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Quick cover format question
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Tara Woods Turner
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Oct 12, 2016 11:52AM
You guys, I forgot what format kindle book covers have to be in - jpeg? Thanks.
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Yep, JPEG is better. PNG also works on some platforms, but JPEG is pretty universal everywhere :)However, remember that Print requires a PDF file
Ha! Can you tell I've only got one book out?
Tara wrote: "Ha! Can you tell I've only got one book out?"LOL!!!
Tara,I'm going to seem like a techie here (heaven forbid!), but you should have several jpegs stored for your cover. Thumbnails don't need too many pixels, but I had the recent experience of placing covers on posters and the lack of pixels was noticeable. Going the other way, when you're uploading your author photo to a site (e.g., a PR and marketing effort), they might restrict the number of pixels.
These are choices you can make when creating the jpeg with a computer or running a scanner. For my covers, my cover artist sends me several different versions.
Good luck!
r/Steve
Right on what Steven says. You should have your jpeg in the following sizes:200x300
500x750
1600x2400
Most reseller sites prefer the 1600x2400 format.
As for resolution, 72dpi (standard) is perfect for online/screen viewing. If you're going for print or poster, then it better be at least 300dpi resolution.
Zee,Thanks for including the numbers. I couldn't remember them. For some reason, I thought there was a #4 too, but I'm probably wrong.
The DPI is more for printing (screen or paper). Generally the JPEG is scaled OK as long as one has enough pixels for the output device--otherwise, one might see the pixels.
I'm not sure about your comment about reseller sites. Wouldn't they just be using thumbnails? Or are you talking about Create Space and Lightning, for example?
r/Steve
