calibre help with getting covers

[MacMcK1957]

If you rename a .EPUB file to .ZIP you can see it's actually stored for the most part in ZIP format.  Only the actual book contents are encrypted.  The metadata information (titles, covers, table of contents) are not encrypted.  You can update those, copy them back into the zip file, rename it back to epub, and put it back in your Nook for PC download folder, then use the Nook for PC program to copy them over to your Nook.

You have to play with it a bit to figure out the quirks.

[moose_tracker]

Thanks,

I was wondering if that would work, but.. feared if the epub was encrypted, then it would just break the epub from being usable (or some keystone cops would come whipping into my livingroom to haul me off to the hoosgow  (or however you spell that)..)

[keriflur]

So I'm wondering.... where do the covers go?

I mean, if I download a B&N-purchased book to my N1E, copy it out of the download folder, and then sideload it to my N2E, the cover appears on my N1E but not on my N2E.  Where does it go?  What's different?  Because I don't see any cover files hidden in the B&N download folder on the N1E.

[moose_tracker]

Between Byteguys info on what to find in the code, and MacMcK1957's telling me to just change the .epub to a .zip..

I am sorry to say I tried.. I looked at all the  XML/HTML code, but didn't find any code similar.. I looked at my two free non-DRM books figureing since they worked, I would find where the code is.. Nope.. And the free books are very simple, maybe only 1 to 3 XML/HTML files in it.. 

Now the .99 cent books are much more complex.. Lots of XML/HTML files, and lots of image files.. But I looked under any that looked remotely possible to take this code... Nope..

Each book is different so I wasn't even able to find a common file in all of them.. The drm books all seem to have the encrypted file which has lots of things in it.. The free books did not have this file..  Some had a file XML file called "Content"..

But yeah.. I don't have any other nook to see if my books would sideload their covers into those as keniflur did.. But I was wondering the same when I could get a cover for the books when loaded into the Nook for PC version..

I am beginning to think it is a Nooky bug... After all it is silly to have better book display for free books but not for paid books (although not very expesive books),  I can only assume a $13.95 book with DRM will act the same way..) 

[keriflur]

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moose_tracker wrote:

Between Byteguys info on what to find in the code, and MacMcK1957's telling me to just change the .epub to a .zip..

I am sorry to say I tried.. I looked at all the  XML/HTML code, but didn't find any code similar.. I looked at my two free non-DRM books figureing since they worked, I would find where the code is.. Nope.. And the free books are very simple, maybe only 1 to 3 XML/HTML files in it.. 

Now the .99 cent books are much more complex.. Lots of XML/HTML files, and lots of image files.. But I looked under any that looked remotely possible to take this code... Nope..

Each book is different so I wasn't even able to find a common file in all of them.. The drm books all seem to have the encrypted file which has lots of things in it.. The free books did not have this file..  Some had a file XML file called "Content"..

But yeah.. I don't have any other nook to see if my books would sideload their covers into those as keniflur did.. But I was wondering the same when I could get a cover for the books when loaded into the Nook for PC version..

I am beginning to think it is a Nooky bug... After all it is silly to have better book display for free books but not for paid books (although not very expesive books),  I can only assume a $13.95 book with DRM will act the same way..) 

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I don't think it's a bug.  Free or paid for, some books will show with covers and some will not.  I don't know what the difference is between those that show with covers and those that don't.

What I was saying above is that when the same exact book file is sideloaded v downloaded, it will show the cover on the downloaded device but not on the sideloaded device.  I  only used the N1E because the download folder is accessible on that device, which allows me to use the same EXACT file to compare.  I would like to know WHY this happens, as knowing why is the first step to fixing it.

For me, I'd like to have covers, but I'm not crushed that I don't.  Maybe it's just that my standards are low, but I'm happy when the table of contents works and all the punctuation marks show up in the file.  A cover image is just gravy to me.

[MacMcK1957]

Within the zip files there are folders, so you may need to dig a bit to figure out where the files are stored.  If there's a cover, there has to be a JPG file somewhere (rarely something else like a PNG) but different software stores it in different places. .

[moose_tracker]

Oh there were plenty of .jpg files in those .zip files! Sometimes 10 or 12.. One book even had a .jpg called "cover" which the html example seemed to show would be the name of the cover .jpg.. this one had other cryptically named .jpgs also.. All the other epubs just had multiple cryptically named jpgs..

And I have the XML code from above as to what to enter into one of the xml files, but there were multiple xml files, and I just couldn't figure out which XML file I was to enter it into..

[Byteguy]

If it weren't illegal to break DRM...

I might tell you that breaking the DRM and simply using Calibre to convert from epub to epub has worked 100% of the time to fix the file so that the covers always show.  Calbre remakes the file to a standard format that the Nook Simple Touch likes.

But, of course, I can't say that because I, clearly, don't break the law and would not encourage others to do so.

[moose_tracker]

Well I will look at that (out of curiosity of course)..

You know it's easy to get something to work 100% of the time when you use it 0 times.. No wait a minute that would then be 0% of the time, wouldn't it..???

[gstone]

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keriflur wrote:

I don't think it's a bug.  Free or paid for, some books will show with covers and some will not.  I don't know what the difference is between those that show with covers and those that don't.

What I was saying above is that when the same exact book file is sideloaded v downloaded, it will show the cover on the downloaded device but not on the sideloaded device.  I  only used the N1E because the download folder is accessible on that device, which allows me to use the same EXACT file to compare.  I would like to know WHY this happens, as knowing why is the first step to fixing it.

For me, I'd like to have covers, but I'm not crushed that I don't.  Maybe it's just that my standards are low, but I'm happy when the table of contents works and all the punctuation marks show up in the file.  A cover image is just gravy to me.

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As far as I can tell there is no standard for displaying Cover Images within the epub specification.

When you download a book from B&N that also downloads a separate cover image for the ebook. Downloaded books use that image for the cover.

The original Nook, when sideloading, would default to a jpg or pgn file with the same filename as the ebook. The Nook Touch is real picky about the structure of the OPF file and will not display a cover if it doesn't conform. Unfortunately some publishers are not adhering to a format the nook supports including B&N in their Classics Series.

I just looked at one nookbook that doesn't display the cover sideloaded on the Nook Touch. The OPF file includes multiple references to cover art; some specifying a thumbnail (not used), one that specifies an HTML file for the cover art (this is the title page and ADE will use that as the cover but the nook won't) and one that specifies a nonexistent filename (the file is present but not with that name).

I tried some selective editing and added a new image file but the problem is more extensive than what I could see in notepad. To get a cover to display for this nookbook I would have to rewrite the OPF file or remove the DRM and let Calibre do it.

I also noticed the Nook Touch is botching the image conversion to an unencrypted file in the .docThumbs folder. Adding my own images to that folder for books that place images there results in the cover displaying properly.

[rav]

Hello - I read thru the comments on this site and others, and did the following with success -

- SOLUTION -

1)  Use Calibre to convert to Epub a second time "even if already an Epub" and "even if you already converted it once with Calibre".

2)  This step may not be needed - but I Moved the old "Original epub file" out of the folder Calibre has it in.

3)  Then I connected Nook to computer and used Calibre to remove the ebooks not displaying the covers from the Nook (and I verified gone from the mapped drive - you can use either way to remove/copy - either Calibre or Windows File Manager)

4) I turned off Nook and then back on without USB connected, then plugged in USB to computer.

5) I copied the newly "re-converted" to Epub ebooks to the Nook and voila, covers on every single one.

- END SOLUTION -

Background:

-  I had ebooks from different sources that I side loaded onto the Nook simple touch.

-  Many were already in ePUB format when I started, yet for some reason most all of them (about 20) they showed as generic cover in the Nook.

-  I used Calibre to convert the "already ePUB ebook" to ePUB and it created a new ePUB file in the same folder as the old ePUB file and Calibre also renamed the old file to "Original Epub" so it was easy to identify the new and old one.

-  One interesting thing was that almost all of the "re-converted to Epub" books was a little smaller in KB than the original. Scrolling thru the pages it looks like all is there however.

-  I probably didn't need to, but I removed the old "original" labeled files to another folder to avoid confusion.

-  And I also don't know if I needed to power on/off the device between the deletes and new adds, but I wanted to be sure.

-  I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it's so nice to have the original cover showing now!

[Crew_Mom]

Well, I'll have to try that.  I have enough OCD that I NEED my covers!  Will let you know if the above solution works for the Nook Tablet.

Edited to add:  YEA!!!!  It worked!  Now I can have moy covers and read them, too!  Wish I had known this 100 books ago!