KDP Interior Template

Using the interior template

Most rejected interiors fail for one of three reasons: the page is the wrong size, text sits too close to an edge, or a picture that should reach the edge stops short and leaves a white line after trimming. The template answers all three at once, because it is built from the same numbers KDP uses.

What each line means

• Blue line (trim): where the finished page ends. With bleed, everything outside it is cut off.
• Orange band (gutter): the inside margin, next to the binding. Nothing important goes here.
• Green dashed box (text area): the largest area text can fill with KDP’s minimum margins. You can use a smaller box; never a bigger one.
• Red band (bleed): only on bleed templates. Pictures that touch the edge must stretch into it, 0.125 in past the trim.

An example

A 7 × 10 in workbook with 120 pages and full-page photos needs bleed. The template is 7.125 × 10.25 in. The gutter is 0.375 in (24–150 pages), and the top, bottom and outside margins are 0.375 in because of the bleed. That leaves a text area of 6.25 × 9.25 in. A photo that should fill the page is placed over the whole 7.125 × 10.25 in sheet, not just the trim box.

The same book without photos at the edge would use a 7 × 10 in template with 0.25 in outside margins and a text area of 6.375 × 9.5 in.

In your design app

1. Affinity Publisher or InDesign: set the document to the template’s page size with facing pages, then place the PDF on the master pages and lock it.
2. Canva: make a custom design at the template size in inches, upload the PDF and place it on top at reduced opacity while you work.
3. Word: Word can’t use a PDF as a guide, so copy the numbers from the margins calculator instead and turn on Mirror margins.

Before you export, hide or delete the template. Then upload your own PDF to KDP and pick the same trim size and bleed setting you used here. If your page count changes by more than a few pages, make a new template: the gutter steps up at 151, 301, 501 and 701 pages.