I’ve gotten a few questions about this, and I guess maybe I was remiss in not typing out the instructions before now.

In all honesty, I’ve been doing it the hard way, importing the PDF into GIMP, cropping out the back cover and spine, adjusting the DPI and size, then downloading the JPG file. When someone asked me in the comments of my updated full wrap post for instructions, I didn’t want to direct them to a software they might not have. My full wraps are made in Canva, so should the ebook covers.

So, I messed around a bit, figured it out, and to my surprise, found it was easier than using GIMP anyway.

For the screenshots, I used Melody Loomis’s cover for her book, Thrill of the Chase. I designed the cover, so I already had access to the PDF and she gave me her permission to use it.

Here you go:

Click on Create a Design.
KDP’s guidelines for an ebook cover are 1600 x 2560 pixels. Click on Create a Design and click on Custom Size. Enter in the pixels, like this.

Click Create New Design.

Next, you can either upload your book’s PDF or check your Projects folder. It will already be there unless you’re doing an ebook cover for someone else. The first time I uploaded a PDF I was really confused and kept thinking I was doing something wrong. So either way, your Projects folder is where you’ll find the PDF. I’m using Melody’s Draft2Digital cover, and it’s at the top because I uploaded it for this post.

Click on it so it’s laying on your empty canvas.

Click the cover to select it, if it isn’t already, and crop off the back cover and the spine.

Now grab a corner and enlarge it. At this point, just play with it until it fits the canvas how you want it. It won’t fit 100% and you’ll lose just a tiny bit on the sides, but it’s so little you won’t notice.

Click Share and Download.

Choose JPG because KDP won’t accept a PNG. If you have Pro, scoot the quality up 100.

Save it in a place and under name you’ll remember.

It will save in the correct size and DPI and you won’t have to do anything else to it.

That’s it. I should have written this out a long time ago, but I never thought to. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do and I should have been doing it this way from the beginning. After that reader posted his or her question, it did get me to thinking about it, and now I’ll never use GIMP to make ebook covers again.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below, and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.

Thank you to Melody Loomis who let me use her cover, and if you’re interested in her Storm Series, you can follow her author page and check out her books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Melody-Loomis/author/B093KGD3ZC

Until next time!