Tags
Apple iBook, Barnes and Nobel, Book Baby, book cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, Keith Draws, kindle, Kobo, Lulu, Smash Words
I’ve noticed that finding the correct format for an e-book cover is not exactly easy. Even if you manage to find a guide on the publishing website you intend to use you soon find the documents are filled with jargon and useless information that serves only to confuse. So what I’ve done is break it down to the essential information. Please remember though that some of these formats are quite different from each other and I’d recommend you tweak your cover layout somewhat for each one. If I have missed any format out please let me know and I’ll add it. So in no particular order here is the only information you actually need:
Barnes and Noble (for Nook)
Aspect ratio:1.2
Image size: 600 pixels wide 730 pixels high.
DPI: 100
File size limit: 2 MB
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
Kindle and Book Baby
Aspect ratio:1.6
Image size: 2820 x 4500 pixels (previously 1563 x 2500 pixels)
DPI: 72
File size limit: no limit specified
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
Smash Words and Kobo
Aspect ratio:1.5
Image size: 1600 pixels wide x 2400 pixels high
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2MB
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
LULU
Aspect ratio:1.3
Image size: 612 pixels wide x 792 pixels high
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2 million pixels
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
Apple iBook
You need two covers for Apple.
1. Sales image:
Aspect ratio:1.6
Image size: 1563 pixels wide x 2500 pixels high.
DPI: 72
File size limit: none
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
2. Internal cover (you can just reduce the sales image by 70% for this)
Aspect ratio:1.6
Image size: 1094 pixels wide x 1750 pixels high.
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2 million pixels
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)
If anybody finds anything to be incorrect please let me know in the comments. As far as I am aware these sizes are correct but it won’t hurt to double-check for yourself.
keithdraws 
As I dislike jpeg, I use tiff for Kindle and png wherever possible. Are there benefits to jpeg I should know about?
Well I can understand why you’d dislike jpeg because compression artifacts may be visible as you lower the quality option (since JPEG is a lossy format) but if you choose maximum quality there are usually no visible artifacts and the image quality looks fine.
Tiff and png are lossless and retain all the quality but have substantially larger file sizes, at least double that of a maximum quality jpeg and sometimes even more.
The main advantage to jpeg is that its compatible with all the servers and because of its small size will upload faster which is why I chose it for this post. Just trying to keep things simple really. If you know your way around file types that great.
Perhaps I also should mention that I’d never save my original art as a jpeg but rather always keep it in PSD form. 😀
Thanks.
Thanks. My knowledge is patchy.
Well hopefully its a bit less patchy now 😀
thank you Keith. This was really helpful
You are welcome, I wish I had more time to post other helpful stuff. 😀
Excellent; just the info I had needed. Thanks!!
Glad I could help 😀
When you look at a Kindle bookshelf for example, the books are never all the same size. Some are tall and skinny, some are more square, etc. So are these requirements or recommendations? I’ve read that you can create one cover 1600 pixels wide that will work with all formats.
They are the sizes as recommended by the various publishers listed. This means that if you use another size there is no guarantee that they will accept the file. And even if they do it’s quite possible it will be distorted, (stretched or squashed to fit).
Obviously you are free to do as you please but if you want the best results I’d recommend sticking with the publishers guidelines.
Thanks for the response, Ken. That makes sense. But can you explain why the covers on a Kindle’s home screen shows books with a wide variety of sizes? I even have a couple books with square covers on my Kindle and the covers aren’t distorted?
By the way, thanks so much for posting this information! You are correct that finding the correct format for an e-book cover is not exactly easy.
This is just an educated guess. I think that the size kindle recommend is to suit the resolution of their screen and the formatting of the kindle app. The kindle home screen clearly does not distort the shape of the file so if people do not use the recommendations (and I know of a few that use 6 x 9 rather than the recommended 1 x 1.6 format ) then the Kindle home screen will show the format differences.
It may be so with other publishers too. I’d have to look into it and I will at some point.
Anyway. That’s best answer I can give you at this point. Happy holidays 😀
Thank you for your research.
It’s a pleasure 😀
Hey,
thanks for this great article. We’ve collected all important specifications and created an ebook cover size list. Hope you enjoy 🙂
Looks like I need to update this 😀 Thank you.