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Old 07-25-2009, 06:08 PM   #1
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epub conversion - cover image
Using 6.0, I just intentionally made an ebook without a cover. What exactly did calibre add as the cover, and why? It doesn't look very good.

Can you add an option for it to not do this, please? What you had before with 5.x was pretty good, but if possible I'd prefer the option of no cover at all.
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File Type: epub Four-Day Planet - Beam, Piper, H._82.epub (267.0 KB, 379 views)
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Old 07-25-2009, 11:29 PM   #2
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It's justa generic cover with title and date, IIRC. If you have suggestions for improving it, feel free.
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Old 07-25-2009, 11:46 PM   #3
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How about an option for no cover image? If that's too much trouble then could you revert this feature back to 5.x, and simply grab the first page and turn it into a cover? That worked okay.

You know, a fair amount of nonfiction is published with just text on the cover. When I create an ebook without a cover I'm deliberately going for that look.
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Old 07-26-2009, 12:44 AM   #4
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Adding an option for no cover is too much work at this point as all the output plugins expect there to be a cover. Rendering the first page as a cover is possible, but I don't really see how that's any better than a generic cover with the title of the book on it
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Old 07-26-2009, 01:38 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal View Post
Adding an option for no cover is too much work at this point as all the output plugins expect there to be a cover. Rendering the first page as a cover is possible, but I don't really see how that's any better than a generic cover with the title of the book on it
The cover Calibre uses isn't really a cover. It's just a waste of a few pages. It starts off with the title on one page and then the date on the next and the version of Calibre after that. All on three seperate pages.

In the eBook that Nate posted, the 4th page actually looks better then that Calibre put in. I know Nate can fix that manually, but why have Calibre make such a mess when there is no cover?
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Old 07-26-2009, 01:48 AM   #6
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The 4 page thing only happens in ADE and I haven't got around to figurin out why yet. Look at the cover in the calibre viewer to see what it should look like.
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Old 07-27-2009, 01:45 PM   #7
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Quote:
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The 4 page thing only happens in ADE and I haven't got around to figurin out why yet. Look at the cover in the calibre viewer to see what it should look like.
I would call that a bug. But the solution is to just remove the default cover and just not have one. ePub can go with whatever the first page is without needing a cover anyway.
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Old 07-27-2009, 01:47 PM   #8
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the cover is already fixed for ADE (will be in 0.6.2)
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Old 08-18-2009, 10:41 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal View Post
Adding an option for no cover is too much work at this point as all the output plugins expect there to be a cover. Rendering the first page as a cover is possible, but I don't really see how that's any better than a generic cover with the title of the book on it
Why not offer the no cover option, and have calibre designate the first file (up to the page break) as the cover? You said elsewhere that calibre looks for an entry in the guide for the cover. This would fulfill that need.

On a related note, why does calibre distort cover images? If I use a cover that is say 400x300 it should not be stretched, but should remain that size. What's really funny (if only it didn't piss me off) is when calibre extracts a 30 by 30 logo and distorts it to around 600 square. Can we have the option of _not_ stretching the cover image, please?
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Old 08-18-2009, 10:47 AM   #10
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Actually as of 0.6.7 calibre already offers a no default cover option for EPUB output.

As for why it resizes covers, that's because most people find a little bit of distortion better than the postage stamp look.
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Old 08-18-2009, 10:57 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal View Post
Actually as of 0.6.7 calibre already offers a no default cover option for EPUB output.

As for why it resizes covers, that's because most people find a little bit of distortion better than the postage stamp look.
Ah. I have 6.7 and did look before posting. Obviously I did not look on the menu screen. Thank you.
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Old 08-18-2009, 11:58 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal View Post
Actually as of 0.6.7 calibre already offers a no default cover option for EPUB output.

As for why it resizes covers, that's because most people find a little bit of distortion better than the postage stamp look.
The "no default" option doesn't work quite right. When selected, calibre should not grab the first image in the file as the cover.

I also opened the epub and can see that you stretch the image when displayed, not when the ebook is created. At the very least you need to add a width tag in there as well. Otherwise images that are wider than they are tall will hang off the side of the window.

Here is the thing about stretching the cover. Conversion isn't supposed to introduce new elements; that is something that is done at the time the ebook is created. Instead, conversion is supposed to faithfully replicate the existing content.

As a rule, conversion is _only_ supposed to override the creator _only_ when the change is an unquestionable improvement. At least, that's how I see it.
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Old 08-18-2009, 07:13 PM   #13
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Would it be possible to allow the users to specify some other generic cover?
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:04 PM   #14
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I've noticed that the cover image that Calibre includes by default in epub files is a large png file. Space is at a premium on my Android phone so I would like, preferably, to have no cover image in my ebooks, or if that is not possible to have a much smaller image included by default.

I'm not sure from the above discussion about the "no default" option whether a "no cover" option is available. (I can't find a menu with "no default" in Calibre.)

If, for some reason, it is not permitted to have "no cover" can I include a blank (or very simple) gif as the default, in order to reduce the file size? If so, how?
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Old 09-14-2009, 04:09 PM   #15
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No default cover is under Preferences->Conversion->EPUB Output
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