KDP Cover Template Generator

Designing with a cover template

The most common reason KDP rejects a cover is size: it is a few hundredths of an inch too narrow because the spine was worked out for a different page count, or the background stops at the trim line instead of running into the bleed. Starting from a template at the exact size removes both problems.

What’s on the template

• Bleed (red): 0.125 in on all four outside edges. Your background must cover it; it is cut off when the book is trimmed.
• Trim line (blue): where the finished cover ends.
• Spine folds (pink): the two lines where the cover wraps around the book. The spine width between them is printed on the template.
• Safe areas (green): keep titles, names and faces inside these, 0.125 in inside the trim lines.
• Barcode area (orange): 2 × 1.2 in, lower right of the back cover, 0.25 in from the spine and bottom trim.

Step by step in Canva

1. Download the PNG. For a 6 × 9 in book with 200 white pages it is 3811 × 2775 px.
2. In Canva, choose Create a design → Custom size, set the units to px and enter the template’s size.
3. Upload the PNG, drag it onto the page and stretch it to fill it exactly. Put it on top and lower its transparency while you work.
4. Build your cover underneath. Stretch background colours and images all the way into the red bleed.
5. Delete the template layer and download as PDF Print.

In Photoshop or Affinity

Open the PDF or PNG as a new document. It will already be the right size: 12.7004 × 9.25 in for the 6 × 9 in, 200-page example. Put the template on its own locked layer at the top of the stack, design underneath it, and hide the layer before you export. If your page count changes, download a new template: 20 extra pages on white paper make the cover 0.045 in wider.