know it was being stretched.

Quote:

Now that I think about it more, probably if the white side bars were black along the edge of the covers, it wouldn't bother me as much. But that white is just hideous and needs to be hidden.

On mine, the bars are black. I'd just rather not have them.

Ripplinger · 06-19-2018, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

On mine, the bars are black. I'd just rather not have them.

While the black bars would be more tolerable, I agree, I'd rather not have them at all too if it can be easily avoided. And it can with Calibre.

ZodWallop · 06-19-2018, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

While the black bars would be more tolerable, I agree, I'd rather not have them at all too if it can be easily avoided. And it can with Calibre.

Yeah, it was an easy fix. The only thing that took time was resending all the covers to my Kobo.

Quoth · 06-21-2018, 09:47 AM

Also you can install Gimp. Then in Calibre Edit cover, and you can distort, crop, clone, any colour of bars etc to suit your device. Save a backup of cover. I also use the cover creator in Calibre to quickly add a cover from perhaps a Gutenberg text, or quick edit after download + crop in Edit Metadata.

ZodWallop · 06-21-2018, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Also you can install Gimp. Then in Calibre Edit cover, and you can distort, crop, clone, any colour of bars etc to suit your device. Save a backup of cover.

I use Paint.NET rather than Gimp. But why go through all that hassle when I can just tick a box and have the covers stretched when sent to the device? Then the 'master cover' is not touched. Only the one on the reader is adjusted to fit the reader's screen.

Ripplinger · 06-21-2018, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I use Paint.NET rather than Gimp. But why go through all that hassle when I can just tick a box and have the covers stretched when sent to the device? Then the 'master cover' is not touched. Only the one on the reader is adjusted to fit the reader's screen.

Yes, I agree with the quick and easy method as well. It works, tick a box just once as ZodWallop said, and it's fixed forever.

Otherwise I'd have to be editing every single book cover, which I probably would do without Calibre's easy fix, those bars bug me that much. But that takes time, time I'd rather spend reading.

ZodWallop · 06-28-2018, 01:03 PM

Hey guys, after spending some time with it, I'm very glad I've stretched the covers to fill the screen. Any distortion is minimal and it makes things look more 'professional' if you see what I mean.

And to give a less jerky answer to Wolf:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why would you want your covers to maybe look distorted?

The amount of stretching required to eliminate the bars is minimal. If I were to show you the cover, you likely wouldn't know anything was off.

I read comics on a 10:16 and a 3:4 tablet. On both screens, there are bars (top and bottom for 10:19, left and right for 3:4). I wouldn't stretch those images to fill the screen as that would distort the entire reading experience. But a cover that is just being used as a sleep screen seems less important to me.

jackie_w · 06-28-2018, 03:05 PM

Just a little personal anecdote ... I'm also in the 'hate filler bars' camp, especially white fillers with a dark cover. However I can't argue with the fact that stretch-to-fit occasionally looks grotesque, particularly on a cover containing a large human face.

So 18 months ago I decided to experiment with preserving the aspect ratio but doctoring the filler bars to be a better colour match for each particular cover. I thought this might be a good compromise. There are many ways to do this so I picked 3 different methods and hacked my copy of KoboTouchExtended to create the screensaver-with-designer-fillers on the fly during calibre send-to-device on 3 different Kobo models.

To cut a long story short, 18 months on I still can't decide which is the 'best' method because for some covers the fillers merge beautifully with the main cover and others don't - whichever method you pick.

One thing I did discover by accident is that screensaver appearance on an H2O or KA1 is far superior to that on a GloHD or ClaraHD. The latter two models have far more 'grayscale banding' than the former two models which have very smooth grayscale, the KA1 being the smoothest.

06-18-2018, 01:21 PM	#1
ZodWallop Gentleman and scholar Posts: 10,989 Karma: 108312789 Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Space City, Texas Device: Clara HD; Nook ST w/Glowlight, (2015) Glowlight Plus, Paperwhite 3	Stretch the cover to fit the screen? Hey guys, I suspect I'm doing something wrong/missing some setting. But the screensaver on my Aura tends to display the covers with bars on the sides (Pillarboxing). I'm sure it has something to do with the original image resolution, but is there a way to stretch the image to fill the screen? I sideload all my ePubs as kepubs using Calibre and one of the Kobo Extended plug-ins.

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06-18-2018, 02:11 PM	#2
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	The setting is in Calibre. Go to Plugins, under Device Interface Settings, find your Kobo Touch Extended plugin, on the Collections, Covers & Uploads tab, uncheck "Keep cover aspect ratio."

06-18-2018, 02:52 PM	#3
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	What Ripplinger said followed by - use the Kobo Utilities calibre plugin to resend any/all covers you want to correct.

06-18-2018, 06:03 PM	#5
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,975 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Why would you want your covers to maybe look distorted?

06-18-2018, 09:41 PM	#6
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	I'm with ZodWallop, I prefer my covers to fill the entire screen as well, the white side bars really bug me, they're just ugly. And it's only a cover, the dimensions are generally close enough that you really don't notice any distortion, and it's not like you're staring at it for hours like when watching a TV screen where the AR is off. Now that I think about it more, probably if the white side bars were black along the edge of the covers, it wouldn't bother me as much. But that white is just hideous and needs to be hidden.

06-21-2018, 09:47 AM	#11
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 11,158 Karma: 85874891 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	Also you can install Gimp. Then in Calibre Edit cover, and you can distort, crop, clone, any colour of bars etc to suit your device. Save a backup of cover. I also use the cover creator in Calibre to quickly add a cover from perhaps a Gutenberg text, or quick edit after download + crop in Edit Metadata.

06-28-2018, 03:05 PM	#15
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,212 Karma: 16534894 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo: KA1, ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E. PocketBook: TouchHD3	Just a little personal anecdote ... I'm also in the 'hate filler bars' camp, especially white fillers with a dark cover. However I can't argue with the fact that stretch-to-fit occasionally looks grotesque, particularly on a cover containing a large human face. So 18 months ago I decided to experiment with preserving the aspect ratio but doctoring the filler bars to be a better colour match for each particular cover. I thought this might be a good compromise. There are many ways to do this so I picked 3 different methods and hacked my copy of KoboTouchExtended to create the screensaver-with-designer-fillers on the fly during calibre send-to-device on 3 different Kobo models. To cut a long story short, 18 months on I still can't decide which is the 'best' method because for some covers the fillers merge beautifully with the main cover and others don't - whichever method you pick. One thing I did discover by accident is that screensaver appearance on an H2O or KA1 is far superior to that on a GloHD or ClaraHD. The latter two models have far more 'grayscale banding' than the former two models which have very smooth grayscale, the KA1 being the smoothest.