RE: [docbook-apps] "missing cover" in docbook epub converted to Amazon kindle .mobi file

[Jason Zech <zech@loyolapress.com>]

Is the cover image displaying properly in the epub you generate before you run the epub through KindleGen? 

Are you using any kind of customization? Or are you using Oxygen's "out-of-the-box" epub transform for DocBook?

Epub covers are typically an html file with a cover image embedded inside it. Mobi uses the cover image itself. By default, I believe Oxygen gives the cover image an id of "cover-image" and the cover.html page an id of "cover"

Any changes you need to make can be done via the Archive Browser in Oxygen. Find the content.opf file inside the epub before you put it through KindleGen. In the <metadata> section, find your <meta name="cover" and check what it refers to. In all likelihood, you want it to point to the cover image, called "cover-image" (<meta name="cover" content="cover-image"/>). If it already does that, check that the id of your cover image in the manifest is in fact "cover-image". 

There really isn't anything you can do in the DocBook that would affect this behavior, but you might want to check that your source doc has the cover tagged correctly so that Oxygen outputs it as an epub cover. I'm sure there are other ways of doing it, but here's how I tag mine:

Inside the <info> tag, I include:

<cover>
   <mediaobject role="cover">
      <imageobject>
         <imagedata fileref="../pathtocovers/epub_cover.jpg" contentdepth="700" contentwidth="500" />
      </imageobject>
   </mediaobject>
</cover>

Hope that helps. 

jz



From: DC Denison [mailto:dcdenison@mac.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 12:39 PM
To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [docbook-apps] "missing cover" in docbook epub converted to Amazon kindle .mobi file

I'm using an epub generated from a Docbook transformed via ANT in Oxygen to create a .mobi file for the Amazon Kindle (using Kindle Previewer). 

It keeps giving me a "missing cover" warning, which is displayed over the cover image. 

The Kindle Previewer documentation says that the cover should be included this way: 

Define covers in the OPF file using the following tags:
<metadata>
...
<meta name="cover" content="my-cover-image" >
...
</metadata> ... <manifest>
...
<item href="MyCoverImage.jpg" id="my-cover-image" media-type="image/jpeg" >
...
</manifest>

But I'm having trouble figuring out how to insert that into the DocBook file, or into the ePub using Oxygen's Archive Browser. I think I would probably have to insert that file in more than just the manifest folder. Also would it conflict with the "cover.jpg" file that's already in the ePub?

Any suggestions? 

thanks! 

DC Denison