Manga cover not showing on Kindle: fit the cover to the screen before you convert
A Kindle library full of grey placeholder tiles, or covers that show as a thin strip because the scan was a full wraparound, is a file problem and is fixed before the file goes on the device. Three things have to be true: the file must name a cover at all, the cover must be an image the device can show at its tile size, and the cover should be shaped for the screen rather than for a printed jacket. This page handles the shape and the embedding; the Pages tab handles which page is the cover.
↑ Upload and configure in our Studio
Crop cover to fit screen is preset here. It detects a wide image, the front plus back plus spine scan that many releases use as page one, and crops it to the front cover automatically. Fill screen with cover is the other option, one switch away in the studio: it centre-crops the cover to the device’s exact proportions so it fills the screen edge to edge. The result is embedded as the book cover, which is what the Kindle library reads. For a cover that is embedded correctly and still does not appear, the causes are the delivery route or the firmware, and the blog post at /blog/manga-covers-not-showing-on-kindle walks through both.
- Files auto-delete after 24 hours
- No install, runs in any browser
- Free to use
- The genuine open-source KCC engine
How to fix a cover that does not show or does not fit
Drop your manga and check which page is the cover
Drag in a CBZ, CBR, ZIP, RAR, 7Z, PDF or EPUB. The converter uses the first image as the cover; if that is a credits page or a blank, open the Pages tab and choose Set as cover on the real one.
Crop cover to fit screen is already on
A wide wraparound scan is cropped to its front cover. A cover that is already a single front image passes through as it is. Switch on Fill screen with cover as well if you want the cover to fill the screen with no border, at the cost of trimming its edges.
Pick your Kindle
Choose your exact model so the cover is sized for that screen. The Paperwhite preset is on by default; the Scribe and Colorsoft have their own profiles.
Convert, then deliver the way covers survive
Download the EPUB. The cover is embedded in it. Copy it over USB or fetch it from your Reader Shelf on the Kindle; if you use Send to Kindle, the blog post explains which routes keep the cover and which strip it.
Webtoon mode generates no cover
A vertical strip has no cover page to crop, so the cover options are disabled while webtoon mode is on. For a webtoon, the first screen of the strip is what the library shows.
Series grouping is a separate fix
A library that shows the right covers but scatters the volumes is missing series metadata, not cover data. The edit-comic-metadata page writes the series name and number into the file so the volumes group, and the lookup can supply the cover art as well.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my Kindle show a grey tile instead of my manga’s cover?
One of three reasons: the file has no cover defined, the file arrived by a route where the Kindle does not generate a thumbnail, or old firmware that predates cover support for personal documents. Converting here embeds a cover, which settles the first. The blog post at /blog/manga-covers-not-showing-on-kindle covers the other two.
My cover shows but it is a thin strip. Why?
The scan’s first page is the whole dust jacket, back cover, spine and front in one wide image, and the library tile squeezes all of it into a portrait slot. Crop cover to fit screen detects that wide image and keeps only the front cover, which is what this page presets.
What does Fill screen with cover do differently?
It centre-crops the cover to the exact proportions of the device screen, so the cover fills the screen with no border. A tankobon cover is close to the Kindle’s shape, so very little is trimmed; a cover of a different shape loses more of its edges. Crop to fit handles the wraparound case; fill handles the shape.
The cover I want is not the first page. Can I pick another?
Yes. In the Pages tab, tap the page and choose Set as cover; any page that is not removed can be the cover. The cover options on this page then apply to the page you chose. The change-comic-cover page walks through it.
Does CBZ output get a cover too?
Only with Crop cover to fit screen on, which this page presets: a CBZ has no cover metadata, so the converter adds a cover image to the archive as part of that option. EPUB, MOBI and KEPUB always embed the cover.
Conversion runs on Kindle Comic Converter (KCC), the open-source engine manga readers have trusted for years, hosted here with a live preview so there is nothing to install. Both cover options are KCC’s own.
Free, no install, cover cropped to the screen and embedded