Concerning tex4ebook output of cover page and displaying in ebook readers

Question

I am new with tex4ebook and use the default format epub. I dicovered a difference when viewing the epub file between Adobe digital edition laptop version and Adobe digital edition mobile version. Only in the laptop version the cover page ist shown; in the mobile version no cover page can be seen.

Does anyone know what might be the problem? And are there in general differences in displaying the same epub file in different ebook readers?

Your understanding is appreciated, Thomkrates

Edit 1:

In the config.cfg file I include the following:

\Preamble{xhtml,no-cut,3,info}
\special{t4ht+@File: Cover_Testfile.jpg}
\Configure{CoverMimeType}{image/jpeg}
\CoverMetadata{Cover_Testfile.jpg}
\Configure{CoverImage}{}{}
\begin{document}
...

And in the Testdocument.tex file this:

\begin{document}
\ifdefined\HCode
\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Cover}
\coverimage[natwidth=\paperwidth,natheight=\paperheight]{Cover_Testfile.jpg}
\fi
\clearpage

Greetings, Thomkrates

Edit 2:

To get a general overview of the differences when viewing the same epub file (produced by tex4ebook) with different ebook readers (laptop version, mobile version, Adobe Digital Edition, eboox, and ReadEra) I can say the following:

1. There are differences in the appearance of the cover page/file, some don't show one at all, others when opened the epub file, but not in the general list of the epub reader before opening the ebook.

2. There are differences in the consequence of giving a \clearpage tag in the .tex file the designated function: Some ebook reader ignore it, others seems to follow the function idea and fill in a pagebreak.

3. There are differences in the transformed behaviour of the \section{} tag in the .tex file, when viewing the sections with different ebook readers. It seems as if they bring in an automatic pagebreak without respekting an existing \clearpage tag, since the \clearpage tag seems to be ignored, and the \section{} seems to result in a pagebreak seen in the epub.

4. Some ebook readers show a toc in the epub when viewing it, others told me, that the epub doesnt have a tableofcontent. In fact in the .texfile the\tableofcontentswas commented out. So it seems, as if some obey this and others bring in atocself made out of the different\section{}in thesource.tex`.

5. There are differences in showing a centered \section{}; some show it centered, some not.

6. There are differences in showing a newline ...Text\\Text... from line to line; some show it, like it is the intention in LaTeX, from line to line without \indent; others fill in a \baselineskip and an \indent which show up unnatural and not very nice like in the .pdf via pdflatex as it is a professional book printing set up.

I don't know whether there can be a solution to it or where the solution can be found. If these shortly described behaviours and differences are generally known and therefore at the moment widely accepted, the lower quality and differences seem to be accepted, and therefore no problem in making ones own ebooks with tex4ebook. If it is a problem with this, and can be fixed, it should be fixed, to get the professional quality of ebooks also with this tool, since latex and pdflatex show professional book quality, which should also appear in ebooks coming out of it. In the other case, it may be hoped that users will forgive the producers of ebooks, for these differences which can lead to unusual behaviour and showing in the ebook reader, although they have paid some money for it.

Thank you for your undestanding and to the contributors of good solutions to it. If possible.

With best wishes Thomkrates

Answer 1

There are two methods of adding the cover image, one is using \CoverMetadata{<filename>} in the config file, the second is \coverimage {<filename>} used in the document. The first method is useful when you want to display your cover image in the library of your e-reader, but not in the book itself. The second should display cover in both library and in the book.

You use both of these methods, which maybe cause some issues. Calibre has no problems, but I don't know about ADE, which I don't have access to. It would be best to remove \CoverMetadata from the config file:

\Preamble{xhtml,no-cut,3,info}
\Configure{CoverMimeType}{image/jpeg}
\Configure{CoverImage}{}{}
\begin{document}
\EndPreamble