KDP Cover Design: Cover Template for KDP Print Using GIMP

About this video

Dale walks through building a KDP Print cover in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) starting from an existing ebook cover, a book description, and an optional author biography. He searches for the KDP Print cover template on kdp.amazon.com, selects his trim size of 6 by 9 inches, enters 232 pages, and chooses white paper, then downloads and unzips the template and drags the PNG file into GIMP. He aligns the front cover to the template, nudging it with the arrow keys to the dotted spine line, color-picks a dark color from the cover, duplicates the template layer, and fills a copy so the design blends. He then builds the back cover inside the bleed area, adding the headline hook, description, closing line, and biography as separate text boxes, formatting them with fonts such as Bebas Neue for the hook and Sans Serif for body text, adjusting size, italics, bold, and color — including an aqua blue picked from the front cover and a gradient effect. He stresses not writing on the bleed or covering the barcode. For the spine he notes a book needs 100 pages or more to have one, duplicates the hook text, rotates it clockwise via Layer > Transform, and centers it on the spine. Finally he merges visible layers and exports the finished cover as a PDF using Control+Shift+E for upload to KDP Print.

Key takeaways

• Start with the official KDP Print cover template generated for your exact trim size, page count, and paper color — in the example, 6 by 9 inches, 232 pages, and white paper.
• Position the ebook cover in GIMP with the Alignment and Move tools, aligning it to the spine’s dotted line and using the Color Picker to blend the template background with the cover.
• Build the back cover from the hook, book description, closing line, and optional biography, keeping all text inside the bleed lines and clear of the barcode area.
• A spine is only possible with 100 pages or more; Dale reuses the hook text, rotates it clockwise, and centers it on the spine.
• Finish by merging all visible layers and exporting the complete cover as a PDF for upload to KDP Print.

Episode details: published January 29, 2019 · 13:48 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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