📱 Ebooks and EPUB

The other half of the book: how an EPUB differs from a print PDF, the cover size stores expect, and what makes a file pass validation.

EPUB and print PDF are two different books

A print PDF is frozen — you decide every line break and every margin. An EPUB reflows around whatever the reader chose. Treating one as a version of the other is where most ebook problems start.

Ebook cover size, and why it is not your print front

An ebook cover is one flat image at 1600 × 2560 pixels — a taller, narrower shape than most print trims. Cropping a print front to fit moves your title, and here is how to do that without losing type.

What makes an EPUB pass validation

EPUB is a specification, and stores run automated checks against it. Here is what those checks reject, why opening the file on your laptop proves nothing, and the one habit that makes validation a side effect.

Accessible ebooks, and why they are now everyone's problem

Accessibility used to be a virtue in ebooks and is turning into a requirement. What an accessible EPUB actually is in author terms, what it rules out, and why a well-structured book is most of the way there.

Kindle, EPUB and the format alphabet

Stores ask for a file and authors panic about extensions. Almost all of them want an EPUB, Amazon included. Keep one valid EPUB as your master and let each store do its own conversion.

Ready to build the cover?

The Cover Maker lays out your front, spine and back at your real trim size and page count, and exports a print-ready PDF for KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu or B&N Press. Start your cover →