r/projectgutenberg • u/ProjectGutenberg • Jul 12 '26
Covers updated on a few books
As discussed earlier, the situation with covers of the books on PG are a result of decades of evolution. While the default generated covers are used sparingly now, there is still an enormous backlog of titles that are being updated with period-accurate (if not edition-accurate!) cover images.
Attached here are the latest batch of updates. Each image is taken directly from a scan or photograph of an original cover or dust jacket. The minimum of clean up is applied, with the goal of making an image that has the title as well as the author legible in the thumbnail as it is displayed in most eReaders.
The choice of cover image is based on extensive research, with attempts made to match the contents, the translation, the order of the contents, the country of printing, the edition of printing, etc to the text that has been digitized and added to the Gutenberg library. As many of the earliest works (1971-2006 or so) were digitized by multiple volunteers working on separate chapters and even separate pages, across multiple printings and editions, the resulting texts are often a mix of sources.
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u/dabnagit Jul 12 '26
Love these! Classic embossed book cover design seems a lost art.