Calibre | Book cover templates (Penguin)

Recently, I’ve spent some time consolidating my ebooks in Calibre library, and during this process I’ve started to use several new-to-me plugins. One of them is “Generate Cover” plugin, that allows more control over the generated book cover, with an option to create your own design.
I’ve created a template, mimicking PENGUIN paperbacks for myself and now want to share it with anyone, who might want to use it too.

Details, downloads and instructions below.

Calibre book covers details:

Templates are to be used with “Generate Cover” plugin for Calibre, created by Grant Drake.

Cover dimensions are: 750px x 1100px

2 versions are available: with covers in PNG & in SVG format.

Design was inspired by the iconic PENGUIN BOOKS paperbacks.
To duplicate the look fully, you need Gill Sans MT font, but other sans-serif fonts can be used too (some font size adjustments might be needed).

I’ve used ebook icon by Lucas Balmer (via thenounproject.com)

Now there is a AO3 Edition of the same covers – with AO3 logo, to use with your fanfic collections.

Upon import, classic orange version will be added automatically, but another 35 colour variations are also included to offer some variety.
This can be used to duplicate original colour-scheme, when certain colours were used to denote Genres.
For example, PENGUIN used:

• Orange – for general fiction
• Green – for crime fiction
• Cerise – for travel and adventure
• Dark blue – for biographies
• Red – for drama
• Purple – for essays
• Grey – for world affairs
• Yellow – for miscellaneous

You can follow along, or create your own variation, or just use any colours you like.

Here are my ebooks with generated covers in use in Calibre, as seen in Cover Browser:

Colours:

Currently, there are 36 colour variations to choose from:

• Black
• Brown
• Blue
• Blue Bright
• Blue Deep
• Blue Light
• Blue Navy
• Blue Tiffany
• Indigo
• Cyan
• Teal
• Turquoise
• Green
• Green Blue
• Green Deep
• Green Grass
• Green Light
• Green Neon
• Grey Blue
• Grey Light
• Grey
• Lavender
• Magenta
• Purple
• Violet
• Orange Deep
• Orange
• Pink
• Pink Cerise
• Pink Salmon
• Red
• Red Blue
• Red Deep
• Yellow Deep
• Yellow Neon
• Yellow

Download:

Calibre | Penguin covers (PNG)

1 file(s) 422 Kb

Download

Calibre | Penguin covers (SVG)

1 file(s) 33 Kb

Download

Install:

This covers are intended to be used with “Generate Cover” plugin for Calibre, created by Grant Drake.
So, first you have to install/activate it
To check if you have it already go to “Preferences –> Plugins –> User interface action” or search for “Generate Cover”).

If it’s not there – then you have to download and install it first.
Go to “Preferences –> Plugins –> Button at the bottom [Get new Plugins] –> Filter list at the top for “All” –> sort by Plugin name and it will be there as “Generate Cover”.

In this Help there are some instructions on it’s usage.

Here are instructions for installation of my cover templates:

1. Download zip archive from link above.
2. Extract it somewhere on your computer, note the location.
3. Upon extraction you’ll get 1 folder “additional-colours” and another zip archive “kuzzzma-penguin.zip”, leave them as is, no need to extract further.
4. Open Calibre, click on Generate cover button on Main toolbar (not in book details!), this will bring pop-up with “Generate Cover” plugin visual settings.
5. In [Settings] tab in “Saved Settings” list – find a Import setting button on the right.
6. Locate kuzzzma-penguin.zip on your computer, select and click OK.
7. This will import font/dimensions/other settings & default Orange background.
8. If you don’t have Gill Sans font installed – check [Fonts] tab and settings and select another font, adjust size if needed.
9. Depending on the font used, you might need to adjust settings in the [Dimensions] tab as well.
10. In the [Content] tab you can enable display of Series info and adjust text used.
11. For more colour options, go down to “Select image” list – click on Add image to this list, locate “additional-colours” folder on your computer, select desired variations and click OK.
12. During use, now you can switch between different colours in this list.
13. NB! During use, depending on Book titles, you might have to adjust font sizes and dimensions on case-by-case basis, remember to revert your settings accordingly.
14. Multiple books can be done at once: select via book list, click “Generate Cover” button – adjust, click OK. All of them will get the same coloured cover.
15. NB! For multiple books at once – I recommend doing it for a limited batch (author/letter/search criteria/etc) and check results via Cover Browser to find those, that need adjustments due to book Titles or Authors list being too long.

SVG Colours

SVG files not only allow for scalability, but can be easily modified to create more colours.

1. Open SVG in text editor (like Notepad on Windows)
2. Locate figure with id=”background”
3. Change the HEX value of “fill” attribute on line 14
4. Value of the fill attribute can be a web-color name, RGB value or a HEX value
5. Save as name.svg
6. Import into Calibre via “Select image” list in Generate Cover pop-up.

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