The numbers
| Paperback | Hardcover (case laminate) | |
|---|---|---|
| Outer edge | 0.125 in bleed, trimmed off | 15 mm wrap, folded around the boards |
| Back and front panels | trim size | board: trim + 5 mm wide, + 6 mm tall |
| Spine | pages × paper factor | pages × paper factor + 4.8 mm |
| Keep text out of | 0.125 in inside the trim; 0.0625 in from each spine edge | the 10 mm hinge on each side of the spine |
| Barcode area | 2 × 1.2 in, back cover, lower right | 2 × 1.2 in, back cover, clear of the hinge |
| 6 × 9 in, 200 pages, white paper | 12.7 × 9.25 in | 14.214 × 10.417 in |
Hardcover board and spine allowances as used by KDP's cover calculator.
Back, spine, front
For a book read left to right, the back cover is on the left of the file, the spine in the middle and the front cover on the right. The barcode goes on the back cover, next to the spine. Background art that crosses the spine should run continuously across all three panels.
Upload it as one single-page PDF of up to 650 MB (40 MB or less recommended), with images at 300 DPI and no template guides or crop marks.
Why it can't be finished first
The spine width comes from the final page count and paper, and the cover width depends on the spine. A cover built from a draft page count ends up the wrong width. The Kindle eBook doesn't use this file at all: it needs a front-only image (see Kindle cover).
Example: 6 × 9 in, 200 pages, white paper
Paperback: 0.125 + 6 + 0.45 + 6 + 0.125 = 12.7 in wide, and 9 + 0.25 = 9.25 in tall. At 300 DPI the artwork is 3,811 × 2,775 pixels.
Hardcover edition of the same book: 14.214 × 10.417 in, with a 0.639 in spine, because of the wrap, the larger boards and the wider hardcover spine.
Common mistakes
- Uploading only the front cover for a print book.
- Using the spine width of a draft page count.
- Uploading two files or a two-page spread instead of one single-page PDF.
- Leaving the template's guide layer or crop marks visible in the export.
- Reusing the paperback cover file for the hardcover.
In kdpbook: kdpbook builds the full-wrap paperback or hardcover cover PDF sized from the final page count.