How do I add image files to my library with thumbnails in the "cover" view?

[woodr2011]

Hi everyone,

I use Calibre to catalog my entire library of digital files (ebooks, documents, audio/video files, and images). How do I get the program to provide a thumbnail preview of an image file in the side panel where book covers are usually visible?

Secondly, is there a plugin that will download meta data and covers for Audio and Video files?

I have posted this question elsewhere but have never received a response.

Thank you for any information

[kovidgoyal]

Use the edit metadata dialog to change the cover of the record to the image file.

[woodr2011]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Use the edit metadata dialog to change the cover of the record to the image file.

Hi Kovid - That is one method, but it ends up creating a great deal of work when many photos are added. It also doubles the storage space by creating a copy of each photo for the cover.

[kovidgoyal]

That is the best you are going to get, since calibre is not really designed for storing images. You could write a plugin for calibre that imports images and sets them as the cover of otherwise empty book records, but that is never going to be part of core calibre.

[fidvo]

One idea to cut down on the work, if you're willing to make a few adjustments to how you do things, is to zip up batches of photos into .cbz files and store those in Calibre instead of the individual images.

For instance, say you have a set of photos taken from your last vacation. Zip all the files from the vacation and add it to Calibre, and tag it however you want. The individual images from that collection would likely all have the same tags anyway.

When you add a .cbz file to Calibre, I believe it automatically sets the first image as the cover. You can view the .cbz file natively in Calibre or with your favorite comic book reader. Yes, I know it's not technically a comic book, but the reader won't care.

At the very least, I would recommend doing this for all your images that are easily grouped into collections like this. For the rest, there's not much you can do but what Kovid said above. But hopefully this will cut down on the work you have to do, as well as storage space from duplicated images.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by fidvo

One idea to cut down on the work, if you're willing to make a few adjustments to how you do things, is to zip up batches of photos into .cbz files and store those in Calibre instead of the individual images.

For instance, say you have a set of photos taken from your last vacation. Zip all the files from the vacation and add it to Calibre, and tag it however you want. The individual images from that collection would likely all have the same tags anyway.

When you add a .cbz file to Calibre, I believe it automatically sets the first image as the cover. You can view the .cbz file natively in Calibre or with your favorite comic book reader. Yes, I know it's not technically a comic book, but the reader won't care.

At the very least, I would recommend doing this for all your images that are easily grouped into collections like this. For the rest, there's not much you can do but what Kovid said above. But hopefully this will cut down on the work you have to do, as well as storage space from duplicated images.

to all of the above

I keep 'photo albums' cbz's in a separate physical library with its own set of custom columns. I view them with the Honeyview comic book reader.

BR

[woodr2011]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That is the best you are going to get, since calibre is not really designed for storing images. You could write a plugin for calibre that imports images and sets them as the cover of otherwise empty book records, but that is never going to be part of core calibre.

Hi Kovid - I hear you. I am still new to the forums, so could you (or anyone) please recommend someone I could "hire" to write a plugin to handle my audio, video, and image files this way? I have the concept but not the coding/scripting skill to bring it to life. Thanks so much!!