Kindle PW1 book covers

kruger · 01-14-2023, 08:46 AM

Hi! I have Kindle Paperwhite 1, also have epub and mobi versions of my books. Usually I send books to Kindle via email to be able to read them with my phone too with Whispersync working.

When I'm sending just epub or mobi versions via email - covers are empty. Same is when I convert to mobi BOTH in Calibre. Also cover is displaying on my phone when I'm downloading these versions from the cloud, so cover itself is there. If I convert to mobi OLD then cover is displaying on Kindle too but word wrapping is broken (and publisher font is gone, as I understand due to OLD version of mobi or some compression during conversion) and text starts looking much much worse since it's in Russian and word wrapping is highly desirable there.

So is it possible to make covers visible on Kindle, have cloud sync and not to break word-wrapping at the same time? In my regular flow I have all except covers. Isn't it just a matter of reading proper attribute by Kindle? Maybe there are some hacks, jailbreaks or some special cooking of book format to have needed attribute?

shamanNS · 01-14-2023, 09:18 AM

Since PW1's latest / last firmware is sufficiently old you have as am option to "sideload" those cover thumbnails via USB by using "ExtractCoverThumbs" python script, as a step you would need to do post-downloading from "the Cloud".

https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs

Missing cover thumbnails for KF8/azw3 PDOCs (Personal Documents) is/was a known issues that was present for years until Amazon finally fixed it with firmware 5.15 IIRC. Since PW1, PW2, Voyage... aren't supported anymore and didn't get an update to that particular firmware version those devices will have that bug for eternity. At least PW1 support was dropped before firmware 5.8.x when Amazon added a change that made Kindle devices ignore sideloaded cover thumbnails for azw3 files with PDOC instead of EBOK flag...

If you jailbreak your PW1 and install python hack then with a couple of edits that ExtractCoverThumbs script could be turned into a KUAL extension and be used directly on a Kindle, without the need for computer and USB cable.

Also, take a look at another issue regarding cover thumbnails:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=329945

kruger · 01-14-2023, 11:07 AM

shamanNS, wow thank you for such detailed response. Will dive into it

01-14-2023, 08:46 AM	#1
kruger Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 1	Kindle PW1 book covers Hi! I have Kindle Paperwhite 1, also have epub and mobi versions of my books. Usually I send books to Kindle via email to be able to read them with my phone too with Whispersync working. When I'm sending just epub or mobi versions via email - covers are empty. Same is when I convert to mobi BOTH in Calibre. Also cover is displaying on my phone when I'm downloading these versions from the cloud, so cover itself is there. If I convert to mobi OLD then cover is displaying on Kindle too but word wrapping is broken (and publisher font is gone, as I understand due to OLD version of mobi or some compression during conversion) and text starts looking much much worse since it's in Russian and word wrapping is highly desirable there. So is it possible to make covers visible on Kindle, have cloud sync and not to break word-wrapping at the same time? In my regular flow I have all except covers. Isn't it just a matter of reading proper attribute by Kindle? Maybe there are some hacks, jailbreaks or some special cooking of book format to have needed attribute?

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01-14-2023, 09:18 AM	#2
shamanNS Guru Posts: 995 Karma: 11500000 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle PW1	Since PW1's latest / last firmware is sufficiently old you have as am option to "sideload" those cover thumbnails via USB by using "ExtractCoverThumbs" python script, as a step you would need to do post-downloading from "the Cloud". https://github.com/quiris11/ExtractCoverThumbs Missing cover thumbnails for KF8/azw3 PDOCs (Personal Documents) is/was a known issues that was present for years until Amazon finally fixed it with firmware 5.15 IIRC. Since PW1, PW2, Voyage... aren't supported anymore and didn't get an update to that particular firmware version those devices will have that bug for eternity. At least PW1 support was dropped before firmware 5.8.x when Amazon added a change that made Kindle devices ignore sideloaded cover thumbnails for azw3 files with PDOC instead of EBOK flag... If you jailbreak your PW1 and install python hack then with a couple of edits that ExtractCoverThumbs script could be turned into a KUAL extension and be used directly on a Kindle, without the need for computer and USB cable. Also, take a look at another issue regarding cover thumbnails: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=329945

01-14-2023, 11:07 AM	#3
kruger Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite 1	shamanNS, wow thank you for such detailed response. Will dive into it

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