Formats and platforms

Ebook cover
The retail display image for a digital edition — a pixel file, not a print sheet. Amazon's ideal Kindle cover is 2,560 × 1,600 pixels at a 1.6:1 ratio, in RGB. Ebook cover size guide
1.6:1 ratio
The height-to-width proportion Amazon recommends for Kindle covers — 1.6 units tall for every 1 wide, matching the 2,560 × 1,600 pixel ideal. Wattpad's 512 × 800 format is close to the same proportion.
KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
Amazon's self-publishing platform for ebooks, paperbacks, and case-laminate hardcovers. KDP generates title-specific cover templates and publishes the spine and bleed formulas its reviewers enforce.
KDP Cover Creator
KDP's free built-in cover tool. It uploads directly and is genuinely free, but layout control is limited and the output cannot follow the book to other printers or formats. Common Cover Creator problems
IngramSpark
A print-on-demand and distribution service reaching bookstores and libraries. Its covers must be built from the title-specific template it generates, which supplies the exact spine width — never estimated from a KDP formula. IngramSpark cover planning hub
ACX square
The audiobook cover format for Audible and iTunes via ACX: a true square of at least 2,400 × 2,400 pixels, RGB, as JPG, PNG, or TIF up to 8 MB, with the title and author clearly visible. Audiobook cover maker
Wattpad cover
The 512 × 800 pixel portrait cover used on Wattpad, discovered almost entirely as a small phone tile — which makes bold type and one focal image mandatory. Wattpad cover size guide
ASIN
Amazon Standard Identification Number — the free identifier Amazon assigns every Kindle book automatically. It is why a Kindle-only ebook needs no ISBN.
ISBN
The 13-digit identifier for a specific edition and format of a book. Print editions on KDP require one — free from KDP or purchased from your national agency — and each format needs its own. Does an ebook need an ISBN?
EAN-13 barcode
The scannable barcode rendering of an ISBN-13 printed in the back cover's barcode zone. KDP adds one automatically if the cover file lacks it. ISBN barcode generator
Print on demand (POD)
Manufacturing where each copy is printed after it is ordered, with no inventory. KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu, and Barnes & Noble Press are POD services — and their per-copy economics are why file specifications are enforced strictly.

Design and typography

Hierarchy
The deliberate reading order of a cover's text — usually title first, then author, then subtitle or series line — built from scale, weight, contrast, and spacing rather than decoration.
Display typeface
A typeface designed for large, expressive use — the title's voice. Display faces carry genre signal but often fail at small sizes, which is why they pair with a supporting face. Font pairing guides
Supporting typeface
The quieter companion face used for the author name, subtitle, and back-cover copy. It supplies the legibility the display face trades away.
Tracking
The uniform letter-spacing across a word or line. Generous tracking can make small capitals feel considered; negative tracking at thumbnail size makes titles collapse into blobs.
Lockup
A fixed arrangement of title, subtitle, and author name treated as one repeatable unit — the backbone of a series look, where the lockup holds still while artwork changes per book. Series cover systems
Focal point
The single element a viewer's eye lands on first. Strong covers commit to one focal point; montages that split attention lose the thumbnail test.
Genre signal
The visual cues — palette, imagery, type style — that tell a reader what kind of book this is in about a second. Matching the category's live signals without copying any specific cover is the core marketing job of a cover. Genre cues as reader promise
Thumbnail test
Judging a cover at retail-grid size — smaller than a business card — where most buying decisions start. Title contrast, silhouette, and focal separation decide whether a design survives reduction. Free thumbnail check
Mockup
A promotional render placing the flat cover into a realistic scene — standing hardcover, paperback stack, e-reader — so readers picture the finished book. A mockup is marketing art, never the production file. Free book mockup generator
Art direction
The set of visual decisions — palette, imagery territory, composition logic, type voice — made before any specific artwork, so every asset expresses the same promise.

Commissioning and rights

Premade cover
A finished cover design sold as-is, customized only with your title and author name, typically retired from sale afterward. Faster and cheaper than custom; the trade-off is exclusivity and fit. Premade covers guide
Custom cover
A cover commissioned from a designer to a brief, with concepts and revision rounds — typically a two-to-six-week arc. The route for bespoke illustration, likenesses, and original lettering. What cover design costs
AI-generated vs AI-assisted
KDP's disclosure categories: AI-generated content was created by an AI tool, and must be disclosed during publishing; AI-assisted means a human created the content and AI only helped edit or refine it. The publisher decides which applies and remains responsible. The full AI cover rules guide
Design brief
The shared document defining the book's reader, category, promise, tone, required formats, constraints, and evaluation criteria before design begins. A precise brief saves whole revision rounds. Design brief generator
Blurb
The short persuasive description on the back cover or retail page that raises the book's central question without answering it. In trade publishing the word can also mean an endorsement quote. What is a book blurb?
Tagline (hook)
An optional single line on the front cover that sharpens the premise — subordinate to the title, readable only at larger sizes, and worth including only when it adds concrete tension.
Synopsis
A complete plot summary, ending included, written for agents and editors — never for the back cover. Blurbs sell the question; the synopsis answers it.
Commercial-use license
The documented right to use artwork and fonts on a book sold commercially. Every cover asset — generated, stock, commissioned, or personal — needs a license or permission you can produce if asked.
Provenance record
The documentation of where cover artwork came from — who made it, with what tool or source, under what rights. Retailer disclosures, award rules, and contract clauses all become easier with provenance recorded at creation time. Keeping an artwork rights record

Platform figures come from Amazon KDP cover preparation · IngramSpark File Creation Guide · ACX cover art requirements. Reviewed ; recheck the current template before production.