Cover Art in LXD/ iTunes

[mariuscmorar]

I've decided to convert my huge flac library into apple lossless to be able to use iTunes to its full potential.

 

I use XLD. I tell it to put the converted files into the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder from where iTunes will automatically add them to iTunes library. Smooth so far but I've got one problem with Album art that, after much reading on forums I wasn't able to solve.

 

In XLD under Metadata I have setup "Automatically add tags if possible", "Embed cover art images into files", and "Load following files in the same folder as cover art" and "Don't overwrite already embedded images"

 

Here's the problem. I have albums with two or three covers, like front.bmp and back.bmp, but only one cover, usually the front cover appears in iTunes under artwork. I would like to keep all of them. Sometimes I have 20 pages of artwork and I would like too keep them all, but I've found no folder at all with any art work. And since iTunes changes the folders around with any change file info, I can't see how I could move the artwork around without making a mess.

 

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[I. G.]

I think XLD will use only one artwork (one from the file names set under "Load following files in the same folder as cover art" from the tracks' folder), embed it into the track and ignore anything else. You have to paste all the other artworks manually into the track(s). Another way is to create multipage PDFs from the artworks and import them into iTunes to accompany the albums. iTunes puts those PDFs into the albums' folders if the Artist and Album set properly.

 

[mariuscmorar]

That's not a bad idea. I've tried it and it works. The only problem is, how do I view all the images in the pdf? Because it only shows the first image?

 

[I. G.]

The PDF is not embedded into the track(s). It's imported to iTunes, the Media Kind set to Music from Book, and then Artist and Album set properly. After this it looks like another track of the album with a book icon, double click opens it in the actual PDF viewer, not in iTunes. Btw, this method has a drawback, in playlists based on play count, sample rate, etc. the PDF won't occur obviously.

 

[mariuscmorar]

Do you have any idea in what folder the pdf might be? It is not in the folder where the music files are. When I added the pdf sellected all tracks and I added it to the whole album.

 

[I. G.]

It is embedded into the tracks then, it's not in the album folder as a file. The separated method I wrote about is different.

 

[mariuscmorar]

So what is the method you mentioned?

 

 

[I. G.]

What I wrote: importing the PDF into iTunes separately, ie. drag and drop to the library, not onto the given album or track. So first it appears in the Book section.

 

[mariuscmorar]

I tried it this way. I dragged it into the library. I appeared under Books. I changed the Artist, Album, Genre and Year to match to that of the music album. the only difference under info was the name of the pdf. But still, the file did not appear in Music in album. I would be nice to have them all in one place, at least in the itunes library if not in the same folder, so that when I listen to a particular album to be able to go to the covers from that album, without having to search in books.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

 

[I. G.]

As I wrote, first you have to set the Media Kind: menu from Book to Music on the Options tab after a Command-I on the PDF.

 

[mariuscmorar]

I did that. Now it appears under the Music section but it appears as a separate album. It is not included in the album together with the songs and if I just go into the songs album, the pdf is left out. I went through all the option pages and every name is exactly similar.

 

Any idea? Did you actually got it to show up in the album together with the music files?

 

[I. G.]

Yes it shows up as the last track, as on my previous screen shot. Maybe the order of steps is relevant, I don't know. I do it exactly this way and it works everytime:

 

1. drop the pdf onto the Library

2. find it in the Book section, and set Media Kind to Music

3. find it in the Music section (Unknown Artist) and set Artist and Album properly

 

[mariuscmorar]

You're right dead on! That was it. Order matters. Thanks a lot!

 

What software do you use to put the images together in a pdf file?

 

[I. G.]

I simply use Preview. On 10.6 it can create multipage PDFs.

 

[mariuscmorar]

Thank you again for everything!