| name | kindle-cover |
| description | Generate a full-wrap paperback cover PDF for Amazon KDP (front + spine + back in one file). Use this skill whenever the user wants to: create a book cover for KDP, make a paperback cover, generate a full wrap cover, design a book cover PDF, or needs a cover for Amazon self-publishing. Trigger for phrases like "book cover", "paperback cover", "KDP cover", "full wrap", "cover PDF", "spine + back cover", or when the user has a front cover image and needs the complete printable cover file.
|
Kindle Cover — KDP Full Wrap Paperback Cover Generator
Generate a print-ready full-wrap cover PDF for Amazon KDP paperback books.
The output is a single PDF containing back cover, spine, and front cover — ready to upload to KDP.
When to use this skill
- User has a front cover image and needs the full wrap (front + spine + back) PDF
- User is publishing a paperback on KDP and needs a cover file
- User wants to generate or regenerate a book cover with updated page count
How it works
Run the bundled script:
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/generate_cover.py \
--front-image <path-to-front-cover-image> \
--title "Book Title" \
--author "Author Name" \
--pages <page-count> \
--output <output-path.pdf> \
--back-headline "Your hook headline" \
--back-bullets "Bullet 1" "Bullet 2" "Bullet 3" \
--back-tagline "Closing tagline" \
--accent-color "#e040a0"
Key parameters
| Parameter | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|
--front-image | Yes | — | JPG/PNG of the front cover |
--title | Yes | — | Book title for spine |
--author | Yes | — | Author name for spine |
--pages | Yes | — | Total page count (determines spine width) |
--output | Yes | — | Output PDF path |
--trim | No | 6x9 | Trim size: 5x8, 5.5x8.5, 6x9, 8.5x11 |
--paper | No | white | Paper type: white (0.002252"/page) or cream (0.0025"/page) |
--back-headline | No | — | Main headline on back cover (max 3 lines) |
--back-subtitle | No | — | Subtitle text below headline |
--back-bullets | No | — | Feature bullet points (pass multiple strings) |
--back-cta | No | — | Bold call-to-action line |
--back-tagline | No | — | Italic tagline at bottom |
--accent-color | No | #e040a0 | Color for accent line and bullet dots |
--bg-color | No | #0a0a0a | Back cover background color |
--spine-bg | No | #111111 | Spine background color |
--front-fit | No | cover | How front image fills the area: cover (crop to fill) or contain (fit without cropping) |
--front-padding | No | 0 | Padding in inches around front image (useful if title/author on image need breathing room) |
KDP specs baked in
- Bleed: 0.125" on all sides (per KDP requirements)
- Safe zone: all text placed >= 0.375" from trim edges (KDP requirement for text)
- Spine width: calculated automatically from page count and paper type
- No barcode placeholder: Amazon places its own ISBN barcode at print time — the script does not add any barcode zone, rectangle, or placeholder
Trim sizes supported
| Size | Paper width | Paper height |
|---|
| 5x8 | 5" | 8" |
| 5.5x8.5 | 5.5" | 8.5" |
| 6x9 | 6" | 9" |
| 8.5x11 | 8.5" | 11" |
Tips for best results
- Front cover image should be high resolution (300 DPI ideal, minimum 1500px on short side)
- If front image has title/author text near edges, use
--front-padding 0.2 to prevent clipping
- Keep back cover headline to 2-3 short lines for readability
- 5-8 bullet points work well; more than 10 will crowd the back cover
- The accent color should contrast with the dark background — bright pinks, cyans, golds work well
- Spine text auto-sizes based on spine width; very thin spines (< 100 pages) may not fit text
Dependencies
Requires reportlab and Pillow:
pip install reportlab Pillow --break-system-packages
