Your designer sent a PNG and KDP wants a PDF: how to turn it into a print-ready cover
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R. S. Breed Founder
A common stuck point: your cover designer (or Canva) gives you the full wrap as a PNG or JPG, and KDP's paperback upload asks for a PDF. IngramSpark asks for a PDF too.
You can now turn the image into that PDF here, free: https://bervet.com/tools/cover-image-to-pdf
How it works:
- Drop in the image of the whole cover: back, spine and front.
- Pick where you're printing, your trim size, paper and page count. It works out the exact cover size that platform needs, spine included.
- It checks your image is the right shape for that size and has enough pixels (300 ppi is what KDP asks for), then makes a one-page PDF at exactly that size.
Things it handles that trip people up:
- Wrong spine width. If the image was made for a different page count or paper, the shape won't match. It tells you, and doesn't make a PDF that would be rejected.
- No bleed. If the image is the cover without the extra 0.125 in all round that gets trimmed off, it can add it by mirroring the edges.
- Transparency. See-through areas become solid white. KDP's checklist says to flatten transparencies.
- Colour. You choose CMYK (total ink capped at 240%, which is IngramSpark's limit) or keep your RGB colours. IngramSpark's guide says cover images must be CMYK; KDP's says they "should be". Lulu prefers RGB. The CMYK conversion uses a proper print colour profile (GRACoL 2013, the US standard for coated paper), the way design software does, then keeps the darkest areas within the ink limit. Whatever you upload, order a proof copy before you publish.
It all runs in your browser. Your cover isn't uploaded anywhere. Free for members.