How to format a Kindle eBook for KDP: EPUB, Word or KPF

Most of the work is taking out what only makes sense on paper and handing the text back to the reader, who picks the font and its size. Below: the file to upload, the layout, the structure KDP reads, images, print leftovers, the cover, what file size costs, and how to test before you publish. The numbers come from KDP Help and Amazon’s Kindle Publishing Guidelines (version 2026.2, read on October 4, 2026).

Which files does KDP accept?

A Word file is the simplest route if you wrote in Word; KPF comes from Amazon’s free Kindle Create app and only works on Kindle; EPUB is the open format other eBook stores take too. MOBI is no longer accepted: since August 1, 2021 for reflowable eBooks and March 18, 2025 for fixed-layout ones.

Reflowable or fixed layout?

A novel or a non-fiction book is reflowable: the text adapts to the screen, and the reader sets the font, size and spacing. Amazon calls these text-heavy books reflowable and gives them features such as the dictionary and adjustable text. Fixed layout keeps each page as designed and is for books where words and pictures must stay together, such as picture books and comics: see fixed-layout Kindle picture books. A book is one or the other, never a mix. Coloring, puzzle and blank books are listed by KDP as unsuited to Kindle and stay in print.

How do you set up headings and the table of contents?

• Real headings. Mark chapter titles as headings (Word’s Heading styles, or h1–h2 in an EPUB), not as bold body text. Converters build the navigation from them.
• A logical table of contents (the Kindle Go To menu) is required in every Kindle book, and Kindle devices show 2 levels of nesting: chapters, and one level of sections inside them.
• An HTML table of contents, a page of links, near the beginning of the book rather than at the end, so readers paging from the start meet it and it appears in the free sample. Every entry is a link, with no page numbers. In Word, the Table of Contents feature produces one that converts correctly.

What do images need?

• 300 ppi for the size the image is shown at. A full-page image, on Amazon’s 4 × 6 in reference screen, needs at least 1,200 × 1,800 pixels.
• JPEG or PNG, in RGB. SVG images aren’t supported.
• Alt text under 140 characters on every image that carries meaning; an empty alt for decorative ones.
• Text belongs in the text, not in images, wherever it can: text inside a picture can’t be resized or read aloud.

What do you remove from a print file?

An interior made for print carries things an eBook doesn’t want:

• Page numbers in the table of contents, running heads and page-number footers: Kindle pages don’t map to print pages.
• “See page 42” references: turn them into links to the right paragraph.
• Blank pages, and lined or fill-in pages meant for a pen.
• Fixed font sizes, line heights and colors on body text. Amazon’s guidelines say body text must use the defaults, so the reader’s own settings apply; keep styling for headings and special paragraphs.
• Text alignment forced to right or center in body text.
• The print cover: the Kindle cover is a separate image, below.

If you start from a print layout, the paperback formatting guide is the other half of the job.

What size is the Kindle cover?

The Kindle cover is the front only, uploaded as its own image. KDP’s ideal size is 1,600 × 2,560 pixels (width × height, so 1.6 times taller than wide), JPEG preferred, in RGB. Light or white covers need a 3–4 pixel medium-gray border so they don’t vanish on Amazon’s white pages, and covers under 500 pixels on the short side aren’t shown. Don’t stretch the print front to the new ratio; see the Kindle cover rules.

How does file size change the royalty?

On the 70% option, KDP subtracts a delivery cost from the list price of every sale before applying the 70%: $0.15 per MB of the converted file on Amazon.com. The same novel at $4.99:

Compress images to the size they are shown at. The 70% option also needs a list price from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com; the royalty calculator compares both options for your file. KDP’s hard limits: an EPUB of at most 650 MB, fewer than 300 HTML files inside it, each under 30 MB.

How do you check the file before publishing?

Open it in Kindle Previewer, Amazon’s free app for Windows and Mac: it converts the file the way KDP does, reports errors and shows the book as phones, tablets and Kindle e-readers display it. Click every entry of the table of contents, page through each chapter opening, and look at every image. After uploading, KDP’s online previewer shows the converted book again before you publish.

How does kdpbook.io make the Kindle eBook?

• Input: a manuscript in Word (.docx or .doc), PDF, Markdown (.md) or plain text (.txt), up to 4 MB, or pasted text. Only the text is imported, not the pictures in the document, and EPUB files can’t be imported: save them as .docx first. A book can also start from a one-sentence idea.
• Output: a reflowable EPUB 3 with semantic headings, a navigation table of contents 2 levels deep and, for books with two chapters or more, an HTML table of contents after the front matter. Print-only pages (the print table of contents, blank, lined and fill-in pages) are left out, and a separate 1,600 × 2,560 pixel Kindle cover comes with it.
• Checks: every EPUB is run through EPUBCheck, the W3C’s validator, and checked against KDP’s file limits before you download it.
• Not included: kdpbook.io doesn’t export KPF or Word files; you upload its EPUB to KDP as it is. How it compares with Amazon’s own tool: kdpbook.io vs Kindle Create: an honest comparison.

The same import also builds the print interior and the full-wrap cover: a novel of 80,000 words comes to about 1,357 credits (about $14). Free-plan exports carry a kdpbook.io preview watermark and aren’t for sale; paid plans export clean files. See the KDP formatting tool.