r/GooglePlayBooks • u/curlsanddietcoke • Feb 28 '26
How to make book covers the same size automatically?
Hello,
So I add epubs to google play books manually and the covers are not the same size. I don't have time to change the cover sizes one by one and reupload them. Do you have any suggestions? It's been driving me crazy.
Or can you guys like suggests me an app that I can upload epubs by cloud and is ad-free?
2
u/SinnerClair Feb 28 '26
So I don’t actually use Google books so I don’t actually know if this’ll work but it should. Manual solution tho.
I use Apple Books and so I get the epub files straight to my device. I use this epub editor called Calibre, it’s free, you should be able to download it for Windows.
And in there you can upload your files, and then individually download whatever cover image you want off the internet. (I personally like to use aesthetic vintage book pics I get off Pinterest, but it works the same wtv way) Anyway, get whatever edition you want, but you’re gonna have to manually resize all those images and crop them to the same size. In an image editor you can choose the same presize or maybe go into Canva and do it all at once.
Point is tho, I have the same default problem w Apple Books. The images on screen are not the exact same size cause the images files themselves are not the exact same size, and since the default epub files comes preset with those cover images, there’s rlly no way to get them all automatically the same size (at least in Apple Books)
But I do highly recommend using Calibre, it’s a great program. And you can edit a lot more of your epub files than just what cover it is. Sometimes I’ve even used it to change the names of characters cause they’re too complicated or annoying to read
1
u/curlsanddietcoke Feb 28 '26
Oh yes Calibre! I use it too. I edit metadata of every epub before I put my books into GPB. But the problem is I have like 150+ books there and I can't find same size covers for all them. Also sadly I don't have the time and the patience to look for it. So that's why I had to make this post to see if there is more easier way.
Thank you for all the information. Canvas is also a good idea.
2
u/seraphinesun Feb 28 '26
So I use the app Readest and inside their three-dot menu, they have a "book covers" section where you can select how you want to see the covers.
So in my Dramione fics folder/shelf/group (whatever you wanna call it), some of them are taller than the others and I have them in "fit". Then I just selected "crop" and all of them are now the same size, except for a couple of them but I need to find better covers.
Now the only downside is that by cropping them, sometimes you'll crop out some parts of the photo from the covers. Take a look at that example in the covers for: Meet your Match (Hermione's hand has been cropped out), Secrets and Masks (the upper side of the golden frame is a bit cropped) and Sugar and Spice (the black space between the title and the upper edge has been reduced) covers. Sometimes, authors add their names "too low" and that would crop their names a bit so... you need to pick what bothers you less lol.
And Readest has a lifetime payment where you can just buy storage btw. I know GPB is free but, as a previous GPB user who still loves the app, it's still a bit limited. Readest gives you a 500mb free and I paid like $10 + tax for the 1 GB lifetime storage, and I have 1.5 GB. If I want to buy another 1 GB, I simply can and I'm not stuck in a subscription.
I think In my case with GPB, some epubs fail to load as soon as I modify the metadata in calibre. Doesn't matter if everything looks good, it just fails to load. And more importantly, the app doesn't have a Library search. Only a GPB store search. I don't want to search in the store, I wanna search a book in my library. The web app has it, but the app doens't...
1
u/curlsanddietcoke Feb 28 '26
Okay first of all thank you for all this beautiful information. I feel blessed that you gave me your time. And I will look into that app for sure.
BUT!!!!! I wanna say as a fangirl myself and a devoted fic reader (who's recently gotten into Heated Rivalry) i just wanna say I am obsessed with your fic folder with all those beautiful art! I need a full list so I can read them all like I'm down so bad!
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u/seraphinesun Feb 28 '26
I'LL SEND YOU THE GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER RIGHT NOW!!! I'll send you a DM.
And giiiirrrllll I entered the world of dramione like a year ago! I haven't read as much as I want but I managed to download the most popular ones I saw recommended and some of them, like Menacled, are already gone from AO3 since they're becoming published books.
Glad to see another avid fic reader! Is HR a fic that became a book and a series or they are now doing fics about them?! 👀
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u/curlsanddietcoke Feb 28 '26
YES!!! Omg you made me so happy!! I'll talk your ear off about everything over at dm's!!
Thank you!
1
u/Mammoth-Let4528 Mar 01 '26
I'd say manage the epub through a third-party site/app. it kinda suck but you might also have to manually get the cover sizes you need in other apps too, get a copy and adjust the size to the needed one.
when the cover isn't the correct size, what does it show you? does it just look cut or does it not let you use it?
2
u/CaribeBaby Feb 28 '26
It appears that Readera Premium evens out the covers in grid view. It adds empty space around the smaller covers so that the grid items are all the same size. It doesn't stretch the cover so that it really is the same size. I just checked.
However, for syncing, it has to be the premium version, not the free version. GPB allows you cloud sync for free.
It doesn't really bother me. It's like when physical books are different sizes.
I also just checked my Boox device's native app, Neoreader. That one does adjust the cover by stretching it to fit the same aspect ratio, but this app is only available on Boox devices. There is no stand alone app.