iBooks - Turn off "Auto-generated" cover art (pdfs) ?

Question

Level 1

75 points

iBooks - Turn off "Auto-generated" cover art (pdfs) ?

The very first time you open iBooks after uploading .pdfs, the "covers" of the books show up as generic pictures of books with a solid color background (green, blue, brown, black) with the title in white and under that, the author's name in a contrasting color. It's nice and legible. However it only lasts a couple of seconds as one by one, the cover art is replaced with an image of the pdfs actual first page. In some cases there is artwork (if it was on the first page of the pdf which is rare) but most times it's just a reduced picture of text. This results in not being able to know what book is pictured since the title/author are not legible.

In "Bookshelf" mode the covers are all you can see. In "list" mode at least the titles are listed out but I prefer using Bookshelf because you can move the order of the books around by just selecting them and dragging them. This allows me to put "series" in order and gives me a better overview of what I have (I frequently load pdfs of books and have 30-40 at a time under a specific author).

Is there any way to turn off this "scanning/replacing" and keep the default generic color covers for pdfs? They are so much easier to read.

If not, is it possible to "import" cover art for iBook pdfs the way you can attach cover art for music albums (possibly using iTunes or an App)?

Windows Laptop, Windows XP

Posted on Mar 10, 2012 8:33 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 20, 2012 9:32 AM in response to Cacher123

Here is an image of what Catcher123 is talking about:

This was taken as the cover images were converting after freshly installing iBooks. As you can see the covers are readable, but once they're converted Bookshelf view becomes all but useless. Curiously, each cover is slightly different and simply display the first line of text in the PDF.

Reply

Answer 2

May 17, 2012 11:32 AM in response to Cacher123

I would also like to learn how to keep the generic color covers for pdfs. I agree, they're easier to read in the bookshelf view.

Reply

Answer 3

iHole

Level 1

0 points

Aug 28, 2012 12:30 AM in response to Cacher123

Oh my i just discovered this too, I uploaded 83 of my one made PDFs to my iPad and loved how there was Default covers for then so i can read the title and author. A few seconds later to my horror I watch them all flip to the unreadable first page of the PDF. Really apple no option to use generic covers for PDF and Epubs. Why hasn't there been an answer to this thread, A big middle finger by an Apple rep would at least be something.

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 6, 2012 11:58 PM in response to Cacher123

This will solve your problem. First download Calibre. Then import the book whose hideous cover you wish to remove (the book must be in .epub, otherwise convert it to .epub using Calibre). Next right click in the cover picture on the right then remove it. Then right click on the book choose Tweak Book -> OK -> Explode. Then Delete the picture folder (the folder in which there is the cover picture), close the window, click Rebuild. After all this Save the new book to your folder of wish. And there you go, GOODBYE HIDEOUS COVER! WELCOME BACK APPLE DEFAULT COVER!

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 6, 2012 11:03 PM in response to Cacher123

Well, theres not an easy way, like "disable pdf preview", just simple like that

I dont want to convert my original pdfs. Those covers doesnt make any sense!

Reply

Answer 6

Lenky427

Level 1

0 points

Feb 21, 2014 9:36 AM in response to Cacher123

I know that this is a pretty old post but today i figured out how to do this on Iphone 5 using flex. I had the same question last year and just gave up. But after loading more pdf's this morning, i was struck with same aesthetic dilemma. This only took 5 mins to do. It looks great and now also legiable.

Reply

Answer 7

Cacher123 Author

Level 1

75 points

Feb 21, 2014 8:21 PM in response to Lenky427

Yay! Just what I need... Unfortunately you didn't say how you did it!

Reply

Answer 8

Lenky427

Level 1

0 points

Feb 22, 2014 12:20 AM in response to Cacher123

Wasnt sure if anyone would still be interested. And it was a little bit of a mess. I had over 20 files selected so i cleaned it up and was able to narrow it down to three. (this will make more sense after)

I just want to start off by saying, I'm no expert, just someone who tinkers with just about everything that i can.

So first of all the phone or ipad (ive only done this with my phone) has to be jailbroken, to download "flex 2" from cydia. This is a paid ($3.99) tweak. But well worth it in my opinion, for what you are actually able to do with it. If your not aware, it is a app to create tweaks/ patches for almost any app. If someone has not already created what you can think up then it is fairly easy to just create it yourself. As the case here.

So once you have flex installed you will start by creating a ibooks patch via the plus sign in the top right corner, and selecting ibooks from the list of installed apps.

Now tap "iBooks Patch" (default name) from list of patches on main screen, Next tap "Add Units" (as seen in the last photo in this post), then tap "iBooks" at the top, you will then be promted to process the filesystem. (you should only have to do this once per file system).

Now there should be a search bar at the top. Search for the text that is written under "Target Method" exactly as it appears (see photo). you dont have to type it all it should filter as you type. Add these 3 methods by tapping on them, a checkmark will appear.

Now, in the iBooks patch it should look like this...

Hit back one more time, and activate the patch by selecting the checkmark (highlighted is on), and open iBooks while you hope it works. As you can see from my first post, it replaced them all right as i opened the app. No need to reload any pdf or books; on that note, this also changed the books to generic covers as well.

as a disclaimer I am still on ios 6.1.4, but i dont see a reason this couldnt work the same...Hopefully that wasn't all just gibberish, but i will try to answer any questions i can. Good Luck.

Reply

Answer 9

Ford49

Level 1

20 points

Jun 3, 2014 3:58 PM in response to Lenky427

Or, simply open your existing PDF in Preview then Print to PDF and add a password using Security Options. Any password protected PDF will use the default artwork.

Almost forgot, delete the original from iBooks then add the new, protected copy.

Reply