1 of 6 Welcome to CreateSpace. Please log in, or if you're a new user, create a new account. Book Help > Black & White Submission Requirements This guide is for ready to publish (print-ready) PDF file submissions of perfect bound, trade paperback books with black & wh interiors and full-color covers. This program is intended for the author or publisher with extensive knowledge in graphic des and book layout. The files you submit to us will print in the exact manner in which you submit them. To achieve the book you envision it is important that you submit your final book cover and interior files to us in fully format PDF files using the guidelines below with all fonts and images embedded. Trim Sizes and Maximum Page Counts We offer a variety of trim sizes (see below) with a minimum of 24 pages. The maximum number of pages you can have vary trim size and printing options. Standard Trim Sizes Color Interior B&W Interior 5.25" x 8" 5.5" x 8.5" 5.25" x 8" 5.5" x 8.5" 6" x 9" 7" x 10" 6" x 9" 7" x 10" 8" x 10" 8.25" x 8.25" 8" x 10" 8.25" x 8.25" 8.25" x 6" 8.25" x 6" We can also accept the following trim sizes: 5" x 8", 5.06" x 7.81", 6.14" x 9.21", 6.69" x 9.61", 7.44" x 9.69", 7.5" x 9.25". Creating Your Cover File Your cover must be a single (one-piece) PDF that includes the back cover, spine and front cover. You can submit your cover on any size page as long as the printable area is: Measured exactly for your book's trim size, spine width (see "B" below) and at least.125" bleed Centered horizontally and vertically Minimum Cover Width: Bleed + Back Cover Trim Size + Spine Width + Front Cover Trim Size + Bleed Minimum Cover Height: Bleed + Book Height Trim Size + Bleed Download our Artwork Templates to find the cover size for your specific book and helpful guide layers.
2 of 6 A. Text and Image Placement All live cover elements (text and/or images that cannot be cut) must be at least.25" inside the trim lines to ensure no import elements are cut during the bookmaking process and the appearance of your printed books is consistent. B. Spine Width and Variance It is important to keep in mind that each book printed is individually bound. Therefore you should avoid hard vertical lin separating your front or back cover panels from your spine and should allow for at least a.125" variance of your spine on ea side (for example, the text on a 1" spine should be no larger than.75" wide). For books with a page count of less than 130 pag we strongly recommend a blank spine. Your spine width should be calculated into decimal inches based on the number of pages in your book and using the appropri formula below. For books printed on white paper, multiply page count of your book by 0.002252 For books printed on cream paper, multiply page count of your book by 0.0025 Example of spine width calculation for a 60-page book printed on white paper 60 x 0.002252 = 0.135" spine width C. Bleed Your cover's background must be extended at least.125" beyond the final trim line to accommodate for cutting/trimm tolerance. We encourage additional bleed beyond the minimum of.125;" if you desire, your bleed can even extend to the edg of the page, realizing that any elements included beyond your book's trim size will be cut off during the production process. Crop/Registration Marks Please do not include any crop or registration marks on any files you submit to us, as they may interfere with the binding proce or appear on some copies of the books produced due to our small variance. We use our own measurements, specific to print-on-demand technology, for cutting and binding; crop or registration marks placed by you could interfere with this. Images and Fonts Any images you include on your book's cover may be tagged with your choice of CMYK or RGB profiles or left untagged i generic color space. All images should be sized at 100%, flattened to one layer and placed in your native document a resolution of at least 300 DPI. You should also embed all fonts in your PDF file. Barcodes When your title is printed, our system will superimpose an ISBN barcode in the lower right-hand corner of your book's back cov There is no cost for the assignment of this ISBN, and you can use your own ISBN if you have one. The ISBN barcode will be in a white box 2" wide and 1.2" tall. The bottom of this ISBN barcode is located 1/4" up from the bott trim line of the cover. The right side of the ISBN barcode is located 1/4" to the left of the spine. Please ensure that you don't ha any important images or text in the ISBN barcode location. You can also refer to our Artwork Templates for the exact size a
3 of 6 position of the ISBN barcode on your final cover. If you would like to use pre-existing artwork, which includes an ISBN barcode in a different location than specified by template, please contact Member Services for more information and directions.please also make sure that the spine width your current cover matches our spine width requirements and is the correct trim size for your book. Creating Your Book Block The interior pages of your book are commonly referred to as your book block and should be formatted to the exact final trim s of your book. It should also be submitted as a single PDF file with one text page per PDF page. Margins We require that all live text and graphic elements be at least.25" inside the trim. Many designers choose, and we stron recommend, to have a.75" inside margin with a.5" outside margin for text. Books with larger page counts (over 400 pag should have larger inside margins to allow for margin lost during binding. Bleed If you wish for images to bleed to the edge of your book block, ensure that they extend at least.125" beyond the final book's trim size from the top, bottom and outer edges and submit your PDF at.25" higher and.125" wider to accommodate the full bleed area. For example, the final page size for an 8" x 10" book with bleed would be 8.125" x 10.25." Remember that all live elements must be at least.25" away from the trim lines. *Note: Images will not bleed across the middle of the book. If your book is set-up for them to do so, there will be a small white line in the book's gutter. Images Any images you include in your book's interior should be converted to grayscale, sized at 100%, flattened to one layer a placed in your native document at a resolution of at least 300 DPI. Because this submission type does not support full-co interior books, please note that if you include color images in your book's interior, they will be printed in black and white, wh may result in a loss of quality. Fonts You should embed all fonts in your PDF file. Additional Notes An additional page containing a manufacturing-related barcode will be added as the last page of your book. This barcode necessary to print your book orders. Due to our unique print-on-demand model, your book may have blank pages at the end. These result as part of the print process and cannot be eliminated by adding additional pages to your book's print file. A suggestion only two steps to saving a PDF Note: These steps refer to the PC versions of Adobe Acrobat. For assistance creating your PDF using a Mac version of Ado Acrobat, consult your software's documentation. There are many ways to create a PDF. This is our recommended method that may help to prevent many of the technical err that could either reject the files or cause printing difficulties. There are any number of settings in your native file that may cause a problem in the PDF. The suggestions below do guarantee a foolproof PDF but they do provide a simple system that helps to avoid errors in the distilling process. For Adobe Acrobat Versions 5 and below: Step 1 - Set your Distiller options
4 of 6 Open Acrobat Distiller Go to the Job Options dropdown menu Choose Print as the job option Go to Settings in the menu and choose Job options Set all compression settings for Bicubic Downsampling and 300 DPI Under the Fonts tab, check Embed all fonts and uncheck Subset fonts... (Unless you have experience, you should leave everything else as the default) You will be prompted to save these preferences and we suggest you do so. You can name it whatever you like as long as y can distinguish it from the other settings. Step 2 - Printing your PDF Open your document Choose Acrobat Distiller as the printer in the dropdown menu Click on properties Set your page size (if your page size is not listed select custom size and enter the correct size) Under the Graphics tab, change the resolution to 305 DPI Go to the Adobe PDF Settings tab In the dropdown menu for conversion settings choose whatever you named the setting in step one Click Apply You will be prompted to name the file and choose a location for it. The resulting file is the one you should upload to us. For Adobe Acrobat Version 6.0: Step 1 - Set your Distiller options Open Acrobat Distiller Go to the Settings dropdown menu Choose High Quality as the job option In the top menu, go to Settings in the menu and choose Edit Adobe PDF settings Under the General tab: Set Compatibility to Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4) Under the Images tab: Set all compression settings to Bicubic Downsampling and set the resolution to 305 DPI. Under the Fonts tab: Check Embed all fonts and uncheck Subset fonts... Deselect the option Do not send fonts to Adobe PDF (You should leave everything else as the default) You will be prompted to save these preferences and we suggest you do so. You can name it whatever you like as long as y can distinguish it from the other settings. You only have to perform Step 1 once to create the Default PDF settings. Step 2 - Printing your PDF Open your document Choose Adobe PDF as the printer in the dropdown menu Click on properties Set your page size (if your page size is not listed select custom size and enter the correct size) Under the Graphics tab, change the resolution to 300 DPI Go to the Adobe PDF Settings tab In the dropdown menu for conversion settings choose whatever you named the setting in step one Click Apply
5 of 6 You will be prompted to name the file and choose a location for it. The resulting file is the one that you should uplpad to us. For Adobe Acrobat Version 7.0 Open your source document Choose Acrobat PDF as the printer in the dropdown menu The first dropdown is for Default Settings Click on Edit (it will take a few seconds to open) Under the General tab: **Under Compatibility: Choose Acrobat 5.0** All other settings should remain the same Under the Images tab: Leave the Bicubic Downsampling but change the resolution Color Images: downsample to 305 for images above 320 Grayscale Images: downsample to 305 for images above 320 Monochrome images can be left as is Under the fonts tab: Deselect the Subset embedded fonts option Select ALL of the fonts under Font Source and add them to Always Embed Under Color tab: Under color management policies select Leave Color Unchanged Under Advanced and Standards Leave all settings as they are At the bottom of the screen, click Save As. We recommend naming this job option. Click save and then OK on the settin window. The second dropdown is for Security make sure this is set to None The third dropdown is for Adobe PDF Output Folder you may set this as you wish The fourth dropdown is for Page size select the appropriate page size per our specifications (create a new size if needed) Deselect the option Do not send fonts to Adobe PDF You will be prompted to name the file and choose a location for it. The resulting file is the one that you should upload to us. For Adobe Acrobat Version 8.0 Open your source document Choose Acrobat PDF as the printer in the dropdown menu Click on Properties The first drop down menu is for default settings Click on Edit (it will take a few seconds to open) Under the General tab: Under Compatibility: Choose Acrobat 5.0 Under Object Level Compression: Choose Off Under Auto-Rotate Pages: Choose Off All other settings should remain the same Under the Images tab: Leave the Bicubic Downsampling but change the resolution Color Images: downsample to 305 for images above 320 and change the compression to JPEG Maximum Grayscale Images: downsample to 305 for images above 320 and change the compression to JPEG Maximum Monochrome images can be left as is Under the fonts tab: Deselect the "Subset embedded fonts" option Select ALL of the fonts under Font Source and add them to Always Embed Under Color tab: Under color management policies select Leave Color Unchanged Under Advanced and Standards
6 of 6 Leave all settings as they are At the bottom of the screen, click Save As. We recommend naming this job option. Click save and then OK on the settin window. The second dropdown is for Security make sure this is set to None The third dropdown is for Adobe PDF Output Folder you may set this as you wish The fourth dropdown is for Page size select the appropriate page size per our guidelines (create a new size if needed) Deselect the option "Do not send fonts to Adobe PDF" You will be prompted to name the file and choose a location for it. The resulting file is the one you should upload to us. PDF Creation using Other Tools There are several free and low-cost options you can use to create your book files. Wikipedia provides a list of these applicatio that may be used to set up your book for on-demand publishing. Please check back in the next few days for more information. About Us Contact Us Careers Press Room Privacy Terms of Use Sitemap Copyright 2000-2008, CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing LLC, part of the Amazon group of companies. All rights reserved.