Cover Image Size for Kindle

[hunchermuncher]

According to Kindle the requirements for the size of cover art is:

• Minimum of 1000 pixels on the longest side
• Ideal height/width ratio of 1.6

For better quality, we recommend that images be 2500 pixels on the longest side.

Retrieved from https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishi...A2J0TRG6OPX0VM

I have used an image which is 1657 x 2500 in my Sigil file. This looks massive in Sigil. Is it too big?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by hunchermuncher

According to Kindle the requirements for the size of cover art is:



Retrieved from https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishi...A2J0TRG6OPX0VM

I have used an image which is 1657 x 2500 in my Sigil file. This looks massive in Sigil. Is it too big?

This is unrelated to Sigil, so the mods may move it to the mobi forum, where it's better suited, but, seriously? That image is HUGE. If you do the math, you'll see that you've made an image that's ~3 times as large as it needs to be. As in:

1,000 px times 1600 pix = 1,600,000 pixels, right?

But...

1657px times 2500 px = 4,142,500 pixels, which is nearly 3 times the size. Remember that Amazon charges delivery fees for books, so you don't want to go bats with filesizes embedded inside the book. If you're the publisher, you could potentially be yanking $0.30 off of every sale with that extra-large cover size, or, worse, if the publisher is your client, you're costing them $0.30 or more on every single sale.

Hope this helps.

Hitch

[hunchermuncher]

Hi Hitch,

My gut reaction was that it was far too big but I don't understand why Amazon themselves specify:

For better quality, we recommend that images be 2500 pixels on the longest side.

any thoughts?

David.

[Perkin]

It couldn't be so they can charge more for the delivery fee?

Surely not.

[hunchermuncher]

$0.30 x 10 million? Now why would they do that?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by hunchermuncher

$0.30 x 10 million? Now why would they do that?

Hitch

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by Hitch

1,000 px times 1600 pix = 1,600,000 pixels, right?

But...

1000 pixels on the long side would be 1000 divided by 1.6 would be 1000X625 (AKA 8:5) which isn't too unreasonable.

Regards - john

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Jabby

1000 pixels on the long side would be 1000 divided by 1.6 would be 1000X625 (AKA 8:5) which isn't too unreasonable.

Regards - john

We use 960x1280, and that works perfectly. {shrug}. We use this because it also works perfectly at Nook for a product image.

HTH,
Hitch

[Oldpilot]

>For better quality, we recommend that images be 2500 pixels on the longest side.

That's for the product image that appears on the Amazon page to sell the book. In the ordinary course of events, the KDP scoops up the product image, compresses it severely, and includes it within the book.

[JSWolf]

I'm guessing the reason Amazon wants such a large cover image is for their tablets. I think Amazon is thinking in the future when they could possibly have even higher resolution screens.