guide

A KDP paperback cover in Canva

Checked against the help pages of KDP and Canva on 27 October 2026.

A KDP paperback cover is one PDF page: back cover, spine and front cover side by side, with bleed around them. Canva can make it, but two of its print settings change the size of the file it exports.

1. Work out the full size

KDP's formula is bleed, back, spine, front and bleed across, and bleed, trim height and bleed down. The bleed is 0.125″, and the spine is the page count times the thickness of one page of your paper.

For a 6 × 9 inch book of 300 pages on white paper:

Spine300 × 0.002252″ = 0.676″ (17.2 mm)
Width0.125 + 6 + 0.676 + 6 + 0.125 = 12.926″ (328.3 mm)
Height0.125 + 9 + 0.125 = 9.25″ (235 mm)

The free spine calculator gives the full size for any trim, page count and paper. Use the final page count, because every page changes the spine.

2. Set the design to that size

Create a design with a custom size of 12.926 × 9.25 inches. Whatever template you start from, the page has to be the whole cover, not the front on its own.

3. Leave Canva's print bleed off

With Show print bleed on (File, then Settings), Canva adds 0.125″ to every side of the design when it exports. KDP's full size already includes the bleed, so the PDF would come out at 13.176 × 9.5″, 0.25″ too large each way.

4. Export for print

  • Download a PDF for print: PDF Print, or PDF with the Print preset, depending on the version of Canva.
  • Leave Crop marks and bleed unticked. The option adds marks and bleed around the design, and KDP asks for crop marks to be removed.
  • Turn on Flatten PDF in the advanced settings. KDP asks for transparencies to be flattened, and this setting merges the design into a single image.

5. Measure the PDF before you upload

The page size of the PDF must be the size from step 1. If it is not, KDP's Print Previewer notes the difference and does not let the book be approved.

The free cover checker reads the page size. When it is wrong, it names the usual reasons: the front cover on its own, a spine for another paper or page count, no bleed, or another trim size.

If the preview looks cropped

KDP trims 0.125″ off every outside edge, so the printed cover shows less than the design file. Print Previewer marks the safe zone with dashed red lines, and all text has to sit inside it.

KDP asks for text at least 0.125″ inside the trim line, which is 0.25″ from the edge of the file. A background meant to reach the edge has to run all the way into the bleed, because white space around the edge can fail the bleed check.

The back cover and the spine

KDP adds a barcode to the back cover if the cover has none, so keep its corner clear. Spine text is allowed from 79 pages and needs 0.0625″ of space between the text and each edge of the spine.

What Torcul does

Torcul makes the cover from the finished interior, at the size KDP's formula gives for its page count and paper. It keeps the barcode corner clear, and sets spine text only where a 7-point line fits.

Sources

None of this guarantees that KDP will accept a file. KDP and Canva change their help pages, so check the date on this one.