ePUB Cover and Transparency

MicahMathews · February 2018

I've been working on creating better covers/marketing images for the ePUB versions of my books, and come across an issue where the background extends wider than the standard book image I have.

I really don't want to resize the image as I want it to match the book form closely. But there's no way of adjusting the width of the cover image inside the marketing image so that there's no border.

Has anyone found a way around this? I've tried making the cover include a transparent extra edge in the hope that will work, but no success in that.

Any ideas?

Just Kevin · March 2018

What size book cover are you using to work with? The image for an ePub Marketing Image is not far removed from the ratio of most common book covers. What I have often wondered is what happens to the 'standard' size of Marketing image that Lulu ask for for an ePub when sent to Kindle to be converted for Kindle? Because when publishing direct to Amazon for Kindle Amazon ask for a different size and ratio.

Em_Press · March 2018

Use the second one. Most, if not all, retailers have a rectangular thumbnail. I don't know why lulu shows a square.

Just ignore the anxiety of the warped shape. Furthermore, the ebook and print book will be linked and people will know what your book really looks like.

Look up ebooks on iTunes, Barnes and Noble, kobo, Amazon. They all look normal. Even when distributed through lulu. The retailers adjust the image.

Paul_Lulu · March 2018

Because we offer distribution on EPUBs to a range of retailers, we had to create a "standard" size that we could easily (at a minimum loss of quality) convert to the various sizes retailers need.
With that in mind, the minimum size for a cover is 612x792 pixels, and so long as you maintain that ratio, your cover should fill the preview space.

Em_Press · February 2018

Not clear. Show example please. Reexplain.

MicahMathews · March 2018

I'm working with the A5 book cover size. I'll post an example of what I mean:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030295/uploads/editor/46/rm4mb1pd6hyu.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030295/uploads/editor/n9/m5gjcud2a3y8.png

Do you see how the normal cover (the second image) isn't scaled the same as the ePUB one. There is no option to trim the excess for the ePUB, rather you have to either fill in the gap with a color (as in my first image) or try to use a transparent canvas. The transparent canvas gets changed to the theme cover when creating the marketing image of an ePUB, with no option to not show the color.

I've seen a few of the authors get around this problem by picking a color that they fill the left and right edges with as I've done in my first image.

MicahMathews · March 2018

Thanks for the input guys.

@Paul_Lulu ;
I've been trying to work on that ratio. I noticed that when scaling a larger image down to the smaller size that lettering loses its edge a little, so I worked on scaling it down manually myself to solve the problem.

@Em_Press
I did initially use the second standard cover, but what I found was that it had to have some background color created by Lulu. If it was white, it was fine on sites that had a white background, but not so good on those that were shaded slightly.

Em_Press · March 2018

I was wrong. It does show the covers warped on iTunes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ephew-the-nephew-and-the-bubble-gum-air-balloon/id1287261092?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-100-year-old-boy/id1290332476?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/tickle-land/id1289475421?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/math-of-forgiveness/id573179616?mt=11

Em_Press · March 2018

It would be good if lulu users posted the links to their ebooks here, so we could check them out at retailer sites. Good publicity also.

Just Kevin · March 2018

I have just resized the A5 image (Copied and Pasted from your image in your posting) to 612x792, and it shows little distortion and no borders.

ePUB Cover and Transparency

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