Does Amazon Endure cut your page count by 20%?

KDP gives away a font of its own, Amazon Endure, to save paper. When it launched the font on 22 April 2025, KDP said that the page count “is typically reduced by roughly 20%”. We set the same novel in Endure, in Times New Roman and in EB Garamond, and counted the pages.

The short answer

• At the same type size, Endure made more pages than the other two, not fewer.
• Set 1.5 points smaller, as Amazon's own guide to the font allows, it made 9% fewer pages than Times New Roman at 6 × 9, and 14% fewer at 5 × 8.
• No setting we measured saved 20%.

What Amazon says

The download on KDP's templates page holds the font and a short style guide. The guide says Endure is narrower than other fonts and has a larger x-height, the height of the small letters. So, it says, you can set it 0.5 to 1.5 points smaller and keep the same readability.

The saving, then, comes from the smaller size. Neither the announcement nor the help pages say which font the 20% was measured against.

The pages, measured

The same novel at 6 × 9:

And at 5 × 8, where a novel is set half a point smaller:

Set 1.5 points smaller, Endure made 206 pages where Times New Roman made 226: 9% fewer. At 5 × 8 it made 228 against 266, 14% fewer, and 19% fewer at 80,000 words. Against EB Garamond it saved 6% at 6 × 9 and 12% at 5 × 8.

Why the same size makes more pages

Endure's small letters are tall. Its x-height is 0.507 of its size, against 0.447 in Times New Roman and 0.400 in EB Garamond, as the font files give them. At the same size, it looks larger and takes more room. A line of the novel at 6 × 9 and 12 points held 63 characters in Endure, 66 in Times New Roman and 70 in EB Garamond.

Set 1.5 points smaller, its small letters are about as tall as Times New Roman's at full size: 5.3 points high at 10.5 points, against 5.4 at 12. That is the size at which it saves pages.

What it saves

On Amazon.com, KDP charges $1.00 plus $0.012 a page to print a black-ink paperback of more than 110 pages. So 20 fewer pages, 226 down to 206, save $0.24 a copy, and the royalty grows by the same $0.24. At 5 × 8, 38 fewer pages save $0.46 a copy.

Before you change the font of a book

• A book on sale has to be sent again. KDP's help says that to use Endure for an existing book, you resubmit it with the font. A new page count also changes the spine, so the cover has to be made again.
• The type gets smaller. The saving comes from setting it smaller. For readers with impaired sight, Amazon's own guide suggests other fonts.
• The licence. The font files carry a copyright line and no licence text. KDP's help on fonts says you are responsible for the licences of the fonts in your book, so check before you print the same file anywhere else.
• Ebooks are not affected. On a Kindle, the reader chooses the font.

How the test book was set

• The text. The English novel of How many pages will my book be?, at 60,000 and 80,000 words, with the same chapters and front pages.
• The setting. Torcul's Novel setting at 6 × 9 and 5 × 8, with only the font and its size changed. The space between lines follows the size.
• The font. Endure in its Book weight, the one meant for text. Each PDF was checked for the font it was meant to carry.
• Margins. At or above KDP's minimums for each page count.

Another book, another program or other spacing gives other numbers. The difference between the fonts is what carries over.

What we do

We set books only in fonts whose licence lets them be carried in a book you sell, such as EB Garamond for a novel. Endure's files carry no such licence, so we don't set books in it. We show you the page count before you pay, and make the cover for that count. A larger trim size and chapters that start on the next page also save pages; see How many pages will my book be?

Sources

• KDP: Paperback and Hardcover Manuscript Templates
• KDP: Paperback Fonts
• KDP Community: KDP Print on Demand launches Endure font that saves paper (22 April 2025)
• KDP: Paperback Printing Cost