Cover text sits too close to the trim
Live content on a cover must stay 0.375" inside the trim edge — a different, larger figure than an interior's outside margin.
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Why covers need a bigger margin than pages
A cover is printed oversized and trimmed, folded round the spine and glued. Each of those steps has a tolerance, so the final position of the trim and the folds can move slightly. Anything closer than 0.375" to a trim edge or a fold risks being cut off or wrapped onto the wrong panel.
That figure is larger than the 0.25" an interior needs without bleed. The two are easy to confuse, and using the interior figure on a cover is a common way to end up with a title that touches the edge.
Bleed, trim and safety, from the outside in
Picture three nested rectangles on each panel. The outermost is the bleed edge, 0.125" beyond the trim: background artwork must reach it. Next is the trim line, where the cover is cut. Innermost is the safe area, 0.375" inside the trim: titles, author name, blurb and logos belong inside it.
The spine is the tight spot
On the spine the safe area is measured from both folds, so a thin spine leaves very little room. On a short book the safe band may be too narrow for legible text at all, which is one reason KDP will not print spine text below a minimum page count. Keep spine text short, centred, and well inside the folds.
Checking your cover
The free cover calculator lists the safety margin alongside the full cover dimensions. In the workspace, the cover builder draws the safe area over your artwork on every panel, so you can see at a glance whether a line of text is too close.
Common near-misses
The elements most often found too close to an edge are:
- The author name at the foot of the front cover, pushed down to make room for artwork.
- Series numbers and badges tucked into a corner.
- The last line of the back-cover blurb, near the bottom trim.
- Spine text sized to fill the spine from fold to fold.
What to do
- Covers are cut with a tolerance, so anything within 0.375" of the trim can be shaved off. Background art should run past the trim into the bleed; text and logos must not approach it.
- The spine is the tightest case: on a narrow spine the safe band is a few points wide, and title text either shrinks or has to be dropped.
- The cover builder draws the safety rectangle over your artwork, and the calculator's diagram shows it against the full artboard.
Get the safety margin, free — no account needed, no upload, the answer in the page.Or see the safe area in the workspace to save it against a book.