Amazon.co.uk provides high-quality digital printing and paperback binding services for publishers. We currently can accept any paperback book within the following specifications:

Trim Size
Amazon.co.uk can accommodate any trim size within these dimensions:

For black and white titles :

• Any width from 101.6mm to 215.9mm (4 inches to 8.5 inches)
• Any height from  152.4mm to 296.93mm ( 6 inches to 11.69 inches)

For color titles :

• Any width from 101.6mm to 215.9mm (4 inches to 8.5 inches)
• Any height from  152.4mm to 279.4mm ( 6 inches to 11 inches)

The minimum page count for all books is 24 pages. The following table provides a breakdown of maximum page counts based upon trim width and text paper choice.

Covers/Binding

• 4-colour printed covers with film lamination
• Cover stock: 210gsm (244 microns) Premier Paper 'Symbol Card'
• Perfect binding

Setup Services

• PDF and TIFF digital setup
• 600 dpi greyscale scanning
• 300 dpi colour scanning

Pricing for Publishers

All new publishers with 50 or more titles and all of our existing publisher customers are eligible for this pricing.

If you are a publisher with more than 50 titles and would like to learn more about Amazon Print-on-Demand, please contact our team by e-mailing POD-info@amazon.co.uk for more information.

Amazon pricing for publishers with 50 or more titles:

1.             Unit costs

2.             Digital Setup Fees

3.             Scanning Fees

** Note: Scanning fees for high page count and high-half-tone books are calculated by adding these surcharge rates to the applicable per-book scanning rate above. 

For more information on our Print-on-Demand programme please contact our Print-on-Demand team by e-mailing POD-info@amazon.co.uk.  Please include your name, title, the publishing house you represent, the number of POD titles you currently publish or are looking to publish and relevant contact information.

PDF Submission Guidelines

Publishers submitting PDF files for paperback books with black and white and colour interiors and full-colour covers should observe the following guidelines. The more closely your files match the Amazon.co.uk Print-on-Demand specifications, the faster we can process your files and make them available for printing.

General PDF Specifications

Version
Set compatibility for Acrobat 6.0/PDF v1.5

Layers
PDFs should not contain multiple layers. Layers are problematic when printing and do not guarantee an expected look and feel of the printed material. Transparency settings in the PDF should be avoided because flattening is not guaranteed to produce the same look and feel as the user sees on a screen.

Optimisation
PDFs should be optimised. Optimisation is useful to reduce size and increase performance when viewing, printing and transferring files.

OPI
Do not use any OPI code.

Encryption
We do not accept any locked or encrypted PDFs.

ICC Profile
If the PDF contains colour, the ICC profile should be saved with the PDF whenever possible. Most imaging tools (e.g., PhotoShop) enable you to embed the ICC profile. Embedding this profile enables us to match the colour content as closely as possible during printing.

Bookmarks
It is preferable that your PDF not contain any bookmarks, comments, invisible objects, or any metadata. These serve no purpose in the printing process, and they increase the size of the PDF and may cause printing problems in some extreme cases.

Crop Marks
Crop marks or other printer's marks should not be used on any files.

Cover PDF Specifications

Cover Page Size
The Page Size for all cover PDF files should be 457.2mm x 304.8mm (18 inches x 12 inches). The covers should be centered horizontally on the spine and shifted to the bottom of the page, leaving only 3.157mm (1/8 inch) bleed at the bottom of the page. We will cut 3.157mm (1/8 inch) off the bottom of the book, and the second cut will be at the top at the trim height (i.e., we will trim the excess off the top). Please note that we do not print on the inside front or back covers.

Bleed
A minimum 3.157mm (1/8 inch) bleed is required on all sides.

Live Elements
There should be no 'live' elements closer than 6.35mm (1/4 inch) to the trim lines.

Colour Space
We accept both RGB and CMYK colour spaces. We also accept profiled RGB or profiled CMYK spaces.

Resolution
300 dpi is the recommended resolution for quality purposes. Higher resolutions are acceptable, but lower ones will be flagged.

Spine Measurements

Black and White Interior
The spine width for 60# white paper (444 ppi) is calculated as page count x 0.0572mm (.002252 inch)
The spine width for 60# cream paper (400 ppi) is calculated as page count x 0.0635mm (.0025 inch)

Colour Interior
The spine width for colour books (426 ppi) is calculated as page count x 0.05961mm (.002347 inch)

Spine Text
Spine text on books under 130 pages is discouraged. Text on larger spines must be sized to fit the spine with at least 1.5875mm (1/16 inch) of space between the text and the edge of the spine.

Barcode
All covers must have a 300 DPI barcode located on the back cover sized at least 38.1mm (1.5 inches) wide by 22.86mm (.9 inch) high.

Book Block (Text) PDF Specifications

PDF Text Page Size
Create the book block as a 'one-up' PDF to the actual trim size of the book

Font
Embed all font information. Do not use Type 3 fonts, as they can cause problems during printing.

Margins and Alignment
The default gutter margin is 19.05mm (3/4 inch) and the default outside margin is 12.7mm (1/2 inch). Even-numbered/left-handed pages ('verso') should have their gutter margin on the right side of the text block. Likewise, the odd-numbered/right-handed pages ('recto') should have their gutter margin on the left side of the text block.

Colour and Halftone Images
Resolution: 300 dpi or higher
Format: JPEG or TIFF
Compression: JPEG Photoshop compression level with quality 10 or higher. For TIFF, use JPEG or lossless compression.

Monochrome Bitmap Images
Resolution: 600 dpi
Format: TIFF
Compression: CCITT Group 4 (preferred), LZW, or no compression

Media Box
The media box of the PDF should contain all the content to be printed. Any content outside of the media box will be flagged, and your document will be rejected.

Interior Full Bleed
Pages that are full-bleed (extend past the edge of the page with no white space on the edges) must have a 3.175mm (.125 inch) bleed on head, foot and face (excludes the gutter). For example: 152.4mm x 228.6mm (6 inches x 9 inches) trim size with full bleed should be submitted as 155.575mm x 234.95mm (6.125 inches x 9.25 inches) interior PDF.