Book Production

Scribe Guide to Cover Design

Specs for designing a front cover and a full cover with an independent designer. If you are bringing your own designer to your book, send them this page. It covers what they need to gather before starting, the image and typography rules our print partners require, and how to build files that survive print on demand without surprises.

Before you start

Collect all of this first. A missing piece part way through usually means redoing layout work, and the trim size in particular can change between the front cover and the full cover.

Title and subtitle: Exactly as they should appear on the cover.
Author name: Exactly as it should appear on the cover.
Trim size: 5 x 8, 5.5 x 8.5, or 6 x 9 inches. Most authors use 5.5 x 8.5, so it is safe to start there for early concepts. Confirm the final trim before you build the full cover, since it may have changed.
Author headshot: The approved headshot file. The same file is used for the paperback and the hardcover.
Back cover copy: The book description plus the author bio.
Blurbs: Or a back cover excerpt, if the author would rather not use blurbs.
Imprint: The imprint name and logo files. Scribe provides these on request.
Formats: Paperback, hardcover, or both. Audiobook covers are handled separately.

Front cover concepts

Build a minimum of three concepts, and preferably at least six. Make them genuinely distinct from each other rather than variations on one idea, so the author has a real choice to make. Present them to the author as a single multi page PDF.

Stock imagery

Use commercially licensed images only. Editorial images put the author in a legally liable position, so they are never an option on a cover.
Check Shutterstock, iStock, and Adobe Stock first. If a job needs a higher end library such as Getty Images, clear it with Scribe before you license anything.

Images the author supplies

Before using any file or photograph from the author, confirm in writing that they hold permission to use it, or that it is licensed for commercial use.

AI generated art

NOT PERMITTED: There is no legal clarity on copyright and permissions for generated art, so Scribe does not allow AI generated artwork on covers at this time.

Export and line weight

Export in CMYK only. Showing an author a vibrant RGB design sets an expectation the print run cannot meet, and blues and purples shift badly on conversion.
Keep every border, outline, and rule at 0.5pt or heavier. Thinner lines drop out in print on demand.

The full cover

Once the front cover is locked, it becomes the aesthetic guide for everything else. Carry the look and feel over the spine and onto the back so the whole wrap reads as one design rather than a front with a back attached. Work in CMYK throughout.

Paperback

Build on the paperback presentation template for the trim size. Final printer templates come later in the process.
Use the book description and author bio on the back. Blurbs very rarely go on a paperback.
Create a flowable spine on every paperback cover, with no indication of the fold lines.
For proofing and author review, use a plain white box as a barcode placeholder. Real barcodes live in the printer templates.
Set the credit line "Cover design by:" and your name near the imprint on the back. Credits run smaller than the cover copy, typically around 6 to 7pt.

Hardcover

Build on the hardcover presentation template for the trim size. Most hardcovers print through IngramSpark, so no special treatments are possible: no spot gloss, no embossing, no special inks. Offset runs are the exception and get their own templates.
Front flap carries the book description, to the right of the front cover. Back flap carries the author bio, to the left of the back cover.
Extend the front and back cover artwork across the 0.25 inch wrap to the edge of the wrap.
Back cover carries either blurbs or a back cover excerpt, whichever the author chose.
Keep spine copy at a readable size and make sure the chosen imprint sits on the spine.
Set the credit line "Jacket design by:" and your name near the imprint on the back, or at the bottom of the back flap. Keep the imprint and the credit together. Credits run smaller than the cover copy, typically around 6 to 7pt.
Hardcover templates ship with a Presentation Layer that has to be switched on before you export.

Spines and printer variance

Print on demand is not precise. Covers get trimmed and glued slightly crooked, and hardcover jackets get wrapped slightly off center. Design so that neither is visible.

Let the artwork flow over the spine

On both paperback and hardcover, run the front cover image or color across the spine rather than blocking the spine in its own color. Mirroring or cloning the front cover background is the usual way to achieve it. Where there is not enough image to clone, set the spine in the same color tones as the front, so a misaligned trim does not leave a glaring strip of a different color bleeding onto the front cover.

Full paperback spread where the front cover photograph flows across the spine and onto the back cover — Enough image to work with: the front cover photograph is mirrored over the spine, so an off center trim never shows a seam.

Full paperback spread where the spine is set in the same color tones as the front cover — Not enough image to mirror: the spine is set in the same color tones as the front cover, so a misaligned wrap has nothing to expose.

WHY BOTH FORMATS: This applies to paperbacks and hardcovers alike. On paperbacks the trim wanders; on hardcovers the jacket wrap wanders. In either case a spine blocked in a contrasting color makes every millimeter of that movement obvious to the author and to the reader, so avoid spine color blocking on both.

Flow across the back edge of the spine onto the back cover matters less than flow across the front edge, so prioritize the front.

Keep type well inside the safety area

IngramSpark treats a variance of one sixteenth of an inch as normal, meaning a cover can print up to that far left or right of where you placed it. Type that sits close to the edge of the safety area can end up on the fold or read as visibly off center once that movement is applied. Where the title or the spine text is tight, size it down rather than trusting the placement.

Typography and copy

Every Scribe author gets a cover built for their book, not a template with their title dropped in. Extending the front cover theme through the back cover copy and bio, with devices like drop caps and custom header styling, is encouraged. The rules below are the constraints that keep it printable and readable.

Type sizes and color

Set back cover copy at 10pt minimum.
Where you are setting body copy or any type under 24pt in black, use 100K.
Choose a readable serif or sans for copy. Nothing too funky.
Keep all rules, outlines, and borders at 0.5pt or heavier.

Leading

Do not use auto leading. It is too tight.
Set leading against how much text there is and how much room the design leaves it. It should only run tight when the content genuinely demands it.
Where the back cover copy and bio run long, indent paragraphs instead of spacing them out to conserve room, and try a condensed font before you shrink copy below 10pt.

Paragraphs, breaks, and hyphenation

After the first paragraph, mark new paragraphs either with an indent or with space between them. Pick one and hold it.
Justify copy unless hyphenation or another element prevents it, and avoid forced line breaks. The recommended settings are below.
No orphans or widows, unless the length of a single word makes it unavoidable.
Avoid bad breaks, the kind where a hyphen at the end of a line leaves something awkward at the start of the next one, such as "suc-cess".
Never hyphenate author names, pronouns, or company names.
Avoid stacked hyphens on consecutive line endings.
Use an em dash for blurb attributions.

Recommended InDesign settings

The hyphenation and justification values Scribe designers start from. Tune to the design from here.

Hyphenation: Words with at least 6 letters, after the first 3 and before the last 3. Hyphen limit 2, hyphenation zone 0.5 in. Hyphenate capitalized words on; hyphenate last word and hyphenate across column off.
Word spacing: 85% minimum, 100% desired, 125% maximum.
Letter spacing: -5% minimum, 0% desired, 5% maximum.
Glyph scaling: 98% minimum, 100% desired, 102% maximum.
Composer: Adobe Paragraph Composer, with single word justification set to Full Justify. The panel's auto leading value is 120%, but set your leading manually per the leading rules above.

Print ready files

Flatten your links

Both paperback and hardcover print on demand, which makes consistent color output hard to guarantee. Flattening every linked PSD, confirming it is in CMYK, and saving it as a TIF measurably reduces color problems on press.

Check your ink density

Any large area with total ink density above 240 will be flagged and possibly rejected, because ink pools and runs in those areas. Ask Scribe for the SWOP Coated 240% Ink Limit profile and its setup instructions. Once it is installed you can use it on every Scribe project.

To check a file: open the PDF in Acrobat and go to Output Preview. Uncheck Simulate Overprinting at the top, then check Total Area Coverage at the bottom and set the threshold to 241. Anything highlighted is too dense.

Before you hand off

Everything exported in CMYK
Linked PSDs flattened and saved as CMYK TIFs
Total area coverage checked at a 241 threshold
Back cover copy at 10pt or larger, rules at 0.5pt or heavier
Barcode placeholder in position on the back
Imprint at 100 percent size, with the design credit beside it
Title and spine type sitting well inside the safety area
Presentation Layer switched on, for hardcover files

What Scribe provides on request

Ask Scribe for any of these, or have the author ask on your behalf, and we will send them across for the book.

Imprint names and logo files
Paperback and hardcover presentation templates for your trim size
Final printer templates, at the point in the process where they apply
Offset hardcover templates, if the book includes an offset run
The SWOP Coated 240% Ink Limit profile and its setup instructions
A printer variance proof, showing what a one sixteenth of an inch shift does to a real cover

Imprint specs

The logo files come in two versions, black for light backgrounds and white for dark backgrounds. Do not recolor either one.

Sizing: Use the logos at 100 percent. Shrink only as far as a narrow spine requires.
Back cover width: 1.25 inches at 100 percent.
Spine width: 0.35 inches at 100 percent.
Spine position: At least 0.25 inches from the trim mark.

ALSO USEFUL: If your book has charts, illustrations, photographs, or other artwork inside it, the Scribe Guide to Interior Graphics covers the specs for those, and the designer version has the trim, live area, and minimum size numbers.