Fun with finger-painting?

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Well I've been fooling around with the notion of making book-covers for favourite fics, to adorn them on an e-reader. Many fics have got gorgeous covers already, of course, made for them by people who not only have talent but actually know what they're doing to boot - but lots of fics are languishing behind nothing more than the standard Calibre image (no offence to Calibre! I love Calibre!) and deserve something more personalised, right?

And then moonlightmead mentioned that she had a couple of covers for the prosfic on her ereader, and mused that we might be duplicating efforts, and I wondered if we should pool 'em and then   byslantedlight had the very excellent idea that as well as pootling around on my own I could:

Come here to ci5hq and invite people to make covers, and share them, and be reminded (again) of how wonderful and beautiful our favourite fics are!

So just in case anybody has covers they'd like to share, or fancies the idea of making some, here are a couple I've done so far. Hoping that they will be joined by lots more?!?!?!

           

Oh, yes, of course I don't seem to be posting them here quite right, they're getting all horribly cropped for some reason ... but you get the idea and I can always post better copies (if I just find out how ...)

Comments

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I do believe all of the Pros Big Bang stories on AO3 have banners that could be used as covers. I haven't tried uploading any to an ereader. What format seems to work best as far as size goes?

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, all the Big Bangs have got gorgeous artwork!

And I had some of those artworks on my kindle, though you could only see them on ... can't remember what sort of page view it was, but I'm sure there was something, just that it never worked quite as well as I would have liked. But since I accidentally twepped my beloved kindle a few days ago I am actually bereft of an ereader right now (though hoping to remedy that), so I don't know really.

And I'm afraid I also don't know about size, as
a) I am a total techno-klutz and have no idea what size anything is, let alone what size it ought to be, and
b) being bereft of ereader right now I haven't had a chance to try any of these out yet!

but they all look vaguely ok in Calibre on the PC, so I'm hoping ... *g*

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Of course we get the idea, and it is a very awesome one too. And these images are fantastic. Honestly lovely.

I have an e-reader (okay, yes, I have two, do not ask) and I have Calibre and - much as I love Calibre - I do not want the Calibre-generated images for my Prosfic. I want something else. Something Pros-ish and mnemonic. Not that my e-reader is clogged full of Prosfic to the exclusion of all, nonono.

As several people will know, I am going to this year's Bistocon (http://bistocon.livejournal.com/1127.html), and one panel I suggested and even volunteered to run was about e-readers and Prosfic, because I think a number of us are probably generating the same stories and coming up with covers for them. The panel didn't make the cut, but I shall point people at this post, and cross my fingers that people have contributions!

I do have some contributions myself, but my ability to contribute in a timely fashion is limited - depends on updating my laptop before I go gallivanting tomorrow (why did you pick tonight to post? :))

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, my once and future e-reader wasn't/won't be completely full of prosfic, that's simply un-possible, whatever gave you that idea .... :-)

Yeah, Calibre is absolutely brilliant ... and I really can't stand having the automatically generated image for fics.

I think it would be lovely to share a pool of pretty covers!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

A-ha! I think that's increased the size of the comment boxes and text a bit, by changing it to the updated comment boxes. Hope so, anyway cos I wasn't able to find any other way of fixing it last time I tried or this time... Anyway, now that I can see what I'm writing.... *g*

You did it - hurrah! I'm not working tomorrow (although that sadly doesn't mean I have the entire day free exactly) but I shall make a point of reading a Pros story and trying to come up with a cover for it! *g* I can experiment with my Kobo and sizes too, see if I can work out anything optimal. Well, and see if I can actually get the covers to display properly to start with... *g*

Speaking of which - when you do "insert photo" from the comment navigation bar, and then upload it, it should give you the option to upload in different sizes. When I post photos to my lj, I always choose "original" and tick "link to original image" at the bottom, and then when the code appears for the picture, I find the end of the picture link (which is ">" and I type height="40%" width="40%" into the space before that first ">". That way the image will always take up 40% of the column space, and I can put two side by side comfortably. And if I preview them and want them bigger or smaller I just change the percentages, and experiment until it's what I want. You can also select one of the preset sizes that you're offered - usually around 300px is a decent size I think - not too big, which is annoying, but not tiny either (I suspect you ticked the 100px box). And ticking the box at the bottom means that if people want the full size to download or whatever, they can click on the image to get it.

Here's a pic at 100
(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/byslantedlight/8284114/2367368/2367368_original.jpg)

Here's the same pic at 300
(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/byslantedlight/8284114/2367368/2367368_original.jpg)

And here's the same pic the way I like to do it with the % added:
(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/byslantedlight/8284114/2367368/2367368_original.jpg)
(It changes with screen/window size too, so it'll always be that percentage of the space, which I quite like - if you whizz your lj window wider and narrower you'll see what i mean... *g* (Sorry about all the edits, I suddenly realised I should have added this too so you can see what I mean... *g*

I do it my slightly longer way around because I can change the size by adding that bit of code if I want to, and the link goes to the biggest size of pic that I have, for if people want to save the pic for themselves.

Right - off to think about what story to read... Thanks for suggesting this!

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the photo tips!

I'd worked out how to alter the sizes of pics that I post to my LJ but I had no idea why they didn't enlarge when they were clicked on, which they always used to do. I'd been meaning for yonks to post and ask for advice as to why this didn't work for me anymore but kept forgetting until I was actually in the process of posting pics, which was a bit too late!

But now I know! Thank you!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for this - I shall have to copy-paste it, so as to consult it (step by step ... ) next time I try *g*

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Right, let me see ... ::mutters:: insert photo ...

Here's one for Discovered in a Furball and Gift of the Moggy


and an alternative for Boxing Day :

Which one works better for Boxing Day, I wonder?

... and did it work? Let's click on "add comment" and find out ....

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I'll play.

For my favourite zine:

(http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/sc_fossil/12864391/239404/239404_original.png)

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Nice! I love the colouring, and Bodie looking sinister in the shadows.

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Nabbed. Now off to download latest Calibre, since I discovered in the previous discussion that it has more goodies I want. :)

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's gorgeous! And perfect, with the feeling of movement and the brushstrokes. And the crime-stories typeface!
It's all perfect!!!

What programme did you use? (::iz quite, quite ignorant. I've ended up using OpenOffice Writer, which isn't even meant for images at all. That's how ignorant I am)

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I love the idea.

Anybody got any clue as to what size/shape works best for an e-reader? I do loads of playlist artwork, but they're just square, so they keep their proportions wherever I use them... Do e-readers need a standard size for it to work without all squishing up?

Sorry - not sure I'm making sense yet this morning - one cup of coffee is just not enough.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

No idea, I'm afraid, but Calibre seems to cope with pretty much all my randomness so far :-) (though as moth2fic notes below, Calibre does indeed sometimes miss bits)

Moar coffee!

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like this idea!

I've got a cover that I did ages ago - not for an e-reader as none of us had even heard of them then, but for a story that I'd printed out and bound as a zine.

I'll try to dig it out and post it here!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Yes, please! Dig and post!!! (ooh, would be lovely to find something that suits Secrets Beneath ... hmmm... any ideas about that? g*)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see the cover. I hope you find it!

[(Anonymous)]

from hgdoghouse

love the cover for Hunted, very atmostpheric!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Isn't it fantastic? sc_fossil did a beautiful job of that!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

*waves* Thanks! I've read my zine so many times that I finally put the story on my Kindle so I don't ruin the zine. :) Now I'll have a cover for it too.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I use Calibre and I always give fics their own special cover by using the 'browse' option when editing metdata - I use pics I have saved on my computer and icons I have either made myself or snagged from others - Calibre seems to resize them happily though occasionally it alters the proportions or leavves bits out so you have to be careful. However, they don't seem to transfer to my Kindle every time. I have very little idea of why this might be and will consult Moonlightmead when I next see her... or I might even be able to work it out! It probably doesn't matter much as I have an elderly Kindle that does not do colour, and I keep things in my Calibre library rather than on the Kindle itself. So I see the pic/cover before I upload anyway! Incidentally, I'm multi-fandom and I do this for all my favourite fics.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

I have exactly that problem - things look fine in Calibre on the PC, but don't always transfer to the kindle. But it's nice to have them on the PC anyway!

I'd love to see some of yours - you do such fantastic image-text matching in your posts, I bet your covers are brilliant!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I did a few the old fashioned way for stories I comb-bound.

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Oh, these are good! I especially like the Where the Worms Are cover.

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

These are great! When you say 'the old-fashioned way', you are still talking about using a computer to merge images, yes? Or did you do something completely different?