Amazon KDP publishes every print specification in inches first. The
tables below repeat each value in millimetres, because that is what a European
printer, a page-layout program and the MenuTome app work in. Nothing here is rounded
for convenience: 0.125" is exactly 3.175 mm, even though
Amazon writes “3.2 mm” in its own text.
1. Trim size — what you can choose
The trim size is the finished page, after cutting. KDP offers 16 sizes for paperback and 5 for hardcover.
Paperback (16 sizes)
| Inches | Millimetres | Often used for |
|---|---|---|
| 5 × 8 | 127 × 203 | small format, text-heavy |
| 5.06 × 7.81 | 129 × 198 | — |
| 5.25 × 8 | 133 × 203 | — |
| 5.5 × 8.5 | 140 × 216 | — |
| 6 × 9 | 152 × 229 | common trade size |
| 6.14 × 9.21 | 156 × 234 | — |
| 6.69 × 9.61 | 170 × 244 | — |
| 7 × 10 | 178 × 254 | a common cookbook size |
| 7.44 × 9.69 | 189 × 246 | — |
| 7.5 × 9.25 | 191 × 235 | — |
| 8 × 10 | 203 × 254 | a common cookbook size |
| 8.25 × 6 | 210 × 152 | landscape |
| 8.25 × 8.25 | 210 × 210 | square |
| 8.27 × 11.69 | 210 × 297 (A4) | — |
| 8.5 × 8.5 | 216 × 216 | square |
| 8.5 × 11 | 216 × 279 | large, photo-led |
Hardcover (5 sizes)
| Inches | Millimetres |
|---|---|
| 5.5 × 8.5 | 140 × 216 |
| 6 × 9 | 152 × 229 |
| 6.14 × 9.21 | 156 × 234 |
| 7 × 10 | 178 × 254 |
| 8.25 × 11 | 210 × 279 |
2. Bleed — 0.125"
Bleed is the extra image area that gets cut away, so that a photo running to the edge of the page really does reach the edge. KDP asks for 0.125" (3.175 mm).
The part people get wrong is where the bleed goes on an interior page. It is not added on all four sides: the bound edge is never cut, so it gets nothing.
| Interior page with bleed | Formula | Example, 6 × 9 |
|---|---|---|
| Width | trim width + 1 × 0.125" | 6.125" (155.58 mm) |
| Height | trim height + 2 × 0.125" | 9.25" (234.95 mm) |
On the cover, bleed is added left and right of the whole sheet and top and bottom — the cover is one single sheet with the spine in the middle. See the spine width calculator for the full cover sheet formula.
3. Margins — the gutter grows with the page count
The gutter is the inside margin, next to the binding. A thick book is harder to open flat, so KDP requires more room the more pages you have. Amazon lists content that runs into the gutter as a cause of formatting problems: otherwise the recipe text disappears into the fold.
| Page count | Minimum gutter (inches) | Millimetres |
|---|---|---|
| up to 150 | 0.375" | 9.525 mm |
| 151 – 300 | 0.5" | 12.7 mm |
| 301 – 500 | 0.625" | 15.875 mm |
| 501 – 700 | 0.75" | 19.05 mm |
| 701 and more | 0.875" | 22.225 mm |
Outside margins (top, bottom, outer edge): at least 0.25" (6.35 mm) without bleed, at least 0.375" (9.525 mm) with bleed. The same table applies to paperback and hardcover — KDP publishes only one.
4. Page count — the limits depend on the paper
| Binding and paper | Minimum | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Paperback, standard colour | 72 | 600 |
| Paperback, premium colour or black & white | 24 | 828 |
| Hardcover | 75 — see the note | 550 |
A contradiction at Amazon’s end, not ours: KDP’s help page lists hardcover as “75 – 550”, while the cover calculator form rejects anything below 76 with the message “Page count must be between 76 - 550”. If you are planning a hardcover of exactly 75 pages, plan for 76 instead — the form is what actually accepts your file.
Standard colour is not available for hardcover at all. A colour hardcover is always printed on premium colour paper, which also makes the spine slightly thicker.
5. Spine text — from 79 pages
KDP only prints text on the spine from 79 pages upwards, and the text must keep at least 0.0625" (1.6 mm) clear of both spine edges.
Read this one carefully. On one and the same KDP help page, three places say “at least 79 pages” and one says “more than 79 pages”. The two readings differ for exactly one book: one with precisely 79 pages. If that is your book, 80 pages costs you nothing and removes the doubt. (A separate note on the same page says the minimum is 80 pages when you build the cover with Amazon’s own cover tool — that does not apply if you upload a finished cover PDF.)
How thick the spine actually is at a given page count: the spine width calculator.
6. Hardcover: wrap and hinge
A hardcover case is wrapped around the boards, so the artwork has to run further than the visible cover: 0.51" (15 mm) past each edge. Between the spine and the safe area there is a hinge of 0.4" (10 mm) on each side — nothing you want to read should sit there.
One more Amazon inconsistency, passed on rather than hidden: KDP writes the wrap as “0.51" (15 mm)” in one breath, but 0.51" is 12.95 mm and 15 mm is 0.591". The two numbers are about 2 mm apart. MenuTome uses the larger one, 15 mm: too much wrap disappears around the board, too little leaves a white edge.
How MenuTome uses these numbers
MenuTome is a cookbook maker for Windows. It lays out your recipes, calculates the spine from your real page count and paper type, and writes an interior PDF and a cover PDF in exactly these dimensions — then measures the sheet of the finished file against the size it worked out and stops the export if the two do not match (a check of the sheet size, not a full print check). Its built-in check was compared value by value against Amazon’s published specification on 19 September 2026: 22 of 26 individual values matched exactly.
The free basic tier needs no account and runs on your own PC. It makes one finished book of up to 15 pages, watermarked, and does not include the Amazon print package; the KDP print package — interior and cover with the calculated spine and bleed — is part of Pro. Download MenuTome for Windows · What the app actually does
Sources
Amazon KDP help pages “Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins”, “Create a Paperback Cover”, “Create a Hardcover Cover” and “Paperback Printing Cost”, all retrieved on 19 September 2026. Amazon can change them without notice; if a number here no longer matches what KDP tells you, KDP is right and we would be glad to hear about it at info@menutome.de.
Amazon and Amazon KDP are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. They are named here only to identify the service these specifications belong to. MenuTome is an independent product and is not affiliated with Amazon.