Remove thumbnails from Calibre Catalog?

[allanahk]

I want to make a catalog of all my books in calibre in MOBI format so that it appears as a periodical on my Kindle. However when I do so the thumbnail book covers overlap with other text making it unreadable. I've tested with azw3 format and that doesn't have the same issue, but then it's not in periodical format. I tried to decrease the thumbnail size but it seems the smallest is 1 inch. Is there a way to decrease the size or just remove the thumbnails altogether?
Thanks guys

[lumpynose]

Kludge suggestion; what about generating it in the azw3 format and then using calibre's converter and converting the azw3 to mobi?

[allanahk]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Kludge suggestion; what about generating it in the azw3 format and then using calibre's converter and converting the azw3 to mobi?

I think that would probably save it in book format rather than as a periodical, but I'll test it out when I get home anyway - thanks for the suggestion

[kovidgoyal]

how are you making the catalog in periodical format?

[allanahk]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

how are you making the catalog in periodical format?

I've set the calibre output preferences to Kindle Voyage, then I just convert a selection of books into a MOBI catalog and the Kindle reads it as a periodical

[allanahk]

Also I used to have a Kindle paperwhite and the periodical catalogs were displayed fine on that, so it could be that it's a Kindle Voyage issue

[kovidgoyal]

Sorry I dont have any insight to offer, I dont deal the catalog code. I can tell you that you cannot convert to azw3 and then MOBI that will lose periodical formatting. Sadly amazon only supports periodical formatting for MOBI, not azw3

[allanahk]

Update: I've managed to remove the thumbnails completely by using a custom catalog template file (following instructions in this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=118556). I just removed the text {thumb} from the default template and generated a new catalog with no thumbnails - I think I actually prefer it this way as the covers were always quite small and didn't look great on a black and white Kindle screen anyway.

[jhowell]

I am curious. What is the advantage of having the catalog be in periodical format?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I am curious. What is the advantage of having the catalog be in periodical format?

Off the top of my head, easy filtering.

How do you change a catalog to periodical format anyway? Is it just as simple as changing MOBI to POBI or does it use a different tag (e.g. [EBOK], [PDOC])? I tend to generate EPUB catalog and then convert to MOBI because I copy the catalog to the iPad, as well.

[kovidgoyal]

There is a bunch of internal stuff in the MOBI file that makes it a periodical. Simply changing the extension is not sufficient.

[allanahk]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I am curious. What is the advantage of having the catalog be in periodical format?

For me it's easier to navigate, it appears in the periodical section on Kindle so I can find it easily rather than trudging through my library, and it doesn't have a percentage read like a book file (which always used to really irritate me)

[allanahk]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Off the top of my head, easy filtering.

How do you change a catalog to periodical format anyway? Is it just as simple as changing MOBI to POBI or does it use a different tag (e.g. [EBOK], [PDOC])? I tend to generate EPUB catalog and then convert to MOBI because I copy the catalog to the iPad, as well.

As far as I know you need to set your output preference to Kindle and then generate as MOBI - converting from EPUB or AZW3 to MOBI doesn't work. I don't know how calibre does it though

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by allanahk

For me it's easier to navigate, it appears in the periodical section on Kindle so I can find it easily rather than trudging through my library

That's a really great reason, all by itself.