The short answer
Standard colour, unless the pictures are the product. On Amazon.co.uk a 250-page paperback prints at about £5.85 in standard colour and £11.73 in premium — £5.88 a copy, every copy, for heavier paper and richer ink.
That difference is bigger than most authors’ entire royalty. At a £14.99 list price you keep 60% minus print: £3.14 on standard colour, and you are £2.74 in the red on premium.
Two rules may take the decision away from you before taste gets a say, and both catch people out:
- Standard colour only exists between 72 and 600 pages. A 32-page picture book cannot use it.
- Standard colour is not offered on hardcover at all.
And whichever you choose is locked to your ISBN the moment you publish.
What each one actually is
| Standard colour | Premium colour | |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | 50–61 lb / 74–90 GSM white | 60–71 lb / 88–105 GSM white |
| Fixed cost per book | £0.85 | £0.85 |
| Per page, regular trim | 2.0p | 4.35p |
| Per page, large trim | 2.7p | 5.98p |
| Page range allowed | 72–600 | 24–828 |
| Available on hardcover | No | Yes |
Regular trim means up to 6.12″ wide and 9″ tall. Anything bigger is a large trim size and costs more per page in both.
Figures from KDP’s paperback printing cost page and print options page, Amazon.co.uk, read 23 September 2026.
What it costs at real page counts
| Pages | Standard colour | Premium colour | Difference per copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 (the minimum for standard) | £2.29 | £3.98 | £1.69 |
| 100 | £2.85 | £5.20 | £2.35 |
| 150 | £3.85 | £7.38 | £3.53 |
| 200 | £4.85 | £9.55 | £4.70 |
| 250 | £5.85 | £11.73 | £5.88 |
| 300 | £6.85 | £13.90 | £7.05 |
| 400 | £8.85 | £18.25 | £9.40 |
The gap widens with every page, because the difference is per page, not a flat premium. A 400-page colour workbook costs £9.40 a copy more in premium — on a print run of 500 that is £4,700.
What you have to charge to make it work
KDP pays 60% of your list price minus the print cost. Here is a 250-page colour paperback on Amazon.co.uk:
| List price | Royalty on standard colour | Royalty on premium colour |
|---|---|---|
| £12.99 | £1.94 | −£3.94 |
| £14.99 | £3.14 | −£2.74 |
| £17.99 | £4.94 | −£0.94 |
| £19.99 | £6.14 | £0.26 |
| £24.99 | £9.14 | £3.26 |
| £29.99 | £12.14 | £6.26 |
A premium-colour book of this length does not break even until roughly £19.55. That is the real cost of the decision: it is not £5.88, it is the £5 you have to add to your cover price, and what that does to your conversion rate against every other book on the page.
Run your own numbers with our KDP royalty calculator — it takes trim size and ink type and gives you the figure for your book rather than this one.
When premium is genuinely worth it
Premium is not a con. It buys real things, and for some books they matter:
- Photography books and cookbooks where the food is the selling point. Heavier stock shows less of the image on the reverse and holds saturated colour better.
- Art books and portfolios, where a reviewer will notice paper weight.
- Anything with full-bleed images across a spread. Lighter paper telegraphs more.
- Books under 72 pages, where you have no choice.
- Hardcovers, same.
When standard is the right answer
- Cookbooks at a normal retail price. £5.85 supports £14.99–£17.99. Premium forces £24.99+ and most home cooks do not pay it.
- Workbooks, planners, activity books. Colour is functional, not decorative.
- Textbooks and technical books with colour diagrams. Nobody buys a textbook for its paper.
- Children’s chapter books with spot colour. They clear 72 pages and do not need the weight.
- Anything where you are testing the market. You can always launch a premium edition later; you cannot convert this one.
The mistake that costs the most
Publishing in premium colour without checking, then discovering the margin problem after the book is live.
The ink and paper type are locked to the ISBN once you publish. There is no toggle. Moving to standard colour means a new listing with a new ISBN, which means starting again with no reviews, no sales rank and no history — which is why almost nobody does it, and why authors quietly carry a £5.88 hole in every sale for years.
Check the number before you upload, not after.
Formatting a colour book?
Cookbooks are £179 and picture books £219 — built to KDP's colour spec, with images pre-flighted at 300 DPI and 0.125-inch bleed so the print matches the screen.
Format my book →Related
- KDP paper types compared — all five interior options, including the black-ink and groundwood costs
- White vs cream paper — the decision for black-ink books
- Cookbook KDP formatting — two-column recipe layouts and photo pre-flight
- Picture book KDP formatting — why short colour books have no choice
- KDP royalty calculator — your book, your numbers
