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Publish a print PDF

This page walks through making the interior file for a paperback or hardcover—the PDF you upload to KDP, IngramSpark or a local printer. Write sets every page at your trim size with your fonts built in, so the file is ready to go as it is.

Make the PDF

  1. Open the book and choose Publish (in the Book menu, or the Publish button in the toolbar).
  2. Under Format, choose Print PDF.
  3. Under Page setup, check it's the setup you want—the book's own is chosen for you. If you keep a separate setup for, say, the hardcover, pick that one here (see A page setup for each edition).
  4. Read the Preflight list (see Check your book before you publish).
  5. Click Publish PDF.

Screenshot: the Publish window set for a print PDF Screenshot: the Publish window with Print PDF chosen under Format, showing the Page setup list, the Preflight card and the Publish PDF button.

Write builds the book in the background; a long book can take a minute or two. When it's done, the PDF appears under Files with its page count, and you can Download it. It stays in the list, so you can download it again later.

If your book has web addresses—in your author bio, say, or titles in your book list—Links in the PDF makes them clickable for anyone reading the PDF on a screen. The printed page looks exactly the same either way, so it's safe to leave on for print.

When your printer asks about bleed

Write adds an eighth of an inch of bleed around the outside edges of every page—a little extra that the printer trims away, so a picture or background running to the edge never leaves a white sliver. It's what KDP and IngramSpark ask for, and it's on whether or not anything in your book runs to the edge yet.

So when KDP asks, choose Bleed (PDF only). If you've set the bleed to zero in your page setup, choose No bleed instead.

The page count and the gutter

The gutter is the extra room on the inside edge of each page, so words don't disappear into the spine. Thicker books need more of it. With the gutter on Auto (the usual), Write works it out from how many pages the book actually runs to, and sets the PDF to match—so the page count on your printer's site and the gutter always agree. You can set it by hand in Page setup if your printer asks for something particular.

Pictures

If your book has pictures, the preflight tells you how sharp they'll print. A picture with too few pixels for the size it's printed at will look soft on paper; the preflight names it, so you can swap in a larger version before you upload.

If something doesn't look right

Make a proof first—Proof this chapter or Proof whole book, at the top of the Publish window. It's the same typesetting as the final PDF, opens straight away in a new tab, and isn't kept, so it's the easiest way to try things.

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