I’m compiling a novel to epub. I have a pdf cover and have dragged it into the ebook front matter folder and called it cover2. I have deleted the default cover file. I have selected the folders chapter 1-9 which i wish to compile. The Include front matter button is ghosted out at compile. In the Inspector, however, I have ‘include in compile’ checked for the front matter and for the ebook. The cover is never there. Pls help
This is more a matter of following the ePub v3 specification on supported image types, which PDF is not.
If you were intending to use PDF for its vector qualities, then you will need to use SVG instead. Your designer should be able to provide that, as they probably have the original stored in some other format and exported the PDF from that to begin with. But do note that applying an SVG image for the cover is more advanced, and will require pasting the code of it into the cover tab rather than treating it like an image in the binder.[1]
Otherwise, if it is raster image, it would be a lot simpler (and compatible with a broader range of ebook readers) to use JPG or PNG.
By the way, you can manually choose the cover image (from anywhere in the project), in the second to last tab of the main compile overview window, on the right. I recommend visiting that so you can see what the default setting is, and how that is intended to work. It sounds like you’re looking too deeply into the configuration of the item (like whether it is set to include in compile), when the criteria is much simpler. Of course you do need a valid image file though, not something ePub doesn’t support.
Refer to §23.4.5, Cover Options, in the user manual PDF, for instructions on adding an SVG image to your compile settings. ↩︎
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whether i do pdf or jpeg it makes no difference. the option ‘Add front matter’ is ghosted in the compile
Problem solved. The issue was that somehow I had moved the Front Matter folder out of the Manuscript folder. the ‘Add front matter’ is still ghosted so it’s a mystery as to why it’s working but since moving the Front Matter back into Manuscript it is now at least compiling with a cover. Thanks for your help Amber
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The front and back matter features are designed to give you an optional and easy way to swap between different sets of material, should you need it for different compile jobs (for example when I make beta copies I have an additional disclaimer and warning to not distribute). It would thus be counter to that principle to have the content already in the Draft folder. This feature selects some material and inserts it into the draft.
And of course if you don’t need alternative texts, then there is no reason to use the feature and you can just put it into the draft folder where it should go.
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Hiya. Yes, I need different drafts for different purposes. I now have my Front Matter sorted on e-book. 
I am now having an issue with e-boook draft becasue it does not seem to acknowledge Script Mode settings (every alternate chapter in the novel is a Script Mode Folder/ Document. Do I need to create a new topc for this question perhaps?
2 posts were split to a new topic: Formatting script mode settings in an ebook