bookcover-node

Generate print-ready book covers. Part of the bookcover generation system.

npm install bookcover-node

This is a Node.js wrapper for the book cover generator. Writes files to a temp directory, spawns the typst CLI binary, and reads back the compiled output.

Requires typst on $PATH.

See the schema reference which is passed as an argument and is what actually configures the cover design.

import {generate} from 'bookcover-node'

generate(options): Promise<GenerateResult>

interface GenerateOptions {
    schema: unknown              // raw schema (see above)
    input_path: string           // directory to search for background image
    output_path: string          // where to write the output file
    format?: 'pdf'|'svg'|'png'  // default: 'pdf'
    ppi?: number                 // PNG resolution, default: 144
    split?: boolean              // also write front/back/spine panel files
    assets_dir?: string          // root of the assets tree (see "Assets" below)
    fonts_dir?: string           // fonts tree if kept elsewhere, default: <assets_dir>/fonts
    typst_path?: string          // typst CLI binary, default: 'typst' from $PATH
    custom_fonts?: CustomFont[]  // user-uploaded font families (from typst-fonts)
}

interface GenerateResult {
    output_path: string
    split_paths?: {front: string, back: string, spine?: string}
}

Assets

The Typst templates are bundled inside bookcover-core itself (tied to the exact installed version — no setup needed). Generating still requires a local fonts collection, which does not ship inside the npm packages. Set it up once and pass its path as assets_dir (or fonts_dir directly):

# Fonts — download the curated families + Noto fallbacks named by the repo's font config
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gracious-tech/bookcover/main/font_config.json
npx typst-fonts-download --fonts assets/fonts --config font_config.json

That produces the expected layout:

assets/
    fonts/      manifest.json, <family>/, _noto/<family>/

Inside the bookcover repo itself assets_dir can be omitted — it defaults to the repo's own assets/ dir.

Example

import {generate} from 'bookcover-node'

await generate({
    schema: {
        title1: 'My Book',
        author: 'Jane Doe',
        page_count: 200,
        printer: {service: 'kdp', binding_type: 'paperback', ink_type: 'bw', paper_type: 'white'},
        size_id: 'us_trade',
    },
    input_path: '.',
    output_path: './cover.pdf',
    assets_dir: './assets',
})