Factory tips
Automatic trim sizes, bleed settings, and margins for self-published authors. You do not need to learn printing: you can format your book’s layout for print automatically. Search guides about preparing the types of books that you want to print, or learn about errors a file can present when you submit it to Amazon KDP, IngramSpark or other editorial or print-on-demand enterprises. Search the subject, read the article, then take the FormatBookForPrint.com factory Path (A, B, C or D) that will prepare your book for print automatically.
65 guides
Your Word file contains all the text of your book. The PDF print layout for Amazon KDP or IngramSpark is generated via Path A, using your selection the trim size, the paper type and other style preferences.
Do it in the factory
Chapters should be clearly divided using titles or numbers, and these must be marked with the corresponding styles: Heading 1 (H1), Heading 2 (H2), Heading 3 (H3), etc. Don’t waste time in Word worrying about margins, headers, gutter space, or page numbers - the Path A option in this "factory" handles all of that automatically for the entire book in a matter of seconds.
Do it in the factory
The standard trim size for novels and non-fiction books is 6×9 inches, using a cream or white paper, with chapters starting on the right-hand side (odd-numbered pages), and a book spine that expands based on the page count. The Path A at FormatBookForPrint.com offers complete, automated layout with minimal manual effort.
Do it in the factory
Possible. If the design is already page-by-page in Canva, use Path B.
Kindle reflows type. Print is a fixed page.
Do it in the factory
Interior + cover on their template, often the CMYK their spec names.
One layout, two uploads. Amazon often wants the interior in RGB; Ingram, a named CMYK. The jacket may need its own wrap.
Do not blindly reuse a KDP jacket. The mold changes.
Do it in the factory
It is usually trim, fonts, colour, or a jacket whose spine belongs to another page count. Path A or B rebuilds the interior; Path D, the cover.
Two PDFs: pages inside, jacket outside. Same trim. Colour and bleed are on each plant’s spec; this site builds the file.
The press prints in 4s (sometimes 16s). The real count appears after images and the TOC. Extra pages are not a mistake: they close the signature.
Page PDF, 300 DPI, bleed if art hits the trim.
Pages are bound. The jacket wraps the spine. They are not one file.
If you already paginated the book in Canva, do not pour it into Word. Path B keeps the design and fits trim, bleed, and spine.
Do it in the factory
Paper does not reflow. You need laid-out pages.
At FormatBookForPrint.com, you choose the book’s trim size. When uploading your book for publication on Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, you must enter the same "trim size" in the submission form that you used when laying out your print-ready PDF.
Art must run a few millimetres past where the knife cuts.
Amazon wants more room toward the glue when the book is thick. Word does not calculate that. Path A and B do, from real pages and paper.
Sharp on a phone can print as mush on paper.
Do not upload “front only”. The spine lives in the same file.
Do it in the factory
Real pages × the thickness of the paper you picked. The Path A, B, or C spec says it; Path D draws the jacket with that number.
The interior can share trim. The hardcover jacket is larger: board, hinge, and wrap that glues inside. You pick that on Path D.
Do it in the factory
The screen is RGB. Paper sometimes wants a named ink code. In one session you can download both, if they asked for them.
Novels on ivory. Magazines or laminated covers on coated. Colour profile follows the paper.
Single pages, not a Canva spread. Numbered photos and an optional Word file.
If art hits the edge, Kindle Create is not enough. You need a bleed PDF.
A “real” book opens on the right. The factory orders the front.
Do it in the factory
If type does not travel inside the file, another computer substitutes it.
Leave the hole. We do not sell ISBNs; do not cover the box with art.
Do it in the factory
The same workshop authors use, without hiring an InDesign studio.
The drawing is yours. The factory puts it on paper pages.
Do it in the factory
Work on paper, not a screen PDF. Numbered photos, a jacket with a spine.
Scan or photograph the sheets. You do not need Canva if you use the album path.
A trip, a year, a house, a dog. Photos and, if you want, a few lines.
Shop, craft, collection. Photos + short copy, not a spreadsheet.
Landscape or square, stock that respects garment colour.
Few pages, often landscape. PDF or dish photos.
NGO, school, company. Long Word or a finished PDF.
Works, captions, a short essay if needed.
An art book with a spine, not a stapled dossier.
Landscape or square. The memory fits on a shelf.
The photographer delivers JPEGs or a PDF. The factory binds paper.
Photos and dates. An object you will open in twenty years.
Family texts and photos. Paper, not a folder of emails.
The grandmother’s file, turned into a book.
One Word file with every text. Chapters per child.
Paginated in Canva or InDesign: Path B. Photo-heavy: C.
Text and measures: Word. Already designed pages: PDF.
Verse in Word. Book margins, not printer-paper margins.
The Drive PDF, turned into a book you can leave on a desk.
Heavy text, headings, sometimes tables. Word to paper PDF.
Do it in the factory
Already designed pages, lines and boxes. Not relaid as a novel.
Do it in the factory
Mazes, cut, match. The PDF is already the game; the factory is the paper.
Do it in the factory
Panels in a PDF. The factory does not draw; it re-frames for press.
Do it in the factory
Lyrics in Word, or PDF if designed. This is not a score editor.
One home, one development. Large photos, spine with the address.
The same object as a portfolio, with your mark on the jacket.
Plates, drawings as images, not CAD. A page PDF.
The reward is paper. The file must be press, not screen.
Paste the texts into Word. You get a spine with the date.
Timeline, archive photos, jacket with the year.
Group photos, results, the badge on the jacket.
A much-searched wish. Sharp photos, spine with the name.
Place photos and pages for the stamp or copy you set.
Rooms, materials, a spine with the studio name.