Book Cover Size for eBooks and Paperbacks

These criteria are from Amazon KDP help for eBook cover images. They apply to the JPEG or TIFF you upload to the title.

Very light or white covers can disappear on Amazon's white detail page. KDP suggests a narrow medium-gray border (about 3–4 px) to show the edges.

1600×2560 px hits KDP's ideal size and the 1.6:1 ratio in one file. It is large enough for sharp thumbnails in search and for high-definition devices, while staying far below the 50 MB cap.

Smaller files down to 1000×625 px may upload, but title type and art lose clarity when shoppers see the cover as a small thumbnail. Test readability with the cover scaled to roughly 160 px tall.

KDP applies compression on the store. Avoid heavy JPEG compression before upload; export a clean JPG at full resolution.

A paperback cover on KDP is not a single front panel. It must be one PDF that includes the back cover, spine and front cover as one continuous image.

Bleed on print covers adds 0.125 in (3.2 mm) to the top, bottom and outside edges beyond trim so backgrounds reach the edge after trimming. KDP's cover calculator and templates generate the full width and height from your trim size, page count, paper type and ink choices.

Spine width depends on page count and paper (for example, white paper black-and-white interior: page count × 0.002252 in). KDP prints spine text only when the book has more than 79 pages; below that, leave the spine blank.

Text on the front and back must sit at least 0.125 in inside the trim lines, and spine text needs at least 0.0625 in (1.6 mm) clearance from the spine edges so it does not wrap onto the panels.

Many fiction and nonfiction paperbacks use a 6×9 in trim. PiCraft's Book Cover Maker exports a front-only image at 6.125×9.25 in including bleed on the outer, top and bottom edges (0.125 in beyond the 6×9 trim on those sides), at 300 DPI.

That file is meant to drop into KDP's or another printer's full-wrap template as the front panel. You still need to build the back cover, spine, and optionally a barcode area in the template KDP provides.

Other trim sizes (5×8, 8.5×11, and so on) require different template dimensions. Use KDP's cover calculator for your exact page count rather than resizing the 6×9 front arbitrarily.

• Uploading only a front JPEG as the entire paperback cover instead of a full-wrap PDF.
• Adding spine text on a book with fewer than 79 pages.
• Letting title text sit outside the safe area or into the spine zone on a wrap.
• Using CMYK or spot colors for an eBook upload that expects RGB JPEG.
• Long titles that cannot be read at thumbnail size in Amazon search.

Match spelling on the cover to the title metadata exactly. KDP compares cover text to the details you enter during setup.

The Book Cover Maker produces a 1600×2560 px eBook JPG and a 6×9 in front with bleed for paperbacks. It does not create the spine, back cover or barcode; assemble those in KDP's cover calculator or your designer's template.

For wide creator assets with a different aspect ratio, see YouTube thumbnail size.