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 create the cover for your book, send them this page.
Export and line weight
- Export in CMYK only.
- 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 for the trim size. Final printer templates come later in the process (including barcodes).
- Use the book description and author bio on the back.
- Create a flowable spine on every paperback cover, with no indication of the fold lines.
Hardcover
- Build on the hardcover for the trim size. Final printer templates come later in the process (including barcodes).
- 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.
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
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.
- Keep all rules, outlines, and borders at 0.5pt or heavier.
Print ready files
Flatten your links
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.
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
- Final printer templates, at the point in the process where they apply
- Offset hardcover templates, if the book includes an offset run
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.