Cover art¶
Why can an album show artwork in one folder, then lose it when a track is copied elsewhere? An image beside the audio file and an image embedded in its tags are different objects. OpenTag labels its folder-image fallback so you can tell which one you are seeing.
Where the picture lives¶
| Picture location | What travels when only the audio file is copied |
|---|---|
folder.jpg beside the tracks |
The image stays behind unless it is copied separately. |
| Embedded picture in each track's tags | Each copied track carries its own saved picture, where its format supports artwork. |
| Pending or staged picture in an editor | A visible preview alone does not establish that the audio file has been written. |
A shared folder image avoids storing a copy in every track. Embedding makes each file self-contained. Those are storage choices, not guarantees about what a particular player displays. Some players prefer a folder image; others choose an embedded role, the first image, or cached artwork.
OpenTag can show Folder image / Not embedded in the file when the
eligible local selection has no embedded or pending artwork. This fallback
is a display convenience. Adding an embedded image does not delete the
external source. Removing embedded images does not remove folder.jpg.
The exact selection and option rules are in Working with covers.
An embedded cover has more than pixels¶
A cover consists of image bytes, a picture type, a description and a position in the file's ordered cover list. Front Cover, Back Cover and Leaflet are roles. Assigning a role does not crop, rotate or rename the image. The description is separate text; it is not a filesystem path.
These selection examples use the same front image A and a different back image B. A label includes image, role and description; list order matters.
| Label | Image identity | Picture type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
front |
image-A |
Front Cover | Album front |
front-other-description |
image-A |
Front Cover | Alternate note |
same-image-back-role |
image-A |
Back Cover | Album front |
back |
image-B |
Back Cover | Track list |
| First file's ordered covers | Second file's ordered covers | Shared cover-window result |
|---|---|---|
front |
front |
Same |
front |
front-other-description |
Covers vary |
front |
same-image-back-role |
Covers vary |
front,back |
back,front |
Covers vary |
front |
None | Covers vary |
| None | None | No embedded artwork |
Covers vary therefore does not necessarily mean that every image looks different. Inspect individual files or open Manage covers…. Its full circle marks an image present in every selected file; the partial circle marks one present in a subset. Keeping a partial entry normally preserves its membership. Apply to all deliberately adds it to other selected files. A newly added image is planned for the whole initial selection.
Not every format preserves these properties equally. MP4 artwork does not retain the same role distinctions as ID3v2; OpenTag reads its pictures as Other. ID3v1 cannot hold pictures. Read the file format capabilities before relying on a role or description surviving a conversion.
Dimensions, bytes and encoding are different¶
A 1200 × 1200 image describes pixel dimensions, not its file size. Two images with those dimensions can have very different byte sizes and compression artifacts. Embedding a large image into eight tracks stores a separate copy in each; keeping an external high-resolution original can make later revisions easier.
JPEG compression trades image detail for size and does not retain a PNG's alpha transparency. PNG can preserve transparency but may be larger for photographic artwork. The best choice depends on the source and receiving software; no single pixel limit is guaranteed for every player.
Changing .jpg to .png in a filename does not convert the bytes. Use
Adjust… or an Adjust Cover action for actual
resize/conversion. A preview's Correct aspect ratio changes how it is
shown, not the embedded pixels. Upscaling cannot restore detail missing from
a small original. Settings that already match can leave image bytes unchanged;
JPEG quality alone does not force OpenTag's adjustment path to recompress an
otherwise unchanged image.
What this means in OpenTag¶
Start with a copy and decide whether the task is display, embedding, extraction, reordering or image conversion. Manage covers… stages a list plan and writes it on OK; direct cover-window mutation commands write through their own operation. External extraction creates a separate file, which tag undo does not generally remove. Inspect operation errors and each saved track rather than assuming an entire selection changed together.
For a recorded cover edit, inspect Edit → Undo and its label. Keep the original images and audio files: a session history is not a permanent image archive. The detailed guide explains clipboard/platform limits and the separate handling of pending pasted artwork.