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Covers API.md

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Covers API

Documentation on the OpenLibrary covers API (Note the warnings about rate limiting and bulk downloads)

The Covers API serves to get book covers and author photos.

For more usage examples of this API, see MiscellaneousExamples.

Book Covers

To get a book cover by its ID, use the OpenLibraryClient

OpenLibraryClient client = new OpenLibraryClient();
string key = ..., value = ..., size = ...;

byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync(key, value, size);

// Examples
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("olid", "OL7440033M", "S");
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("isbn", "0385472579", "M");
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("librarything", "192819", "L");

or the static OLImageLoader class:

HttpClient httpClient = OpenLibraryUtility.GetClient();
byte[] cover = await OLImageLoader.GetCoverAsync(httpClient, key, value, size);

// Examples
byte[] cover = await OLImageLoader.GetCoverAsync(httpClient, "olid", "OL7440033M", "S");
byte[] cover = await OLImageLoader.GetCoverAsync(httpClient, "isbn", "0385472579", "M");
byte[] cover = await OLImageLoader.GetCoverAsync(httpClient, "librarything", "192819", "L");

According to the OpenLibrary API documentation:

key can be any one of ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, OLID and ID (case-insensitive)

value is the value of the chosen key

size can be one of S, M and L for small, medium and large respectively.

If you want to, you can also prepare a full ID string yourself:

byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync(id);

// Examples
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("olid/OL7440033M-S");
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("isbn/0385472579-M");
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetCoverAsync("librarything/192819-L");

The URL pattern to access book covers is: https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/$key/$value-$size.jpg

Author Photos

The process of getting an author photo by ID is entirely analogous (with the exception that the key may only be either OLID or ID):

string key = ..., value = ..., size = ...;
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetAuthorPhotoAsync(key, value, size);

// Examples
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetAuthorPhotoAsync("olid", "OL229501A", "S");

or

byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetAuthorPhotoAsync(id);

// Examples
byte[] cover = await client.Image.GetAuthorPhotoAsync("olid/OL229501A-S");

The URL Pattern for accessing author photos is: https://covers.openlibrary.org/a/$key/$value-$size.jpg