Choose by ship or tag

Use FanFicFare metadata to select a more specific cover preset

FanFicFare can check metadata before choosing a Generate Cover preset. Put specific ship or tag rules before broader fandom rules because the first matching rule wins.

The examples on this page go inside the generate_cover_settings: block in FanFicFare’s personal.ini. Open FanFicFare → Edit personal.ini and add them beneath [archiveofourown.org]. If the block already exists, add only the indented rule lines instead of creating a second block.

Choose by ship

generate_cover_settings:
    ${all_slashes} => ^Sherlock Holmes/John Watson(?:,|$) => Classics Johnlock
    ${category}    => [Ss]herlock                         => Classics Sherlock

This checks whether Johnlock is the first saved relationship. If not, FanFicFare continues to the Sherlock fandom rule.

Choose by an AO3 tag

generate_cover_settings:
    ${freeformtags} => (?i)(?:^|,\s*)podfic(?:,|$) => Classics Podfic
    ${category}     => [Ss]herlock                   => Classics Sherlock

On AO3, Additional Tags are the freeform tags chosen by the author. FanFicFare reads them into freeformtags before it chooses a cover, so this rule can select the Classics Podfic preset when one complete Additional Tag is podfic.

freeformtags is FanFicFare’s source metadata, not the calculated #genre column created later in Calibre. Replace podfic and Classics Podfic with the complete AO3 tag and preset name you want to use. The punctuation around podfic makes the rule match a whole tag, so it does not accidentally match the same letters inside a longer tag.

Limitations

This example is written for AO3. Other sites may not provide freeformtags, or may use their metadata differently. Cover-selection rules should use metadata FanFicFare has already read, rather than a calculated Calibre column such as #genre.