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Fix your book's print files
Something's wrong with your cover or interior file. Find the problem below, see what causes it, and fix it in the app you used. Every fix is written for people who are not designers.
Most print file problems come from eight causes: missing bleed, small margins, fonts not embedded, live transparency, low-resolution pictures, RGB color or too much ink, the wrong PDF page size, and a wrong spine width. Each has a fix in Word, Canva, InDesign, Affinity or Acrobat.
Find your problem
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Thin white line at the cover edge, or "insufficient bleed" | Art stops at the trim line | Add bleed |
| "Text outside margins" or "outside the safety area" | Margins too small, or page numbers too low | Fix margins |
| Content off-center, shrunk or cropped in the preview | PDF made at letter size, not trim size | Fix page size |
| "Font not embedded" | PDF names a font but doesn't carry it | Embed fonts |
| Shadows print as boxes, or "transparency" warning | Live see-through effects or layers | Flatten it |
| Blurry pictures, or "below 300 DPI" | Picture too small for its printed size, or compressed | Fix pictures |
| "Ink coverage exceeds 240%" or "RGB found" | Rich black, RGB color or dark photos | Fix color and ink |
| Spine text wraps to the front, or "spine width" error | Spine built for the wrong page count or paper | Fix the spine |
Got a rejection email with exact wording? Look it up on Rejection Messages Decoded to see which fix it points to.
Three rules before you fix anything
- Fix the original, not the PDF. Open the Word, Canva, InDesign or Affinity file you made the PDF from. Editing the PDF itself usually makes new problems.
- Fix the size first. Page size and cover size come before everything else. If the size changes, margins and spine move too.
- Check again after every fix. One fix can break another. Adding pages to fix margins changes your spine width, for example.
Which app do you have?
Each fix page has steps for the common apps. A quick guide to what each can do:
| App | Good at | Can't do on its own |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | Page size, margins, fonts | True black-and-white (grayscale) PDF, ink limits, PDF/X-1a |
| Canva | Covers, bleed, flattening | Checking total ink, exact print profiles |
| Adobe InDesign | Everything, with the PDF/X-1a preset | Nothing major, but it has a learning curve and a monthly fee |
| Affinity Publisher | Bleed, margins, PDF/X-1a export | Some ink checks |
| Adobe Acrobat Pro | Finding problems (Preflight, Output Preview), converting color, embedding fonts | Changing your layout |
Don't have InDesign or Acrobat Pro? That's the gap SparkPrep fills: it reads your PDF, finds every problem for your printer, and repairs most of them for you.
Find out what's wrong with your files before the printer does
SparkPrep checks your cover and every interior page against the exact rules Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble Press and Lulu use, tells you each problem in plain English, and can fix it for you.
Scan my book free See how SparkPrep worksThe scan is free and shows how many problems your files have. To see every problem and where it is, the audit is $1.99 ($3.99 after January 1). The Advanced Audit checks every page, up to 300, for $9.99.
Questions people ask
Can I fix a print problem by editing the PDF?
Sometimes, with Acrobat Pro, for things like color conversion or embedding fonts. For size, bleed and margins, fix the original file and export a new PDF.
What is the most common book file problem?
Missing cover bleed, followed by interior margins and PDFs made at the wrong page size.
Free help from SparkPrep
Last updated 2026-11-01. Written by Joshua Davis, founder of SparkPrep. Numbers come from each printer's own published guides; always double-check your printer's current rules before you upload.