Cover templates

Your cover designer needs the cover’s exact size, and the spine’s, which depends on how many pages the book has. Every print build works them out.

With every paperback or hardcover interior, Septangular writes a cover template: one page the size of the whole cover laid flat, back, spine and front, marking the trim, the spine’s folds, the area that’s safe for text, and the barcode’s place. Your designer works on top of it, at exactly the right size. The Publishing page shows the measurements too (“Cover: 12.32 in × 8.75 in with bleed; spine 1.07 in”).

The spine’s width comes from the page count and the paper (cream, white or colour), as KDP Print’s own calculator works it out. Spines too narrow for lettering are marked as such.

A hardcover’s template is the case-laminate cover: the boards, the spine between them, the wrap that folds inside, and the hinges, where no text should go.

Cover templates come with print-ready interiors, part of Septangular Publish.