Google Books API returns a JSON object that contains links to three or
four different image sizes. Also, regarding CSS, browsers seem to scale
the height down proportionally when you use CSS to modify the width.
As a side note about Google Books, the cover images seem to only be
available via HTTP, while organizational policy at many institutions
requires HTTPS. This causes issues in newer browsers that don't allow HTTP
content on an HTTPS site. Does anyone know of a workaround other than
saving all the images server-side?
Josh Welker
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Amy Drayer
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 12:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] book cover api
Dear Kelly et al:
I agree to a certain degree with Jonathan that you can use CSS to resize
the images if alternate sizes are not available. However, I would not
recommend changing the ratio or increasing the size of the original image.
With Retina displays (Apple), in order to keep any kind of non-pixelated
cover art, you need an original graphic nearly twice the size you plan to
display (depending on image quality), and then you could use CSS to scale
it down correctly (that's one method and probably the easiest with the
images coming from another source).
Syndetics and Content Cafe both offer three sizes of covers, but I am
unfamiliar with APIs that offer size options. GoodReads seems like it
might, but I haven't tried it.
In peace,
Amy M. Drayer
Senior IT Specialist
In peace,
Amy M. Drayer, MLIS
Senior IT Specialist, Web Developer
[log in to unmask]
http://www.puzumaki.com
On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 11:42 AM, Galen Charlton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 9:39 AM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > I don't know of any free book cover api that resizes images for you
> > to your specifications, they all only offer images at certain sizes.
> > I don't know about the commercial services like syndectics etc.
>
>
> As a data point, the last time I checked, Syndetics offers a choice of
> "small", "medium", or "large" but doesn't offer on-the-fly scaling to
> user-supplied dimensions.
>
> Regards,
>
> Galen
> --
> Galen Charlton
> Manager of Implementation
> Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
> email: [log in to unmask]
> direct: +1 770-709-5581
> cell: +1 404-984-4366
> skype: gmcharlt
> web: http://www.esilibrary.com/
> Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
> http://evergreen-ils.org
>
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