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How to make a book or album cover: step by step
How to make a book or album cover: one strong idea, exact sizes for KDP, Spotify and Bandcamp, type that stays readable as a thumbnail, and an error-free file.
- Find one strong idea instead of cramming in the whole story
- Get the exact sizes for KDP, Spotify and Bandcamp
- Make sure the title reads even as a tiny thumbnail
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Five steps to a cover
- 1
Step 1
Understand what the cover must say
- 2
Step 2
Choose the format and size before you start
- 3
Step 3
Find the idea and the image
- 4
Step 4
Typography that reads as a thumbnail
- 5
Step 5
Check and export
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This guide is for you if you are
Preparing your own book or release
You're writing a book, putting together a poetry collection or releasing a track or album, and want a cover that holds up next to professional ones.
Learning graphic design
A cover is a great exercise: a fixed format and one idea, with typography and imagery that have to work together.
Building a portfolio
You want to add a series of covers to your portfolio, such as a redesign of favorite books or albums, and show how you think.
In short
- A cover has to say in a second what kind of book or music it is. That takes one strong idea, not everything at once.
- Sizes depend on the platform: Amazon KDP recommends 2,560 × 1,600 px for ebooks, and Spotify needs a square from 640 to 10,000 px.
- A printed cover is a full wrap: back cover, spine and front cover with bleed for trimming.
- The title and the author or artist must read in a small thumbnail: that's how covers are seen in stores and apps.
- Use your own images or ones with a clear license, and check the platform's file requirements before uploading.
Five steps to a cover
- 1
Step 1
Understand what the cover must say
A cover isn't an illustration of one scene; it's a promise. People should grasp the genre and mood before they read the title. Before you open an editor, answer a few questions in writing:
- what it is: a novel, non-fiction, poetry, a children's book, an electronic EP or an acoustic album;
- who it's for: who should be interested, and what they've already seen on shelves or in playlists;
- where it will be seen: as a thumbnail in a store, as a spine on a shelf, as a tiny square in a streaming app;
- the mood: three or four words such as "anxious, cold, urban" or "warm, childhood, summer";
- what must be there: the title, the author's or artist's name and, for print, the back cover text.
💡 No project yet? Do a learning exercise: redesign the cover of a favorite book or album, or invent a release for a band that doesn't exist. Three different versions of one cover teach more than one "perfect" cover.
- 2
Step 2
Choose the format and size before you start
Reworking a finished cover for different proportions is slow and painful, so check the platform's requirements first. Here's what the official help pages say:
- an ebook on Amazon KDP: the recommended size is 2,560 px tall by 1,600 px wide, the minimum is 500 px on the longest side; JPEG is preferred and RGB is recommended;
- a printed book on KDP: the cover is one PDF containing the back cover, spine and front; 3.2 mm (0.125") of bleed is added to the top, bottom and outside edges, and the spine width depends on the page count;
- an album or single on Spotify: a 1:1 square, 640 to 10,000 px on each side, JPG, PNG or TIFF, in the sRGB color space;
- an album on Bandcamp: a square of at least 1,400 × 1,400 px;
- printing at a local print shop: ask the shop for the size, bleed and color profile; requirements differ.
💡 Spotify explicitly asks you not to upscale images. So work at a large size from the start: you can always make a file smaller, but a small picture stretched up will blur.
The thumbnail is the toughest critic
A fresh pair of eyes will tell you straight away whether the title reads and the genre is clear. Post your cover next to two competitors and ask what people notice first.
Share your coverFree. 1,504 designers are already in the community.
- 3
Step 3
Find the idea and the image
Strong covers usually rest on a single image: an object, a figure, a color or a typographic composition. Don't try to fit the whole story in. Working on the idea looks like this:
- collect 15–20 covers from the same genre and write down what repeats: colors, fonts, types of image. These are genre codes that help readers recognize what they like;
- sketch 5–10 tiny thumbnails by hand, even just rectangles and labels, to test composition quickly without details;
- pick two or three sketches and build rough versions on the computer, without polishing;
- decide where the image comes from: your own photo, an illustration, a collage or a purely typographic cover;
- if you use a stock photo, read the license: the Unsplash License, for example, allows free use but doesn't cover trademarks, recognizable people or artworks shown in the photos.
💡 A useful idea exercise: describe the book or album in one sentence and try to express it with a single object. If no object comes to mind, try a cover made only of type and color.
- 4
Step 4
Typography that reads as a thumbnail
In stores and apps a cover is mostly seen small, so the title has to read at once. Nielsen Norman Group recommends sticking to three text sizes to keep the hierarchy clear: on a cover that's usually the title, the name and, if needed, a subtitle. What helps:
- one expressive font for the title and one simple font for everything else, both with full Cyrillic support, including the letters specific to Ukrainian;
- enough contrast between text and background: light text on a dark photo or the other way round, with no busy detail behind the letters;
- text no closer than 3.2 mm to the trim line, which is what KDP requires for printed covers;
- KDP only allows spine text on books of 79 pages or more; thinner books get a blank spine;
- for an album, the artist's name and the release title are usually enough; everything else lives in the platform's description.
💡 Shrink the cover to the size of a postage stamp on screen, or step a few paces back from the monitor. If the title doesn't read, make it bigger, boost the contrast or clear the space around it.
Cover unreadable as a thumbnail? Show it to the community → - 5
Step 5
Check and export
Run through a short checklist before uploading. It saves time and nerves, because platforms reject files that don't meet their requirements:
- the squint test: squint at the cover; the main thing should remain, not the small details;
- the grayscale test: convert a copy to grayscale; if the title merges with the background, there isn't enough contrast;
- streaming rules: the Apple Music Style Guide bans website addresses, logos, QR codes and release dates on cover art, as well as low-quality or pixelated images;
- an ebook: a JPEG in RGB at the right size;
- a printed book: one PDF with the full wrap and images at 300 DPI or more; KDP recommends CMYK images so the cover prints well;
- an album: a square JPG or PNG in sRGB, not upscaled.
💡 Show the cover in the community next to two or three competitors from the same genre, and ask whether the genre is clear and the title readable. Fresh eyes notice what you've stopped seeing.
You're not alone with these questions
We counted what people ask about most in our community. Learning, portfolios and Figma are the top three. A series of covers is one way to fill a portfolio with your own projects.
Messages by topic in Spaceberry Community, July 2024 — November 2026. Keyword search.
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Questions and answers
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What size should a book cover be?
It depends on where the book is published. Amazon KDP recommends 2,560 × 1,600 px for ebooks. For print, the wrap size is calculated from the trim size, the spine width and 3.2 mm of bleed; KDP has a calculator and templates for this, and with a local print shop it's best to ask directly.
What size should an album cover be for Spotify?
Spotify accepts square images from 640 to 10,000 px on each side as JPG, PNG or TIFF in the sRGB color space. Bandcamp requires at least 1,400 × 1,400 px. If the release goes out through a distributor, check its requirements too.
Can I use a picture from the internet on a cover?
Only if the license allows it. Your own photos or illustrations are simplest. Stock sites such as Unsplash or Pexels allow free use but have limits: the Unsplash License, for example, doesn't cover trademarks, recognizable people or artworks shown in the photos. Don't use images from search results that come without a license.
Which app should I use to make a cover?
Any editor that handles text and images will do: Canva, Figma, Photoshop or the free Inkscape. For an ebook or an album, exporting a JPEG or PNG at the right size is enough. For a printed book, the key thing is that the app exports a PDF of the full wrap with bleed, with images at 300 DPI or more.
Is the Spaceberry community paid?
No, Spaceberry Community is completely free. It's supported by Spaceberry Foundation, a non-profit public organization. All you need to join is a Telegram account: tap the button on this page, introduce yourself and ask your first question. The community has 1,504 designers who share their work, give feedback and take part in design games with the same brief for everyone. Conversations are in Ukrainian.
Get feedback on your cover
Join 1,504 designers who learn, share their work and play design games. Show your cover before you publish it and get feedback. The community talks in Ukrainian.
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Updated · Spaceberry Foundation
Sources:
- Amazon KDP — eBook Cover Image Guidelines
- Amazon KDP — Create a Paperback Cover
- Spotify for Artists — Cover art requirements
- Bandcamp Help Center — Bandcamp design tutorial
- Apple — Apple Music Style Guide
- Unsplash — License
- Unsplash — Terms (section 5: what the license does not cover)
- Pexels — License
- Inkscape — About
- Nielsen Norman Group — Visual Hierarchy in UX: Definition