Create Your Perfect Bound Book Cover File

Ready to start your print journey?

Creating your cover file

Right then, let's get started! Unlike your text pages (which should be supplied as single pages) your cover needs to be supplied as a spread. Exactly as your finished book will appear if you opened the cover and laid it flat on the desk.  

The cover artwork file will have two pages: page 1 is the outer cover and page 2 the inside covers. Page 1 reads (from left to right) Back Cover/Spine/Front Cover. Page 2 reads (again from left to right) Inside Front Cover/Spine Allowance/Inside Back Cover.

Before we begin, we will just say all of our website's guides on file set-up are for Adobe InDesign which you can get on a one-week free trial or buy on a month-to-month deal. However, as long as you can export your finished work to a high res pdf, do feel free to use your favourite program. Other options are Affinity Publisher, Quark Express, Illustrator, and even Word or Publisher. The same principles and guides still apply when preparing your layout. If you cannot set up your artwork, do ask, we have a wealth of print knowledge and will do our best to help.

36pp to 44pp Text = 3mm spine (ie: if you have 40 pages then you need a 3mm spine)
48pp to 60pp Text = 4mm spine
64pp to 72pp Text = 5mm spine
76pp to 88pp Text = 6mm spine
92pp to 100pp Text = 7mm spine
104pp to 116pp Text = 8mm spine
120pp to 132pp Text = 9mm spine
136pp to 150pp Text = 10mm spine
200pp Text = 14mm spine

36pp to 40pp Text = 2mm spine
44pp to 56pp Text = 3mm spine
60pp to 76pp Text = 4mm spine
80pp to 92pp Text = 5mm spine
96pp to 112pp Text = 6mm spine
116pp to 128pp Text = 7mm spine
132pp to 148pp Text = 9mm spine
200pp Text = 11mm spine

36pp to 44pp Text = 3mm spine
48pp to 60pp Text = 4mm spine
64pp to 76pp Text = 5mm spine
80pp to 88pp Text = 6mm spine
92pp to 100pp Text = 7mm spine
104pp to 116pp Text = 8mm spine
120pp to 132pp Text = 9mm spine
136pp to 150pp Text = 10mm spine
200pp Text = 14mm spine

(Yes, this does mean you don't have to read the rest of this page! #win)

We have included a selection of finished cover templates for A4, A5 Portrait, A5 Landscape and 210x210mm books with the most common spine widths.

Choose the correct one for your book and spine size then drop in the cover artwork before exporting to pdf. Then click here to jump ahead for instructions on exporting the finished file to PDF.

We advise using this program because it’s the most user-friendly and the industry standard for page layout.
The example here on the right is for an A4 book cover with a 4mm spine.
Next follow these instructions…
In the ‘Number of Pages’ type ‘2’ and Untick facing pages.
‘Page Size’ is the only tricky bit and this is where you’ll need the spine size you noted down earlier. An A4 book has a width of 210mm so to work out the width of your InDesign cover template page you need to add the back cover (210mm) to the front cover (210mm) PLUS the spine. In this example the spine is 4mm so the total width is 210+210+4=424mm.
The ‘Height’ is a lot easier – that is just the height of your book: 297mm for A4, 210mm for A5.
Moving down the page, change ‘Columns’ to ‘2’ and the ‘Gutter’ to your spine size (4mm for this example).
Your ‘Margins’ can be changed to ‘0’ and the four ‘Bleed’ boxes should all be ‘3mm’. Slug can be left on ‘0’.
Easy! Now go ahead and click ‘OK’.

You see the back cover on the left, spine through the centre and front cover on the right exactly as expected.

With this selected, click on the artwork page and whilst holding down shift drag out a vertical line down the page. At this stage it doesn’t matter how long the line is or it’s placement.

The aim is to get two vertical dashed lines that show where the spine will be folded. These run straight down the spine guides on your file. In the measurements box there is an icon with 9 tiny boxes, click the top middle one to select that as the dimension your are changing.

If your book is A4 then the line needs to be positioned at 210mm. If your book is A5 then it should be at 148mm. Type this measurement into the ‘x’ box. Set ‘y’ to -15mm. ‘L’ or the length needs to be 30mm longer than the height of your book so 327mm for an A4 or 240mm for an A5. Press Return or Tab and the line will now reposition on the page, starting 15mm off the top of the page and extending all the way to 15mm below the footer.

Select the – – – line and make it 0.5pt. Again, press Return or Tab and the line will change again on the artwork page.

With the first vertical line still selected, choose Edit > Step and Repeat or use the Mac keyboard shortcut Alt-Cmd-U to bring up the ‘Step and Repeat’ menu. ‘Repeat’ should be ‘1’ and ‘Horizontal’ is your spine width.
Clicking ‘Preview’ will show you what is about to happen. Go ahead and click ‘Ok’.

These guides show our finishing guys at Ex Why Zed where to fold your covers after they are printed.

This should now span the whole page as per the example below. Open up the Color menu and whilst the image box is selected fill it in white. (0/0/0/0 on the CMYK slider).

Select the two lines and the image box using the black arrow tool or the keyboard shortcut CMD-A to Select All.
Copy them by choosing Edit > Copy or CMD-C.
Then go to the Object menu and pick ‘Lock’ or the shortcut CMD-L.
This copies the lines and box so we can use them on page two of our template and also locks them on page 1 so they sit happily in the background while you go ahead and add your artwork.

Click on the main area using the black arrow tool then choose Edit > Paste or CMD-P. The lines and box you copied from page 1 appear.
Select All using the black arrow tool or CMD-A and drag them to the top left so they sit perfectly on the page in the same position as they are on page 1.
Your white box should sit neatly in the corner of the bleed area as shown in the example to the right. Again, Select All then Lock then guides and white box so it cant move during the design process.

You might want a full wrap image like this for maximum impact or maybe just an image on the front cover with some text.

Tick Crop Marks. In the four bleed boxes type 3mm in Right and Left and 10mm in Top and Bottom. Then hit Export and send us the file ????

You can see the back cover on the left, spine in the centre and front cover on the right – exactly the same as you designed it!

If your spine is less than 5mm we recommend not putting any text on it to avoid any risk of it sliding round to the front or back cover when your books are bound.

Your cover is glued onto the first and last page of your text block. Therefore any content within 8mm of the spine on the first and last text page will be obscured so keep important information (page numbers, headings etc) out of this area.