Tool
Paperback cover calculator and template
The full-wrap cover of a paperback: back, spine and front with the bleed round them. Enter the trim size, the page count and the paper, and get the exact cover size in inches, millimetres and pixels, the spine width, and a template to design on, with the trim, folds, safe areas and barcode area marked. Uses Amazon KDP’s figures; another printer’s paper can be entered too.
Not affiliated with Amazon. Check the result against your printer’s own calculator before you upload.
| Measure | Inches | mm | px at 300 dpi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full cover, width | 12.7 in | 322.6 mm | 3810 |
| Full cover, height | 9.25 in | 234.9 mm | 2775 |
| Spine width | 0.4504 in | 11.4 mm | 135 |
| Back and front cover, each | 6 in | 152.4 mm | 1800 |
| Bleed, each outside edge | 0.125 in | 3.2 mm | 38 |
Full cover 12.7 in × 9.25 in, spine 0.4504 in (2.252 thousandths of an inch a page × 200 pages). Spine text allowed.
The template is the cover’s full size, to design on in Canva, Affinity or Photoshop, not to print at home.
From page count to cover
A paperback cover is printed flat and wrapped round the book, so its width depends on the inside: more pages, wider spine. KDP measures paper by the thickness of one page — 0.002252 in for white, 0.0025 in for cream — so a 6 × 9 in book of 200 white pages has a spine of 0.4504 in and a cover of 12.700 × 9.250 in with the bleed. Change the page count by even a few pages after the cover is made and the spine moves with it, which is the commonest reason a cover is rejected; make the cover last, once the interior is final. The picture should run into the bleed on every side (what bleed is for), and a photo for the front needs about 1875 pixels across for a 6 in wide cover at 300 dpi — the image print quality check tells you whether yours has them.
Keeps these settings in the link. Useful for moving from a phone to the computer with the printer on it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out the size of a KDP paperback cover?
The cover is one sheet that wraps the book: back cover, spine and front cover side by side, with 0.125 in of bleed round the outside. Its width is the bleed, twice the trim width, the spine and the bleed again; its height is the trim height plus 0.125 in top and bottom. A 6 × 9 in book of 200 pages on white paper has a spine of 0.4504 in, so the full cover is 12.700 × 9.250 in. Enter your trim, page count and paper above and the calculator gives the exact figures in inches, millimetres and pixels at 300 dpi.
How wide is the spine?
The page count times the thickness of one page, which depends on the paper: KDP gives 0.002252 in a page for black ink on white paper and for standard colour, 0.0025 in on cream paper and 0.002347 in for premium colour. A 300-page book on cream paper has a spine of 0.750 in (19.0 mm). For another printer, choose Another printer and enter its paper's pages per inch (PPI): 444 PPI is the same as KDP's white paper.
Can I put text on the spine?
On KDP only if the book has more than 79 pages; a thinner spine is too narrow to print text on reliably. Keep spine text 0.0625 in from each fold, which the template marks with a thin grey box. Small differences in folding move the spine by about that much, so a design that needs a sharp edge exactly on the fold will often look off.
Where does the barcode go?
KDP prints its barcode on the back cover unless you supply your own: leave a white area of 2 × 1.2 in at least 0.25 in from the spine and from the trim. The template draws it at the foot of the back cover, next to the spine, where KDP places it; untick Barcode area if you print your own barcode in your design.
What do the lines on the template mean?
The grey band round the outside is the bleed: extend your background over it, because it is trimmed off. The solid line is the trim, where the book is cut. The two dashed lines are the folds either side of the spine. The thin grey boxes are the safe areas, 0.125 in inside the trim on each cover: keep titles, author names and anything important inside them. Put the template on a layer above your design and hide it before exporting.
How do I use the template in Canva, Photoshop or Affinity?
Make a design of the full cover size the calculator gives: in Canva a custom size in pixels (the 300 dpi figures) or inches, in Photoshop or Affinity a new document at that size and 300 ppi. Place the template SVG or PDF on top, line it up with the corners, lower its opacity and design under it; hide it before you export a PDF for upload. KDP asks for a single PDF with the bleed included.
Does this work for IngramSpark, Lulu or a local printer?
The layout is the same — back, spine, front, bleed — but each printer has its own paper and so its own spine width, and some ask for more bleed. Choose Another printer, enter the pages per inch from its paper list, and check its bleed: IngramSpark and Lulu publish their own cover generators, which have the last word for their books. Hardcover jackets and case-laminate covers have wraps and hinges and are not covered here.
Last updated