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Format your picture book for KDP fixed-layout.

Full-bleed art on every spread. Text that sits in the safe zone. Fixed-layout EPUB for Kindle Kids. Square or landscape, hardback or paperback — we format picture books for ages 0-7 the way real picture-book publishers do.

Back to all book types

Free · 60 seconds · No payment

Before you pay anyone — score it free first.

Drop your manuscript and we run the same 30+ checks Amazon does, line by line, in under a minute. You get a clear /100 score, every failure point flagged, and the exact fix for each one. Whether you book us, do it yourself, or hire someone else — running this first means you don't pay for a service you didn't need.

  • Margins & gutter
  • Image DPI
  • Font embedding
  • ToC links
  • Blank pages
  • ISBN match
  • Bleed configuration
  • Page-count rules
  • Spine width
  • EPUB validation
  • 20+ more checks
  • Per-file PDF report
Step 1 · Production

KDP Readiness Score

"Will my picture book pass KDP review?"

Drop your manuscript
Or click to choose a file

Accepts .docx, .pdf, .epub · up to 200 MB · files never stored, deleted after 24h

Run the KDP Readiness Score →

The recommended trim size

The format choice that matters most. We can deviate if your project needs it — but here's the working benchmark.

Recommended KDP trim

For picture book — go with 8.5×8.5 in

8.5×8.5 in

Acceptable alternatives: 8.25×8.25 in or 8×10 in (landscape) · all are KDP-approved trim sizes

Square 8.5×8.5 is the dominant picture-book trim — gives full-bleed illustrations a generous canvas, works in a child's lap, fits the standard nursery shelf. If your art is landscape-shaped we'll route you to 8×10 portrait or 8.25×8.25 landscape with hardback option.

Picture books are 100% image-led — every spread is treated as a 300 DPI plate, bleed-checked, safe-zone-validated. This is the £219 Picture Book package.

What we get right for picture book

The six things that make picture book formatting different from generic novel formatting.

Full-bleed every spread

0.125-inch bleed on all four edges of every page. Text kept inside the 0.25-inch safe zone — never within the gutter. Every spread treated as a single composition, not two pages.

Fixed-layout EPUB (KF8)

KDP fixed-layout output for Kindle Kids and Kindle Fire. Region magnification on text panels. Read-aloud audio supported if you want it (extra).

Hardback case-laminate

Most picture books sell in hardback. We calibrate the cover wrap for KDP's case-laminate spec (not paperback) and supply the dust-jacket file separately if you want both.

Author + illustrator credits

Two-line title-page credit (Written by / Illustrated by), back-cover bio panels for both, copyright credit to illustrator. Trad picture-book convention.

Read-aloud rhythm

Page-turn timing matters in picture books. We don't change your words, but we'll flag any spread where the page-turn reveal lands flat — so you can adjust before we typeset.

CMYK + sRGB dual workflow

Print uses CMYK soft-proofed against KDP's color profile. EPUB uses sRGB at higher saturation. Both built from the same illustrator master files.

Standard, on every project

Whatever the book type, this is what every order includes.

Print-ready PDF

KDP-compliant margins, mirrored gutters scaled to your page count, 0.125-inch bleed where needed, embedded fonts, 300 DPI image pre-flight, semantic page-break logic.

Reflowable Kindle EPUB

Optimised for every Kindle device including phone reading. Clean chapter recognition, working drop caps, scene-break ornaments, properly-linked TOC, semantic ordered/unordered lists.

Cover wrap calibration

Spine width auto-calculated from your final page count. Cover supplied to KDP-template spec for paperback, hardback or both. Full-bleed art tested against KDP's print profile.

Two free revision rounds

Side-by-side viewer to comment on specific pages. Most books need none; complex non-fiction sometimes needs both. Additional rounds £19 each.

KDP-approval guarantee

If KDP rejects your file for a formatting reason, we fix it free. We've never had a rejection — but the guarantee is the principle.

UK-based, no Mac required

You send a Word file (or PDF, Google Docs, RTF, ODT, EPUB, plain text). We send back finished files. No software to install, no learning curve.

Ready to format your picture book?

From £69 for print-ready PDF. £119 for print + Kindle. Picture-book and complete packages from £179.

Order your formatting → ← All book types
Last reviewed May 2026 · Reviewed by the publishing.co.uk team