# Crop marks, template text and placeholders left in your print file: how to clean them out

Why KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu reject files with crop marks, template guides or sample text left in, and how to export a clean PDF from Word or a design program.

Facts last checked 4 October 2026. https://bervet.com/forum/guides/205/crop-marks-template-text-and-placeholders-left-in-your-print-file-how-to-clean-them-out

**Crop marks** are the little lines at the corners of a page that show a traditional printer where to cut. Print-on-demand printers cut from the trim size you chose, so they don't want marks in your file: the marks can print, or make your page the wrong size.

**Template content** is anything left over from a template you started with: sample text such as "Chapter Title", guide boxes on a cover template, or instructions printed on the template itself.

### What the platforms say (as at 4 October 2026)

**IngramSpark** can return "Crop Marks on Interior PDF File". It asks for no crop, printer or registration marks in interiors. For covers, you build the artwork on its template, and its coloured guide boxes must be completely covered by your artwork when you submit.

**KDP** asks for interiors without crop marks, trim marks, bookmarks, comments, hidden objects, annotations, placeholder text or file information (metadata). For covers, it asks you to remove crop marks, colour bars and template text. Its formatting help has sections on template content and on page numbers that run in the wrong order.

**Lulu** asks for no trim or bleed marks in your PDF.

**Bookvault** says you don't need crop marks, bleed marks or colour bars, and asks for no extra blank space or padding around your artwork.

**Barnes & Noble Press** asks that your cover PDF contains only the cover itself, with no white space left over from the template.

### How to fix it in Word

Word doesn't put crop marks in your PDF. The crop marks you may see on screen (File > Options > Advanced > Show crop marks) are only a screen guide. So in Word, the clean-up is mostly about leftover text and hidden extras.

1. Press Ctrl+F and search for sample text from your template: "Chapter Title", "Author Name", "Insert", "Type here", "Lorem ipsum". Check headers and footers too, where a "Book Title" placeholder often hides.
2. Remove comments: Review > Delete > Delete All Comments in Document.
3. Accept tracked changes: Review > Accept > Accept All Changes, then turn Track Changes off.
4. Check page numbers run in order, with odd numbers on right-hand pages.
5. Go to File > Save As, choose PDF, and click Options. Under "Publish what", choose **Document** (not "Document showing markup"). Untick "Create bookmarks using" and "Document properties". Click OK, then Save.

**Using a designer, InDesign, Affinity or Canva?** Export with printer's marks turned off but bleed still included. Hide or delete the template's guide layer before you export, and check master (parent) pages for sample text. If your design tool has a "crop marks" option at download, leave it off, but make sure the bleed is still in the file.

### Check before you upload

Bervet's free [spine width calculator](https://bervet.com/tools/spine-width-calculator) checks interior and cover PDFs, including page size and bleed. Crop marks usually make the page bigger than trim plus bleed, so the page size check is a good catch for them. It can't read your words for placeholder text, so do the search in step 1 yourself. The check runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded; checking a PDF needs a free Bervet account.

### Sources
- Sourced from https://help.ingramspark.com/hc/en-us/articles/5341681320205, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://www.ingramspark.com/hubfs/downloads/file-creation-guide.pdf, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834260, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202145060, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201953020, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201857950, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://help.lulu.com/en/support/solutions/articles/64000255519-pdf-creation-settings, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://help.bookvault.app/what-is-bleed-and-why-do-i-need-it, as at 4 October 2026.
- Sourced from https://help-press.barnesandnoble.com/hc/en-us/articles/5358927293211, as at 4 October 2026.

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From Bervet (bervet.com), indie books straight from the people who wrote them. Page: https://bervet.com/forum/guides/205/crop-marks-template-text-and-placeholders-left-in-your-print-file-how-to-clean-them-out
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