KDP coloring book requirements

Interior PDF

• Page size is the trim size, or trim + bleed

  Without bleed, every page is exactly the trim size. With bleed, every page is 0.125 in wider and 0.25 in taller (8.5 × 11 in becomes 8.625 × 11.25 in). If one page bleeds, the whole file uses the bleed size. [A]

  The maker sets every page to the exact size.

• Margins meet the minimum for your page count

  Top, bottom and outside: at least 0.25 in without bleed, 0.375 in with bleed. Inside (gutter): 0.375 in up to 150 pages, 0.5 in to 300, 0.625 in to 500, 0.75 in to 700, 0.875 in to 828. [A]

  The maker reads the gutter from the final page count. Check yours in the bleed and margins calculator.

• Single pages, not spreads

  KDP wants one page per PDF page, not two-page spreads or 2-up files. [B]

• At least 24 pages, within the maximum, even count

  The minimum is 24 pages (72 for standard color). The maximum depends on trim and paper: 590 for 8.5 × 11 in on white paper, 828 for 6 × 9 in. KDP rounds an odd count up to even. [B]

  See every size's limits on the sizes page.

• Odd pages on the right

  Page numbers run in order with even numbers on left-hand pages and odd numbers on the right, so page 1 is a right-hand page. [B]

  With blank backs on, the maker puts every design on an odd page. Why it matters: single-sided coloring pages.

• No long runs of blank pages

  No more than 4 blank pages in a row at the beginning or in the middle, and no more than 10 in a row at the end. “Excessive blank pages” is one of KDP's common points of failure. [C] [B]

• Images at 300 DPI or more at their printed size

  All images at least 300 DPI; KDP recommends no more than 600 DPI to keep files under its 650 MB limit. Insert images at their original size; enlarging them lowers the DPI. [B] [D]

  The maker shows each page's printed DPI and warns under 300.

• Lines at least 0.75 pt

  KDP's minimum line weight for charts and graphic lines is 0.75 pt (0.01 in). Very fine coloring-page lines can print faint or break up. [B]

• Flattened, with fonts embedded

  Flatten transparent objects and layers, and embed all fonts. Text must be at least 7 pt. [B]

  The maker flattens each image onto white; its front pages and page numbers are drawn as images and vector lines, so no fonts need embedding.

• No marks, metadata, logos or watermarks

  No crop marks, trim marks, bookmarks, comments, annotations or metadata, and no “PDF creation logos or watermarks”. No encryption or password. File names without emoji or special characters. [B]

  The maker adds none of these, free or Pro.

• The file is a PDF if anything bleeds

  Books with bleed must be uploaded as PDF; others can also be DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML or TXT. Files up to 650 MB. [B]