Free tool

Book Spine Width Calculator

Calculate your paperback's spine width and full wrap cover size from the page count and paper type, to KDP's specification. Free, no sign-up.

Free, and no account needed.

A wraparound cover cannot be designed until the interior is final, because the spine is page count times paper thickness — one extra page changes the width, and a spine that is wrong by a millimetre wraps the artwork around the edge of the book.

Cream paper is thicker than white, so the same manuscript gives a wider spine on cream. Below 79 pages Amazon will not print text on the spine at all, because there is not enough of it to print on.

Common questions

How do I calculate spine width for KDP?
Multiply the page count by the paper thickness: 0.002252 inches a page for white paper, 0.0025 for cream. A 300-page cream paperback has a spine of 0.75 inches.
What size should my full cover file be?
Two covers plus the spine, plus 0.125 inches of bleed on all four sides. The figure above is the full wrap size for the trim and page count you entered — design to that, not to the trim size alone.
Why does cream paper give a wider spine?
It is physically thicker — 0.0025 inches a sheet against 0.002252 for white. Over 300 pages that is about a fifteenth of an inch, which is more than enough to misalign a cover designed for the wrong stock.

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