KDP COVER TEMPLATE
Templates are wrong
the moment your page count changes.
A template is just a wrap with the spine baked in. Here is the spec for every trim, and a generator that recalculates instead of handing you someone else's spine.
| Trim | Front panel | Bleed | Safe area | Spine at 300 pp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 × 8 | 5 × 8 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 5.25 × 8 | 5.25 × 8 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 5.5 × 8.5 | 5.5 × 8.5 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 6 × 9 | 6 × 9 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 6.14 × 9.21 | 6.14 × 9.21 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 6.69 × 9.61 | 6.69 × 9.61 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 7 × 10 | 7 × 10 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 7.44 × 9.69 | 7.44 × 9.69 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 7.5 × 9.25 | 7.5 × 9.25 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 8 × 10 | 8 × 10 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 8.5 × 8.5 | 8.5 × 8.5 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 8.25 × 6 | 8.25 × 6 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 8.25 × 8.25 | 8.25 × 8.25 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
| 8.5 × 11 | 8.5 × 11 in | 0.125 in | 0.25 in | 0.676 in |
All panels ship with the same three guides: trim, safe, barcode. CoverNice keeps them on the canvas so you can see what will be cut.
Anatomy of a wrap template
Back panel — blurb, author bio, ISBN barcode bottom-right. KDP leaves a 2 × 1.2 in clear zone; do not put text or a dark background behind it.
Spine — title and author, never smaller than 7 pt, only above roughly 100 pages. Text is rotated 90°, reading top-to-bottom on US shelves.
Front panel — the only panel readers see at thumbnail size. Title must survive at 160 px wide, which is the Amazon search result.
A template that recalculates.
Enter pages, pick paper, and the spine plus both panels reflow. Export the PDF when the numbers are right.
Questions people actually ask
Where do I get an official KDP cover template?
KDP generates one per book, inside the publishing workflow, after you enter trim size, page count and paper. That is why a downloaded template from a blog is often the wrong spine — it was built for someone else’s page count.
Can I use a Canva template for KDP?
Yes, with two caveats: set the page size to the full wrap (not the front cover), and export a PDF with a real 300 dpi image inside. Canva’s default PDF export compresses images and is the most common cause of "low resolution" rejections.