A cover comes from your files and only from them: from a tag, from a picture next to the book, or from the folder. The app never goes online for one — the same promise as for the metadata.
The order of the search is fixed: first the picture embedded in the tags, then a cover, folder or front file next to the book, then any image in the folder. Nothing found — the app draws its own.
Covers are free and unlimited. They are cached in several sizes, so lists scroll fast and the full-screen view stays sharp.
01/03
When there is no cover
There will be no empty grey square. The app draws the cover itself — from the author’s initials and the title, deterministically: one book always gets the same one.
Open a book whose files carried no picture.
In place of the cover: the author’s initials on a background picked from the title.
That cover lives everywhere: in the list, in the mini player, on the lock screen and in CarPlay.
Once a real picture turns up, the drawn one steps aside by itself.
The colour is not random: it is worked out from the author and the title, so two books by one author stand side by side in a list and look like kin.
02/03
Set your own
Found a better cover? It goes in from Photos or Files and rolls back to the automatic one at any time.
Open the book card and tap “•••” in the top right corner.
Choose “Cover” — a submenu opens.
“Choose from Photos” takes a picture from the library: access is asked for the one chosen image, not for the whole library.
“Choose from Files” takes a file from any storage.
“Back to automatic” rolls back to what the app found or drew itself.
On a device with a camera the same menu offers a shot: you can photograph the cover of a paper edition. The image is cropped and rotated before it is set.
03/03
The series cover and the author photo
A series and an author have images of their own, apart from the books’. A series takes the first volume’s cover by default, but that can be changed.
Open the series card and tap “Edit” in the top right corner.
The title, the description and the series cover are all edited there.
The author photo goes on their page, with the edit button — together with the note and the links.
Neither touches the books’ covers: a book keeps its own.
The author photo and note belong to Pro. The series cover is free.
What covers do not do
Look themselves up on the internet: the app goes online for neither covers nor descriptions.
Different covers per chapter, even when a file holds several.
Write the chosen cover back into the file: it lives in the catalog.
