Can't see book covers on Kindle

fgoggins · 11-14-2010, 08:54 PM

Hello all,

I recently obtained the wonderful Calibre software to convert all the e-books I had stored on my computer to kindle format. I did that, updated/corrected all the metadata (including downloading the book covers), then sent everything to the kindle. Everything worked well, the book titles and authors are showing up correctly on my kindle, I just have a minor issue. When I go into the book details I do not see the book cover, and the menu within the book does not contain the book description. Does anyone know why that is? Do I need to do something differently to enable those features? Thanks!

bfollowell · 11-14-2010, 09:18 PM

Most of this I learned from others so I can't take credit (or blame!) for any of it.

If I understand correctly, the Kindle has no feature to display the description field anywhere, even if it is populated. When looking at a book, you can press right on the four-way pad to get to the info screen and see a small version of the cover but, again, no description, even though this seems like it would be the most likely place to put it. Maybe they'll add that feature with a firmware revision some day.

As far as the cover goes, if you want to see a larger version, typically it should be at the very front of the book, though this will almost definitely not be the first page displayed. So you could scroll up a few pages and possibly see it. Also, you can press the Menu button, "Go To", "Cover" and see the cover. This is all assuming that the cover is properly "defined" of course.

Finally, while the Kindle doesn't seem to use the description field natively, one way to get it would be to include a book "jacket" when converting your ebooks. When converting an ebook in Calibre. When you're looking through the conversion screens, click on Structure Detection and select "Insert metedata as page at start of book". I am in the process of converting hundreds of Star Trek novels I have in Microsoft Reader format for use on my Kindle and I always include a "jacket" at the front of my books.

I hope at least some of this proves helpful to you. If anyone sees something I'm mistaken on, please feel free to correct me.

- Byron

kindlekitten · 11-15-2010, 01:17 AM

we over here in kindle land tend to spend our time a-readin' and not a-lookin'

hellraiser06 · 11-15-2010, 07:41 AM

The book description is not supported by Kidle. You can only view book description for AMazon bought books and that too, if you have Wifi or 3G. Its not stored anywhere on the device for offline viewing.

As for the cover issue, I dont know what you are doing wrong, because it is working for my Kindle.

And, thanks bfollowell for the jacket idea. I did not know that despite the fact that I am using it for 2 months now! Repped ya buddy.

curstpriest · 11-15-2010, 09:44 AM

you can select the book in the menu and press right on the dpad to view the cover, though why you would ever want to is beyond me >>

ProfCrash · 11-15-2010, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curstpriest

you can select the book in the menu and press right on the dpad to view the cover, though why you would ever want to is beyond me >>

I am with you but the more I read these boards the more I realize that the book cover is very important to people. Hopefully it is an easy fix for Amazon to make so people can enjoy the covers the way they want.

I did get a chuckle out of the fact that Enders Game came with a new cover specially designed for the e-book.

Bookworm_Girl · 11-15-2010, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fgoggins

Hello all,

I recently obtained the wonderful Calibre software to convert all the e-books I had stored on my computer to kindle format. I did that, updated/corrected all the metadata (including downloading the book covers), then sent everything to the kindle. Everything worked well, the book titles and authors are showing up correctly on my kindle, I just have a minor issue. When I go into the book details I do not see the book cover, and the menu within the book does not contain the book description. Does anyone know why that is? Do I need to do something differently to enable those features? Thanks!

fgoggins, I wonder if you might have the issue posted in this thread link:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...e+cover&page=2

I too had a similar issue when I updated metadata. Everything looked good in calibre, but when I transferred to my Kindle only the artist and title data were as expected. The cover didn't match what I saw in calibre. I did as suggested on the second page of the above link to convert my book (from mobi to mobi which sounds silly) and then retransfer. There must be an easier way - I'm a calibre novice - but it worked for me.

fgoggins · 11-20-2010, 02:55 PM

Hello all,

Thanks to everyone for the help and tips. I'm sorry I couldn't respond earlier as it's been a busy week. I'll post my replies all together here:

- bfollowell, adding the metadata as a first page worked great. While I was in that menu I discovered that under the "metadata" tab there was a checkbox to "use cover from source file" which was unchecked. Once I checked that and re-converted the book (from Mobi to Mobi!) I found I could see the covers in my kindle. I guess for some reason when I converted all the books earlier in bulk this didn't happen. I could only get this option to show up when converting individual books, so I had to re-convert all my books individually.

- curstpriest and ProfCrash: the book covers are important to me. It's part of the whole book experience to have the cover and the synopsis on the back, otherwise it doesn't feel authentic. Your mileage may vary of course

- PhillipA82: thanks!

- Bookworm_Girl: thanks for the link. That was pretty much what I ended up doing as I mentioned above. It worked for all the books except for two - in one the cover remained a tiny thumbnail on the kindle for some reason (maybe it was the downloaded image), and another didn't allow me to re-convert because it had DRM. On the whole though I think I've got most of the kinks figured out.

11-14-2010, 08:54 PM	#1
fgoggins Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle	Can't see book covers on Kindle Hello all, I recently obtained the wonderful Calibre software to convert all the e-books I had stored on my computer to kindle format. I did that, updated/corrected all the metadata (including downloading the book covers), then sent everything to the kindle. Everything worked well, the book titles and authors are showing up correctly on my kindle, I just have a minor issue. When I go into the book details I do not see the book cover, and the menu within the book does not contain the book description. Does anyone know why that is? Do I need to do something differently to enable those features? Thanks!

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11-14-2010, 09:18 PM	#2
bfollowell Fanatic Posts: 541 Karma: 1152752 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Evansville, IN, USA Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook & Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5	Most of this I learned from others so I can't take credit (or blame!) for any of it. If I understand correctly, the Kindle has no feature to display the description field anywhere, even if it is populated. When looking at a book, you can press right on the four-way pad to get to the info screen and see a small version of the cover but, again, no description, even though this seems like it would be the most likely place to put it. Maybe they'll add that feature with a firmware revision some day. As far as the cover goes, if you want to see a larger version, typically it should be at the very front of the book, though this will almost definitely not be the first page displayed. So you could scroll up a few pages and possibly see it. Also, you can press the Menu button, "Go To", "Cover" and see the cover. This is all assuming that the cover is properly "defined" of course. Finally, while the Kindle doesn't seem to use the description field natively, one way to get it would be to include a book "jacket" when converting your ebooks. When converting an ebook in Calibre. When you're looking through the conversion screens, click on Structure Detection and select "Insert metedata as page at start of book". I am in the process of converting hundreds of Star Trek novels I have in Microsoft Reader format for use on my Kindle and I always include a "jacket" at the front of my books. I hope at least some of this proves helpful to you. If anyone sees something I'm mistaken on, please feel free to correct me. - Byron

11-15-2010, 01:17 AM	#3
kindlekitten Professional Adventuress Posts: 13,368 Karma: 50260224 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: The Olympic Peninsula on the OTHER Washington! (the big green clean one on the west coast!) Device: Kindle, the original! Times Two! and gifting an International Kindle	we over here in kindle land tend to spend our time a-readin' and not a-lookin'

11-15-2010, 07:41 AM	#4
hellraiser06 Yaabbaa dabba doo Posts: 76 Karma: 5348 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: India Device: Kindle Touch wifi, Kindle 3 Wifi, Asus Transformer TF101	The book description is not supported by Kidle. You can only view book description for AMazon bought books and that too, if you have Wifi or 3G. Its not stored anywhere on the device for offline viewing. As for the cover issue, I dont know what you are doing wrong, because it is working for my Kindle. And, thanks bfollowell for the jacket idea. I did not know that despite the fact that I am using it for 2 months now! Repped ya buddy.

11-15-2010, 09:44 AM	#5
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	you can select the book in the menu and press right on the dpad to view the cover, though why you would ever want to is beyond me >>

11-20-2010, 02:55 PM	#8
fgoggins Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle	Hello all, Thanks to everyone for the help and tips. I'm sorry I couldn't respond earlier as it's been a busy week. I'll post my replies all together here: - bfollowell, adding the metadata as a first page worked great. While I was in that menu I discovered that under the "metadata" tab there was a checkbox to "use cover from source file" which was unchecked. Once I checked that and re-converted the book (from Mobi to Mobi!) I found I could see the covers in my kindle. I guess for some reason when I converted all the books earlier in bulk this didn't happen. I could only get this option to show up when converting individual books, so I had to re-convert all my books individually. - curstpriest and ProfCrash: the book covers are important to me. It's part of the whole book experience to have the cover and the synopsis on the back, otherwise it doesn't feel authentic. Your mileage may vary of course - PhillipA82: thanks! - Bookworm_Girl: thanks for the link. That was pretty much what I ended up doing as I mentioned above. It worked for all the books except for two - in one the cover remained a tiny thumbnail on the kindle for some reason (maybe it was the downloaded image), and another didn't allow me to re-convert because it had DRM. On the whole though I think I've got most of the kinks figured out.

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