Provided by: disc-cover_1.5.6-1_all 
NAME
Disc-Cover - create front and back covers for audio CDs
SYNOPSIS
disc-cover [-2|second filename] [-b|flaptext text] [-a|additional text] -allmusic
[-c|-casetype (jewel|slim|x-slim|tevion-slim|letter-slim)] [-C|Configuration filename]
[-D|Device device] [-e|extended] [-f|file filename] [-h|help] [-H|Help] [-n|new]
[-o|output filename] [-p filename|-pic filename] [-R|Remove] [-S|Server]
[-t|type txt|dvi|tex|ps|pdf|cddb|lbl|html] [-u|uppercase] [-v|version] [-V|Verbose]
[-va|-variousartists] -template_list
DESCRIPTION
Disc-Cover creates front and back covers for audio CDs. The CD has to be present in the
CD-ROM drive, or alternatively a valid CDDB file can be used. Disc-Cover searches the
CDDB database for an entry corresponding to the CD's CDDB ID. It starts by looking for a
local CDDB entry in ~/.cddb (or another directory pointed to by your cddb installation).
If no local CDDB entry matches the CD, disc-cover continues to search the online CDDB
databases or CDINDEX databases as configured in the AudioCD library. It then formats the
entry to produce a Latex, Dvi, Postscript or PDF file, which contains the front and back
covers on a single page. Other formats supported include a simple text output, a CDDB
compatible format, HTML and an output format that can be used with cdlabelgen
(http://www.red-bean.com/~bwf/software/cdlabelgen/), another cover builder.
QUICKSTART
The easiest way of using Disc-Cover is to put an audio cd in your cdrom drive and then run
disc-cover without options. Disc-Cover will tell you what it does and if it is able to
create a set of covers it tells you the name of the file it creates. Normally this is a
PostScript file that is ready for printing.
LAYOUT
The front cover shows artist, album title and when available extended disc info.
Optionally a picture can be added to the front cover. The back cover holds the title and
artist in the same fashion. In addition to those, the back cover lists the individual
tracks, preceded by a track number and followed by their running time. The total running
time of the CD is given at the bottom of the back cover. The sides of the back cover
contain the artist and CD title. Another flap hangs on the side of the right of the back
cover. When using fully transparent jewel cases this flap is visible from the front. By
default it holds the user's full name. Colour is also supported.
FEATURES
- Uses Latex to produce high quality output.
- Outputs in Latex, Dvi, Postscript, Pdf, Cddb entry, HTML, Text and a format to use with
cdlabelgen.
- Supports caching of cddb entries in a directory that can be shared with other cddb-aware
programs.
- Connects with a cddb or cdindex server to get the disc title, artist and list of track
titles and extended information where available.
- Optionally put a picture on the front cover, supports almost any image format.
- Optionally let Disc-Cover search on allmusic.com for a small version of the
corresponding front cover of the cd, which it will put on your front cover.
- Assign different colours to different items such as artist name and track numbers.
- Supports double albums (two cds in one jewel case).
- Creates covers for jewel cases and various slim cases.
OPTIONS
-2, -second filename
When using this option disc-cover goes into double album mode, meaning it will print
the front cover using the first cddb entry, either reading the cd in the drive or by
using a file as described in "-f, -file filename" option. Then it prints the back
cover with two halves, the upper half consists the title/artist and then the tracks of
the first cd, the lower half contains the tracks of the second cd.
-a, -additional text
Add text to the bottom of the front cover. Default is to put extended disc information
here. You can use this to cancel the extended disc information by doing '-a " "'.
-allmusic
Search on wwww.allmusic.com for the front cover of the album. This picture will be put
on the front cover, just like with -p and -pic. These last options override this flag.
This way you can enable -allmusic by default in the config file and override it
whenever you need to.
-b, -flaptext text
Add text to the additional flap at the side of the back cover. This flap is visible
when used with a fully transparent jewel case. These are becoming more common
everyday. By default text from the password entry is used. We take the string from the
comments field up until the first comma. Most times this should be the user's full
name. Cancel this text by using the configuration file or with '-b " "'.
-c, -casetype (jewel|slim|x-slim|tevion-slim|letter-slim)
These options correspond with files in one of the @config_template_dirs which are
templates that describe case types. You can also copy one of these files to your
current directory, change it and let disc-cover use your own template. The cases
described next are delivered together with Disc-Cover. Setting this to slim will have
Disc-Cover output covers in a format suitable for slim cases. These are thinner cases
often used for single cds or EPs. Use x-slim if you want the side and flap exchanged.
Even more slim are the cases provided by Tevion (use: tevion-slim). For people using
letter format that have trouble with not getting the whole case fitted on paper,
please use letter-slim.
-C, -Configuration filename
Output configuration to a file. The current flags and options set in existing
configuration files or given on the commandline are used to set the values. To see
the current settings do ;disc-cover -C -'. For example, you can change the default
output format to pdf as follows:
disc-cover -t pdf -C ~/.disc-coverrc
-D, -Device device
Specify the CD-ROM device. Default is to use /dev/cdrom
-e, -extended
This flag enables extended track information, when available. This extended
information will be added below the track names. It is mostly used in compilation cds
for artist information. Sometimes this extended track information has been used for
lyrics, needles to say this will not fit at the back of one cd cover and hence to
prevent the destruction of the layout only the first line will be used. That is why
this is an option instead of default behaviour.
-f, -file filename
Use filename as input instead of searching the local and online CDDB database. File
should be a valid CDDB entry.
-g, -genre
Include the genre of the disc as the last line of the bottom text on the front cover.
The line looks like this: "genre: genre". Default is off, as often the wrong genre is
used or even just misc or data has been chosen.
-h, -help
Print help message and exit.
-H, -Help
Show the manual page using pod2text, this should be installed and working (you can
check this by typing 'pod2text /path/to/disc-cover')
-n, -new
Creates a new cddb entry. This works with any format, but should be used in
conjunction with '-t cddb' to create a template for you to fill in. See the
"FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" to create covers for your custom cds or for cds that are
not in the CDDB database yet.
-o, -output filename
The -o switch allows to specify the name of the output file. By default the filename
will be Artist_Title.xxx, where xxx is txt, tex, dvi, ps, pdf or html, depending on
the file format. See -t option for supported file formats. Using "-o -" will send the
output to standard output.
-p filename
Includes the picture filename on the front cover in a framed box right aligned with
the artist name. The format of the picture has to be known to the program convert that
comes with ImageMagick. Also the graphicx package for LaTeX has to be available. The
picture is scaled to 200x200 and converted into Adobe Encapsulated PostScript
Interchange format. Remember that output in tex, dvi, txt, html and labelgen are
completely useless with pictures. In case of output in pdf the picture is transformed
into Encapsulated Portable Document Format (EPDF).
-pic filename
Include a graphics file on the front cover without converting it. This only works when
the format of the file is the same as the output format. In case of PostScript (PS)
output you can use Encapsulated PostScript (EPS,EPSI) files. In case of Portable
Document Format (PDF) you can use Encapsulated Portable Document Format (EPDF). Note
that this is essentially the same option as in "-p filename" but no scaling or
converting is performed. More responsibility goes to the user this way.
-R, -Remove
By default disc-cover deletes all temporary files it creates before it exits. This
behaviour can be overwritten by specifying the this option. For debugging purposes
only.
-S, -Server
Create a default configuration for the selection of CDDB server. This configuration is
used by other CDDB aware programs too, so be careful. Note that Disc-Cover will not
overwrite the configuration file.
-t, -type txt|tex|dvi|ps|pdf|cddb|lbl|html
The -t switch allows to specify the output format. By default disc-cover will create a
Postscript file. Other formats supported include ASCII text (txt), LaTeX (tex), DVI
(dvi), PDF (pdf), cddb database format (cddb), a cdlabelgen compatible format (lbl)
and in Hypertext Markup Language (html).
-u, -uppercase
Fixes those annoying entries that are written without capitals. It capitalises every
single word in titles and artists.
-v, -version
Print version and program information and exit.
-V, -Verbose
Enable verbose output of Disc-Cover, the libaudiocd library and all third party
software, such as LaTeX, dvips and convert. For debugging purposes.
-va, -variousartists
Some CDDB entries code every track in the 'artist / title' format. Mostly, this is
used for artists that contain various artists. By enabling this option Disc-Cover will
decode and use that information.
-template_list
Prints a list of output template types and their descriptions.
CONFIGURATION
Disc-cover first checks the file /etc/disc-cover.conf for system wide parameters and then
looks at ~/.disc-coverrc. Following are all the different variables that can be set. The
file ~/.cdserverrc is used indirectly through the AudioCD library. This file contains the
CDDB and CDINDEX servers. Furthermore it can be used to control certain other options of
this library. See the appropriate documentation.
You can generate a configuration file with the "-C, -Configuration filename" option. Keep
in mind that the values in this file will be set by looking at the current settings. That
is, any existing configuration files or options on the commandline will be used.
To make a clean configuration file, first remove the ~/.disc-coverrc file and then run
Disc-Cover without any option but '-C': disc-cover -C ~/.disc-coverrc
$config_version_config
This will be used in the future by new versions of Disc-Cover to check for
inconsistencies in changed, removed or added configuration options.
Default: '1.4.0';
$config_tmp_dir
This sets the directory that is used for temporary files.
Default: '/tmp';
$config_output_format
This is the default output format. Although you can choose any of the types listed in
'disc-cover -h' option the most common would be 'ps' or 'pdf'.
Default: 'ps';
$config_device
The default cdrom drive that is used to scan a cd. See "-D, -Device device"
Default: '/dev/cdrom';
$config_cddb_cache_directory
The path where cddb entries are stored in and retrieved from. This can be shared with
other programs that also use cddb.
Default: "$ENV{HOME}/.cddb";
$flag_with_extended_track_info
Setting this to one will force disc-cover to include extended track information. See
"-e, -extended" option. It is advised to keep this 0 as there are lots of entries that
contain ugly and meaningless extended information. Most of the time it is only useful
in case of various artists cds.
Default: 0;
$flag_various_artist_cd
Setting this to one will force disc-cover to parse every track the same way it parses
the 'artist / title' label. This might be useful for various artist cds where every
track is formatted in the same way. It is adviced to leave this option 0, as disc-
cover will issue a warning whenever it encounters such a disc. You can easily turn it
on with "-va, -variousartists"
Default: 0;
$flag_double_disc_cdtitle
Setting this flag during the processing of a double cd (using the "-2, -second"
option) enables a 'smart' algorithm that attempts to find a nice title for the cd,
using the titles of both cddb entries. It will remove all characters unequal in both
strings, and gets rid of any characters surrounding uncommon parts. Last, it removes
the words 'disc' and 'disk', plus any whitespace at the beginning or end., -second>>
option) enables a 'smart' algorithm that attempts to find a nice title for the cd,
using the titles of both cddb entries. It will remove all characters unequal in both
strings, and gets rid of any characters surrounding uncommon parts. Last, it removes
the words 'disc' and 'disk', plus any whitespace at the beginning or end.
Default: 1;
$flag_genre
By setting this an additional line will be added to the bottom of the bottom text on
the front cover with the genre (taken from the database) of the disc. See -g, -genre
option.
Default: 0;
$flag_picture_use_allmusic
Setting this flag does the same as the -allmusic option. That is, Disc-Cover will
search for a cover picture on allmusic to be put on the front cover.
Default: 0;
$flag_uppercase_fix
Setting this flag does the same as the -u,-uppercase option. That is, Disc-Cover will
capitalise every single word in titles and artists.
Default: 0;
%config_latex_colors
This is a list of colours that can be set to alter most of the different items that
appear on the covers. You can change the colour of the title, artist, discinfo, track
strings, track numbers and track times independently. Use colours from the color.sty
Latex file: black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow.
Default: ( title => 'black',
artist => 'black',
discinfo => 'black',
track_number => 'black',
track_string => 'black',
track_time => 'black',
track_extended => 'black'
track_artist => 'black'
flaptext => 'black',
);
$config_flaptext
This takes the string from the comments field of the user's password entry. We use
only the text up until the first comma, which normally is set to the user's full name.
You can also put a simple string here or an empty one to cancel the output. See also
"-b, -flaptext text" option.
Default: split ',', (getpwuid($<)))[6];
$config_casetype
This determines for which type of case output is generated. It searches for a template
file in all the @config_template_dirs with the same name.
Default: "jewel";
$latex_user_packages
If you create a template that requires special LaTeX packages, they can be added here.
Generally not advised if you want to share your templates with others as they need to
own those LaTeX packages, and add them to Disc-Cover's configuration file.
Default: "";
$latex_language_encoding
Whenever you create cds with languages not normally supported by LaTeX you should add
or change this. It calls \usepackage[$latex_language_encoding]{inputenc}. Main
encodings are, latin1 for ISO Latin-1, ascii for pure ASCII, ansinew and cp1252 (they
are synonyms) for Windows 3.1 ANSI (an MS extension of ISO Latin-1) and applemac for
Apple MacIntosh.
Default: "latin1";
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here you might find an answer between the FAQs.
Q: I get the following error (or similar), what's wrong?
"Can't locate HTTP/Request.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.00502/i586-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.00502
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i586-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005 .)
at ./disc-cover line 811.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./disc-cover line 811."
A: Install the Perl modules called libwww-perl, HTML-Parser, URI, and MIME-Base64, which
can be found at www.cpan.org or at the 'more stuff...' directory on the homepage of Disc-
Cover. See the file INSTALL for more details.
Q: I get the following error with the option -V, what's wrong?
"Disc-Cover: running verbose version x.x.x (config y.y.y)
Disc-Cover: creating tmp dir (/tmp/disc-cover-4436)
Disc-Cover: calling Audio-CD library...
Trying CDDB server cddbp://:0/
Connection error: No such file or directory
Could not establish connection with any CDDB servers!
Disc-Cover: ...back from call to Audio-CD library.
Disc-Cover: Audio-CD library says success, let's continue"
A: You have no CDDB servers configured. Either use the wonderful program cdcd to create
such a configuration or run disc-cover with the options -S.
Q: How do I make a cover for homemade cds?
A: Follow these steps.
1. Insert the homemade cd.
2. Run disc-cover like this:
disc-cover -n -t cddb -o myfile.cddb
3. Edit the myfile.cddb with some text editor, the tracks will all be named
"Untitled". This should be very easy.
4. For printable output run disc-cover again:
disc-cover -f myfile.cddb
Q: I have been using 1.0.1. under SuSE 7.3 for a while an want to upgrade to 1.3.X or higher
However, Audio-CD does not compile.
A: You have to install lbcdaudio first. Your distribution does not contain it, or it does
not install it with the standard setup.
Q: After installation all my CD's are reread from the internet.
A: Run the following commands (from a script, if you like)
cd ~/.cddb
ln -s . blues
ln -s . classical
ln -s . country
ln -s . data
ln -s . folk
ln -s . jazz
ln -s . newage
ln -s . reggae
ln -s . rock
ln -s . soundtrack
ln -s . misc
Q: Q3. Mike Oliphant's grip creates cddb-files with track-artist held in a special field
called TARTIST0, TARTIST1, ... Why can't disc-cover print these lables appropriately by
the "-va" option?
A: Unfortunately Mike's idea to invent new tags for the track artist violates the freedb-
conventions for handling samplers. There will be no support for this.
Q: How to cut the covers?
A: This is my routine for jewel cases, just one way of doing it. I start with the front
cover. I cut it with two cuts along the width of the paper. This results in a front cover
with two pieces of paper along the sides. These are folded backwards to help the cover
keep in place when it is inserted in the jewel case. The back cover is just cut with four
cuts.
Q: When I print my cover from PDF in Acrobat Reader the resulting covers are too small. How
come?
A: Hendrik Neumann <h-n@gmx.net>: The problem is the option 'Fit to page' that makes
Acrobat Reader scale the page before printing. Turn it off before attempting to print.
Q: I'm not root and I want to install Audio::CD
A: Adam Spiers <adam@spiers.net>: make sure that the correct parameters are given to the
perl Makefile.PL file as follows:
perl Makefile.PL LIBS="-L/nfs-home/adams/local/lib -lcdaudio" \
INC=-I/nfs-home/adams/software/libcdaudio-0.99.6/source PREFIX=~
Q: How do I make covers for double cds?
A: Follow these steps:
1. insert the second disc
2. Run disc-cover:
disc-cover -t cddb -o disc2.cddb
3. replace the second disc with the first
4. Run disc-cover again:
disc-cover -2 disc2.cddb
Q: The quality of the picture is reduced!
A: The image is resized to 200x200 pixels, this is to make sure that the size of the
resulting eps or pdf picture is not too large. You can work around this by converting your
picture yourself, for example with jpeg2ps, and then including this in your cover using
the '-pic' option. This options includes files as they are.
Q: I want Disc-Cover to have this specific feature, what now?
A: Send me an e-mail with your feature or better yet, implement it yourself and send me a
patch file. This does not guarantee that your feature will be in any future version
though. I would like to keep Disc-Cover as simple to use as possible. But, sometimes I
can't resist to put in something new, or the number of e-mails on one feature grows large
enough for me to add it to Disc-Cover.
Q: I run Disc-Cover and it does not produce a correct cover, what's wrong?
A: I don't know! If you e-mail the problem I can try to fix it. When you mail some error
please remember to state the problem as exact as you can and to include the cddb entry
(save it with 'disc-cover -t cddb'). Also, two debug options are included. Use "-V,
-Verbose" to get verbose output of what the program is doing. This helps me locate the
problem if you email me your problem. Use "-R, -Remove" to prevent disc-cover from
deleting temporary files. This enables you to examine intermediate files (.tex, .div,
pictures).
FILES
/etc/disc-cover.conf
System wide configuration file (for its format see "CONFIGURATION")). All its items
can be overridden in a user configuration file.
$HOME/.disc-coverrc
User configuration file (for its format see "CONFIGURATION").
$HOME/.cdserverrc
Configuration of the AudioCD library. Use this to select which servers are to be used.
BUGS
1. Whenever there is more than one file in the cddb cache directory disc-cover will issue
a warning and just use the first one it found.
2. Not possible to use CDINDEX files as input.
3. The layout of the tracks can be slightly deformed when special international
characters or any other tall characters appear in the title.
AUTHORS
disc-cover is written and maintained by J.I. van Hemert <jvhemert@cwi.nl> You can find the
latest version on http://www.cwi.nl/~jvhemert/disc-cover.html The program is licensed
under the GNU Public License. More information about this license is in the source package
in the file COPYING or on http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html