First, make sure you have references to both the image and
XHTML covers in your OPF manifest.
Finally, it's a good choice to include an OPF guide reference to
your XHTML cover as a final hint to reading systems of what's going on:
Using the same value as the id attribute for
the XHTML cover, add an initial itemref to the spine element that refers to the cover page but is not linear.
Not exact matches
One problem I've had — I've tried a couple of different codes for the
cover area (in the
XHTML file), but it seemed that no matter what I did, I still have to fuss with the
cover size (adjust in Photoshop, reimport into InDesign and reexport to ePub), because the
cover would be too small, be cut - off, or having white margins.
I've deduced that it could be because my
cover and book text are all in the same
XHTML file, but I could be wrong about that?
The MasterTemplate.epub file will contain your
XHTML pages ready for content,
cover page, a pre-made CSS, placed bio image on your about the author page, and a table of contents (up to 20 chapters), all coded and ready to go.
This
XHTML file can be used to display the coverpage for eReaders like Adobe Digital Editions that don't automatically recognize the
cover image.
Some EPUB renderers prefer to use an image file as the
cover, while others will use an
XHTML file containing an inlined
cover image.
If you wanted a table of contents to follow your
cover image as the reader progressed through the book, for example, you had to include a separate
XHTML content document in the spine.