Post Cover

Post Cover Generation Skill (post-cover)

Use this skill whenever you need to create high-impact, professional, and SEO/E-E-A-T compliant 16:9 (1920×1080) cover images for blog posts, rankings, tier lists, or software/hardware reviews.

When to Use This Skill

• Generating original article covers that achieve high Information Gain and Google E-E-A-T ratings.
• Upgrading plain generic stock photos into editorial infographics with custom frosted-glass bottom banners (Dock Banner style).
• Creating native multilingual covers (e.g. _zh.webp, _en.webp, _ru.webp) for internationalized SEO.
• Avoiding ugly text overflows or broken layouts through algorithmic dynamic font-fitting and anti-orphan constraints.

Visual Design Standard (Dock Banner Style)

1. Resolution & Canvas: Fixed 1920×1080 (16:9), exported as high-quality WebP (quality=92).
2. Bottom Frosted Glass Dock:
   • Covers bottom 835px ~ 1080px (height 245px).
   • Uses Gaussian blur (radius=24) + deep semi-transparent midnight tint (rgba(8, 14, 28, 0.93)).
   • Top accent line (3px glowing border matching article theme).
3. Anti-Overflow Typography:
   • Main Title: Left-aligned, max width 1220px. Dynamically scales from 52px down to 36px to fit, with graceful ellipsis truncation.
   • Subtitle: 27px highlighted in theme accent color.
   • Evidence Note: 20px muted slate, documenting data sources, test benches, or methodology.
4. Interactive CTA Capsule (Right Section):
   • Fixed width 480px with 1px border and glowing status dot.
   • Contains actionable CTA text (e.g., Interactive Ranking & Guide / 全平台在线拖拽 · 免费生成排位).
   • Includes item tags and brand slogan.

Workflow & Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Analyze Article & Extract Metadata

Extract the core metadata from the target article/page:

• title: Clean, authoritative headline.
• subtitle: Key highlight or top items included.
• note: Verifiable data source, benchmark methodology, or review criteria.
• tags: Key brands, models, or subjects evaluated.
• theme: Select from emerald, sky_blue, amber_gold, crimson_red, cyber_purple, orange_esports, slate_minimal.

Step 2: Retrieve Background Image (Zero-API / Local / Free Web / API)

Acquire background photography using any of the 4 supported methods:

• Method A (Local / Offline): Pass local image path directly: python3 -m post_cover.cli generate --image my_photo.jpg ...
• Method B (Free Web Search, No API Key Required): Use built-in DuckDuckGo scraper: python3 -m post_cover.cli search-and-generate --query "..." ...
• Method C (Enterprise APIs, Optional): Set export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY="..." or export UNSPLASH_ACCESS_KEY="..." for deep curated searches.
• Method D (Offline Fallback): Automatically falls back to a procedural ambient dark gradient if offline.

python3 -m post_cover.cli search-and-generate \
  --query "flagship smartphone processor silicon chip" \
  --title "2026 Flagship Smartphone Processor Tier List" \
  --subtitle "Snapdragon 8 Elite, Dimensity 9400 & Apple A18 Pro" \
  --note "Tested on sustained 3D gaming, thermal curves & efficiency" \
  --tags "Includes: Snapdragon · Dimensity · Apple A-Series" \
  --cta "Interactive Drag & Drop Tier Maker" \
  --theme emerald \
  --lang en \
  --out "public/covers/soc_tier_list_en.webp"

Step 3: Multilingual Generation (Zero Marginal Cost)

For internationalized sites, generate distinct native covers for each locale to maximize Google Vision OCR relevance:

from post_cover import render_dock_cover

# 1. Chinese
render_dock_cover(
    src_image_path="background.webp",
    title="2026 旗舰手机处理器性能天梯榜",
    subtitle="骁龙 8 至尊版 · 天玑 9400 · 苹果 A18 Pro 综合排行",
    note="基于 3nm 全大核架构 · 游戏长时稳帧与光追极限能效实测",
    tags="收录对象：骁龙 · 天玑 · 苹果A系",
    cta_text="全平台在线拖拽 · 免费生成排位",
    theme_name="emerald",
    lang="zh",
    out_path="cover_zh.webp"
)

# 2. English
render_dock_cover(
    src_image_path="background.webp",
    title="2026 Flagship Mobile Processor Tier List",
    subtitle="Snapdragon 8 Elite, Dimensity 9400 & Apple A18 Pro Ranked",
    note="Tested on sustained 3D gaming, thermal curves & efficiency",
    tags="Includes: Snapdragon · Dimensity · Apple A-Series",
    cta_text="Interactive Drag & Drop Tier Maker",
    theme_name="emerald",
    lang="en",
    out_path="cover_en.webp"
)

Step 4: Inject Schema.org & OpenGraph Metadata

Generate ready-to-use SEO snippets:

python3 -m post_cover.cli seo \
  --url "https://yourdomain.com/covers/cover_en.webp" \
  --title "2026 Flagship Mobile Processor Tier List" \
  --description "Comprehensive benchmarks of Snapdragon 8 Elite, Dimensity 9400 and A18 Pro."