Working with covers¶
Embedded covers travel inside an audio file's metadata. A folder image such
as folder.jpg is a separate file that a player or OpenTag can display.
Use the cover window to inspect embedded images, and Manage covers… to
review a selection's cover set before writing a batch change.
Start with copied practice files. Cover operations have their own write steps; they are not all ordinary pending text-tag edits.
Identify what the window shows¶
The tag panel and Extended tags dialog share the cover window. It reports the current picture role, available dimensions, image size/type, description and position within a common cover set. Previous/next controls appear when there are several shared images.
| Display | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A shared embedded image | All selected files have the same ordered cover identities; the current image can be inspected individually. |
| Covers vary | The selected files have different cover sets, including files with no artwork. The app does not present the first file's cover as common to all. |
| Folder image / Not embedded in the file | A local image is being shown as a fallback; it is not inside the selected audio files. |
| No artwork | No embedded cover is available for the selection and no applicable folder fallback is shown. |
| Loading/unavailable/error message | Artwork has not been obtained successfully; do not interpret this as a confirmed empty cover set. |
Image bytes, picture role, description and cover order all participate in a shared cover set. Two visually identical files with different descriptions can produce Covers vary. Select one file at a time to investigate.
Add a front cover to two practice files¶
- Save pending changes and select only the two copied audio files.
- Choose Edit → Manage covers… (Cmd+Alt+M on macOS; Ctrl+Alt+M on Windows/Linux).
- Choose Add… and select an image file. The list gains a new cover, initially Front Cover, to be embedded in every selected file.
- Inspect its dimensions, image type, picture type and description. Review the whole list so an unintended old cover is not left first.
- Choose OK to write the planned cover set. Inspect any file errors.
- Select each practice file separately and verify its saved artwork.
The shortcut respects text-entry/AltGr combinations on Windows; use the menu if the key combination types a character in the current input. The picker lists supported image files such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and WebP. Its starting folder follows the configured cover-art directory and fallback order explained in the cover context reference.
Adding an image does not convert the audio format. Some tag formats cannot store embedded artwork or preserve every picture-role distinction; see file format capabilities.
Understand the Manage covers list¶
The dialog combines the selection's distinct covers into one editable list. A full circle ● means a cover is present in every selected file. A partly filled circle ◐ identifies a cover present in only some files, with its file count shown. These indicators describe membership, not image quality or whether the cover is the front image.
For example, suppose a front cover is embedded in one of two selected files:
| State | Presence label |
|---|---|
original |
In 1 of 2 files |
apply-to-all |
In all 2 files |
Select that partial cover and choose Apply to all from its right-click menu, or enable Embed in all selected files. The plan now adds it to the other selected file too. This is an intentional redistribution of artwork; merely selecting the partial cover does not add it anywhere.
An existing partial cover normally stays only in the files that had it. Replacing or adjusting that cover preserves its membership unless applying it to all is also chosen. A newly added cover targets all files selected when the dialog opened; choose the initial audio selection accordingly.
Select and reorder covers¶
Click a cover to select it. Command/Ctrl-click toggles individual covers, and Shift-click selects a range. With the cover list focused, use arrow keys, Home/End, Shift for a range, Space to toggle the focused cover, and Command/Ctrl+A to select every cover in that dialog.
Use Move up / Move down, Alt+Up / Alt+Down, or drag selected covers
to reorder them. A selected block retains its relative order. Moving an
item at a boundary cannot move it beyond the list. For three cover labels
Front, Leaflet, Back, selecting Leaflet and moving it up gives
Leaflet, Front, Back.
The resulting first cover is often what a player initially displays, but the receiving player can use its own role/order rules. Reordering does not change a cover's picture type. For an existing partial cover, order changes affect the files in which it will actually be embedded, not files that lack it and are not part of an Apply-to-all plan.
Change images, types and descriptions¶
| Control | What is planned |
|---|---|
| Replace… | Replace one selected cover's image, retaining its role, description and position. |
| Adjust… | Resize/convert the selected covers through the cover-adjustment settings, staging the results for the dialog's later OK. |
| Remove | Remove the selected cover entries from the planned set. Delete/Backspace in the focused cover list performs this list action. |
| Cover type | Assign a picture role to all selected covers. A mixed keep indication preserves current types until a real choice is made. |
| Description | Set one description on selected covers; empty text clears it. |
| Extract… | Save one unchanged original embedded image to an external file. New/replaced staged images are not available through this original-image extraction path. |
For precise scaling policies and image encoding, see Adjust Cover. A status saying the selected covers already match those settings means no image replacement was needed. The available role names and their format limits are listed in the cover menu reference.
A new cover starts as Front Cover. If a cover already uses that type with an empty description, a new cover can receive the selected image filename as its description to keep the entries distinguishable. Inspect those descriptions before saving when a consuming player relies on them.
Confirm or leave the dialog¶
Changing the Manage covers list creates a plan. OK writes changed plans to the selected audio files. Closing without OK drops those unconfirmed cover-list edits. A failed write shows the actual file errors; check which files were changed rather than assuming a multi-file operation is atomic.
Extraction is different: an image already written to an external destination remains there when the dialog is closed. Tag-edit undo is not a general cleanup operation for external files. For an applied recorded cover change, inspect Edit → Undo and its operation label.
Use direct cover commands deliberately¶
The cover window's ⋯ or right-click menu has Add, Remove, Replace, Extract, Adjust, Manage, type/description and clipboard commands. Direct cover mutations write through their own operation immediately. They do not wait for the Extended tags dialog's Keep changes button.
For an equal cover set, Remove cover acts on the current displayed occurrence. For Covers vary, it asks before removing all covers from the selected files. Replace, Extract, Copy and Cut require a common displayed image; use Manage covers for a mixed set.
Copy/Cut use the image clipboard, and Paste embeds a supplied image. This is separate from copying tag fields or all tags. Save tags first if the displayed artwork is pasted but not yet written: Copy, Cut and Extract require its saved form. Platform image-clipboard support can make commands unavailable.
Drag, drop and inspect larger¶
- Drop supported image files onto the cover area to add embedded artwork. When Extended tags is open, its cover area is the target. A file dropped elsewhere can load files instead, so aim at the image area.
- Where native desktop image drag-out is available, drag the displayed embedded image into a file manager to copy it externally. Use Extract cover… when drag-out is unavailable or an explicit destination is needed.
- Double-click the displayed embedded image, press Enter while its window is focused, or choose View larger…. Previous/next changes the displayed cover, not the stored cover order. Close the viewer to return.
- Correct aspect ratio changes how the image fits the preview/viewer. Stretching a display is not resizing or re-encoding the embedded image.
Folder-image fallback¶
When none of the selected files has embedded or pending artwork, OpenTag can show a local image if every selected local file is in the active file's folder. Options → Tags → Don’t display first image from file directory as cover art disables this fallback. Provider documents without a browsable local folder use a different access path and do not gain folder browsing through this setting.
The fallback is labeled Not embedded in the file. It does not mean a failed embed was repaired, and removing embedded art does not delete the external image. Add/embed the image explicitly when it should travel with the audio files.
Gotchas¶
- Choose the audio selection before opening a batch cover dialog. Its presence counts and write targets refer to that selection.
- A partial cover and an all-files cover are different plans; check the circle indicator and Embed in all selected files before applying.
- Changing a file suffix from
.jpgto.pngdoes not convert image bytes. Use a real cover-adjustment operation when a different encoding is needed. - Confirm saved results and format limits in the receiving player. A common cover preview does not prove every tag format will retain its description or role after saving.