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

kindle-cover