Publishing a paperback through Amazon KDP is relatively straightforward. Preparing a file that actually prints the way you expect is where things get more complicated.

Your manuscript has to use the right dimensions. Margins change depending on page count. Images need enough resolution. Books with bleed have different file requirements. Your cover has to account for the exact width of the spine. And before publication, KDP runs your files through its own automated checks.

A mistake as small as using the wrong page dimensions can mean going back to your original document, generating another file, and uploading it again.

This 20-point checklist walks through the technical preparation process from choosing your trim size to inspecting the finished book in Print Previewer.

The goal: prepare and upload a print-ready Amazon KDP paperback without file errors, formatting problems, or avoidable rejection.

Important: Amazon can change KDP specifications. The numerical requirements in this checklist were verified against Amazon's own KDP documentation in September 2026. Always confirm critical specifications against KDP directly before submitting your final files

Amazon KDP Paperback Checklist

Choose your paperback trim size
Calculate your required inside margin
Set your outside margins
Check your final page count
Remove accidental blank pages
Embed your manuscript fonts
Export your interior as a print-ready PDF
Keep your cover separate from your manuscript
Remove passwords and encryption
Check image resolution
Set up interior bleed correctly
Calculate your spine width
Create one full wraparound cover
Add the required cover bleed
Keep cover content inside the safe area
Check your cover images and color
Export a clean, print-ready cover PDF
Check both PDF file sizes
Optimize oversized PDFs carefully
Inspect everything in KDP Print Previewer

1. Choose Your Paperback Trim Size

Your trim size is the final width and height of the physical book after printing and cutting.

KDP supports numerous standard paperback sizes as well as certain custom dimensions. Amazon's trim size page lists 6 x 9 inches as one of the most common paperback trim sizes, but that doesn't automatically make it the right choice for every book.

Your trim size affects much more than appearance. It can affect page count, margins, printing cost, cover dimensions, and the maximum number of pages KDP will accept.

Choose it before doing your final formatting. Changing from 6 x 9 to 5 x 8 after you've finished can reflow your manuscript and change the page count, which can then change your required gutter and spine width.

Choose your final trim size
Set your document to that size
Confirm the size is supported for your chosen ink and paper configuration
Don't change it after finalizing your cover

2. Calculate Your Required Inside Margin

The inside margin is the space between your content and the binding. It's commonly called the gutter.

KDP requires increasingly large inside margins as page count rises. That means page count and formatting are interconnected, if formatting changes your manuscript from 148 pages to 152, check your inside margin again.

Page count	Inside (gutter) margin	Outside margin (no bleed)	Outside margin (with bleed)
24 to 150 pages	0.375"	at least 0.25"	at least 0.375"
151 to 300 pages	0.5"	at least 0.25"	at least 0.375"
301 to 500 pages	0.625"	at least 0.25"	at least 0.375"
501 to 700 pages	0.75"	at least 0.25"	at least 0.375"
701 to 828 pages	0.875"	at least 0.25"	at least 0.375"

Full current specifications: Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins

Determine your final page count
Find the corresponding minimum inside margin
Apply it consistently
Recheck it if pagination changes

3. Set Your Outside Margins

Don't confuse the gutter with the outside margins. For interiors without bleed, KDP currently requires top, bottom, and outside margins of at least 0.25 inches. For interiors with bleed, those margins must be at least 0.375 inches.

Those are minimums, not necessarily ideal design choices. Amazon's own formatting guides for Word recommend larger margins in practice for a more professional, readable appearance.

So distinguish between what KDP will accept and what makes your book comfortable to read.

4. Check Your Final Page Count

You may see "24 to 828 pages" quoted as the paperback limit. That's incomplete. The allowed range depends on trim size, ink type, and paper type.

For example, per KDP's own specification table, several common trim sizes using black ink on white paper support 24 to 828 pages, while standard color on white paper has a 72-page minimum and 600-page maximum for the same trim size. Full trim size and page count table

Page count also affects your inside margin, spine width, whether spine text is allowed, and printing cost. One useful rule: KDP only prints spine text on books with more than 79 pages.

Check your page count against your exact KDP print configuration
Recalculate your gutter
Recalculate your spine if the page count changes

5. Remove Accidental Blank Pages

Blank pages aren't automatically bad. Books intentionally use blank pages for section breaks, layout, or other design reasons. The problem is accidental or excessive blank pages.

KDP specifically lists missing pages and excessive blank pages among its common submission failure points. Before uploading, scroll through the entire manuscript, especially around chapter breaks, section breaks, front matter, manually inserted page breaks, and the final pages of the book.

If you've already exported the manuscript and discover unwanted blank PDF pages, this is one place where a PDF cleanup tool can save you from rebuilding the entire file. PDFHaul's Remove Empty Pages tool can help identify and remove empty pages from an exported PDF.

The important part is to review every removal before saving. A deliberately blank page is still part of your book design.

6. Embed Your Manuscript Fonts

Your computer knows which fonts you used. Amazon's printing system doesn't necessarily have them. That's why KDP requires all fonts to be embedded before submission, without proper embedding, text can be substituted or rendered incorrectly.

Check your export settings for options such as Embed fonts, Embed all fonts, or print-quality font embedding. KDP also specifies a minimum interior font size of 7 points.

Don't assume a PDF that looks correct on your own computer is automatically print-ready.

7. Export Your Interior as a Print-Ready PDF

Here's an important distinction worth being precise about: KDP does not require every paperback manuscript to be uploaded as a PDF.

For a manuscript without bleed, KDP currently accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML, and TXT, and converts the other supported formats automatically. If your interior contains bleed, however, you must upload it as a PDF.

Amazon nevertheless recommends converting print interiors to PDF for the most control over the final layout. If your manuscript is currently in Word, PDFHaul's Word to PDF tool handles that conversion directly. Convert a Paperback Word File to PDF is also Amazon's own official guide on the same step.

Use your final page dimensions
Embed fonts
Preserve image quality
Export individual pages, not two-page spreads
Avoid unnecessary interactive PDF features

KDP specifically requires single-page files rather than spreads or 2-up layouts.

8. Keep Your Cover Separate From Your Manuscript

A paperback has two distinct files: the interior manuscript (front matter, body, and back matter) and the cover (back cover, spine, and front cover). KDP treats these separately.

Don't add your cover to page one of the interior PDF, it isn't needed there, and it isn't how KDP expects the files structured. Upload the manuscript through the manuscript section and the cover through KDP's cover workflow.

This distinction matters even more if you're also producing a Kindle edition, since Kindle cover and manuscript requirements differ entirely from paperback requirements.

9. Remove Passwords and Encryption

Before uploading, make sure your PDFs aren't protected with a password or other file security. KDP lists locked or encrypted files as a common point of failure.

A password might make sense when privately distributing a document. It doesn't make sense when KDP's processing system needs to inspect and prepare that document for printing.

Check your interior PDF
Check your cover PDF

10. Check Image Resolution

KDP requires images in both the manuscript and cover to be at least 300 DPI. But there's a practical detail worth understanding: resolution needs to make sense at the size the image will actually be printed.

A small image stretched across an entire 6 x 9 page can look blurry even if it looked fine as a thumbnail on your laptop. Inspect photographs, diagrams, illustrations, screenshots, charts, logos, and cover artwork.

Also avoid blindly maximizing resolution. Amazon recommends a practical ceiling around 600 DPI, since excessively high-resolution images can increase processing time or cause delays, and can push your file size unnecessarily close to the 650MB limit.

11. Set Up Interior Bleed Correctly

Bleed is only necessary when something should print all the way to the physical edge of the page, full-page photographs, illustrations touching an edge, colored backgrounds, or decorative graphics extending to an edge.

If even one interior page requires bleed, the entire interior file needs to be configured for bleed. KDP's bleed amount is 0.125 inches beyond the trim line on the top, bottom, and outside edge.

For example, a 6 x 9 inch interior with bleed becomes 6.125 x 9.25 inches, the extra width appears only on the outside edge, while the height receives bleed at both top and bottom.

And remember: an interior with bleed must be uploaded as PDF, no exceptions for DOC or other formats.

12. Calculate Your Spine Width

Don't guess the spine. Its width depends on page count and paper type. KDP's current formulas for black-and-white paperbacks: white paper is page count times 0.002252 inches, cream paper is page count times 0.0025 inches. Groundwood paper uses page count times 0.00235 inches, and color paper uses page count times 0.002347 inches, each a genuinely different calculation, not a rounding difference.

Once you have your spine width, the full cover dimensions follow a fixed formula: cover width equals bleed plus back cover width plus spine width plus front cover width plus bleed, and cover height equals bleed plus trim height plus bleed. Every number in that formula except your own trim size and page count is fixed by KDP's own bleed requirement, which is exactly why getting the page count right first matters so much.

You don't need to do this by hand. Amazon provides a Print Cover Calculator and Templates tool. Enter your binding, interior type, paper, trim size, and page count, and it calculates the required dimensions for you.

Do this after your interior pagination is stable. Changing the manuscript from 250 to 280 pages changes your spine width, which changes the dimensions of your full cover.

13. Create One Full Wraparound Cover

Unlike the interior, the paperback cover isn't uploaded as separate front and back images. KDP requires a single PDF containing the back cover, spine, and front cover as one continuous image, arranged left to right as back cover, spine, front cover.

Your exact total width depends on the two cover panels, spine width, and bleed. This is another reason to finish the manuscript first: the interior determines page count, page count determines spine width, and spine width determines the final cover dimensions.

14. Add the Required Cover Bleed

All KDP paperback covers require bleed, 0.125 inches beyond the top, bottom, and outside edges. Background images and colors intended to reach the edge need to extend through this bleed area, otherwise slight movement during trimming can leave an unwanted white line along the finished cover.

Amazon's cover calculator generates a template that visually identifies the bleed, safe areas, spine, and barcode area, worth using directly rather than eyeballing it.

15. Keep Cover Content Inside the Safe Area

Bleed applies to things you want cut through, like a background image. Important content belongs away from the trim. KDP's guidelines say content you don't want trimmed should sit at least 0.25 inches from the outside cover edge.

That includes the title, author name, subtitle, logos, review quotes, and important artwork details. Spine text has its own additional rule: KDP only prints spine text on books with more than 79 pages, and that text needs at least 0.0625 inches of space from each edge of the spine.

One more area worth accounting for specifically: the barcode. You can upload a cover with your own barcode already placed, or leave it out entirely and let KDP automatically place one on your back cover for you. If you're designing the back cover yourself, leave genuine, uncluttered space in the standard barcode position, since text or artwork placed where KDP's automatic barcode goes will get covered rather than moved.

The safest approach is using KDP's generated cover template rather than manually estimating these boundaries.

16. Check Your Cover Images and Color

Your cover artwork should meet the same 300 DPI minimum resolution as the interior. KDP also recommends flattening layers and transparencies, since transparency can produce missing or distorted elements once printed.

This is another place where screen appearance can mislead you. Something can look excellent in a browser while still being unsuitable for physical printing.

Check image resolution
Check that text remains sharp
Flatten required layers and transparencies
Inspect gradients and backgrounds
Make sure important artwork stays inside safe areas
Check the printed-color expectations for your specific workflow

Don't simply convert everything to CMYK because an old tutorial says KDP requires it. Follow Amazon's current guidance and the export workflow of the design software you're actually using.

17. Export a Clean, Print-Ready Cover PDF

Your finished cover should be exported as one PDF. KDP's own guidance is specific about what a clean submission looks like: flatten transparencies, embed fonts, remove crop marks, remove color bars, remove template text and guides, use images of at least 300 DPI, optimize the file, and remove any file security.

KDP's broader submission guidance also warns against leaving comments, annotations, bookmarks, placeholder text, and other unwanted objects in submitted files.

Before uploading, open the exported PDF itself. Don't rely only on the source file in Photoshop, Affinity Publisher, InDesign, Canva, or another design program. The exported PDF is what Amazon actually receives.

18. Check Both PDF File Sizes

KDP's maximum file size is 650MB. For paperback covers specifically, Amazon recommends keeping the file at 40MB or less, since larger files can slow printing even though the hard conversion limit is higher.

Check the size of both your interior and your cover. A text-heavy novel should normally be nowhere near 650MB. If your relatively simple manuscript is hundreds of megabytes, investigate why before uploading, common causes include oversized images or inefficient export settings.

19. Optimize Oversized PDFs Without Ruining Print Quality

KDP itself recommends PDF optimization, since smaller files are easier to transfer, upload, view, and print. But optimization doesn't mean making the PDF as small as physically possible. This is a print file, not a web download.

Aggressive compression can turn sharp photographs, diagrams, and illustrations into visibly degraded images. If your PDF is unnecessarily large, PDFHaul's Compress PDF tool can reduce the size, then inspect the resulting document carefully before uploading.

The workflow should be: original print PDF, optimize, inspect, upload. Not: original print PDF, maximum compression, upload without looking. If optimization causes an image to fall below the quality you need for print, keep the larger version or return to the source document and optimize the original assets more intelligently.

20. Inspect Everything in KDP Print Previewer

Don't hit publish immediately after uploading. Run KDP's Print Previewer. Amazon uses this tool as an automated quality check, and it can flag issues involving margins, cover dimensions, and fonts, but it can also miss things that aren't obvious in a casual review.

Go through the entire book, not just the pages Amazon flags. Look for unexpected blank pages, shifted chapter headings, incorrect page numbers, text too close to trim, images crossing margins, blurry graphics, incorrect bleed, misplaced cover elements, spine problems, and barcode conflicts.

If Print Previewer identifies a problem, fix it in the original file, generate a new PDF, and upload the corrected version. For a book that matters to you, consider going one step further and ordering a physical proof copy before making it available to readers.

Final Amazon KDP Paperback Preflight

Before uploading, run through this condensed version one last time.

Choose your paperback trim size
Calculate your required inside margin
Set your outside margins
Check your final page count
Remove accidental blank pages
Embed your manuscript fonts
Export your interior as a print-ready PDF
Keep your cover separate from your manuscript
Remove passwords and encryption
Check image resolution
Set up interior bleed correctly
Calculate your spine width
Create one full wraparound cover
Add the required cover bleed
Keep cover content inside the safe area
Check your cover images and color
Export a clean, print-ready cover PDF
Check both PDF file sizes
Optimize oversized PDFs carefully
Inspect everything in KDP Print Previewer

One Important Paperback vs. Kindle Difference

Don't reuse these print-cover instructions blindly for an eBook. A paperback cover submitted to KDP is a wraparound PDF containing the back, spine, and front.

For a Kindle eBook's cover specifically, KDP accepts JPEG or TIFF, not PDF. Amazon recommends an ideal size of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels.

Keeping the two workflows separate can prevent a surprisingly simple file-format mistake.

One piece of genuinely good news if you're planning a hardcover edition as well: hardcover formatting uses the same interior file as paperback. If your trim size matches one of the hardcover options, the manuscript PDF you already prepared for paperback can typically be reused directly, only the cover needs a separate file built around hardcover's own bleed and wrap-area requirements, which run slightly larger than paperback's to account for the case binding.

Ready to Upload?

Most KDP formatting problems are easier to fix before the files reach Amazon. Finalize your manuscript first. Confirm its dimensions and page count. Clean up the exported PDF. Then calculate the cover around that final interior and run both files through KDP's Previewer.

If something in this checklist doesn't match what you're seeing inside KDP, use Amazon's current documentation as the final authority. Specifications can change, and some requirements vary by trim size, paper, and ink selection.

For PDF-specific cleanup, PDFHaul can help with tasks like removing unwanted empty pages and optimizing oversized PDF files before upload. Just remember these are print files, so always inspect the finished result after making changes.

If you're stuck on one of the PDF preparation steps, leave a question and include the step number you're working on.