IngramSpark requires the interior as a single PDF, compliant with PDF/X-1a:2001 or PDF/X-3:2002, with every font embedded, no crop marks, no reader spreads, and all images in CMYK. Books run from 18 to 1200 pages depending on paper. Bleed goes on three edges and never on the gutter. The cover must be built on a template from IngramSpark's own generator.
Files with unembedded fonts are rejected, and so are submissions containing more than one file. Those two account for most first time failures.
Page Counts
The minimum is 18 pages for every paper and both bindings, which is lower than most people expect and lower than any competitor.
| Paper | Range |
|---|---|
| 50lb white | 18 to 1200 |
| 50lb crème | 18 to 1050 |
| 38lb groundwood | 18 to 900 perfect bound, 18 to 840 hardcover |
| 70lb white | 18 to 900 perfect bound, 18 to 840 hardcover |
| Premium colour 70lb | 18 to 900 perfect bound, 18 to 840 hardcover |
Two parity rules apply on top of that. Every text file is stored with a page count divisible by two, with the last page left blank for manufacturing information, and blank pages are added automatically if needed. If you want to prevent any unplanned blanks beyond that, IngramSpark's guidance is that the page count should be divisible by 12, which is the signature size the press binds in.
That is worth planning for. A book that lands at 313 pages will be padded. One that lands at 312 will not. Deliberately managing the tail of a book to a multiple of 12 is a real typesetting decision, and it is the same reason books have blank pages at the back.
Interior File Rules
Format. A single PDF. "Text files must be submitted as a single PDF file: submissions with multiple files will be rejected." Zipped single files are accepted, and web upload handles files up to 1.5GB.
PDF standard. The File Creation Guide states that "Files must be PDF/X-1a:2001 or PDF/X-3:2002 compliant." Both are accepted, which is worth knowing because most advice mentions only PDF/X-1a.
Fonts. Every font must be embedded in both interior and cover. Files with unembedded fonts are rejected and a corrected file is requested. The Guide adds a specific warning that Acrobat's default Standard setting does not embed the base 14 fonts and can cause a rejection on its own.
Non supported programs. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress 6.5 and older, and InDesign CS2 and older. IngramSpark neither supports file creation in them nor supplies cover templates for them. The newer Book Building Tool does accept a .docx interior, so this restriction applies to the print ready PDF route rather than to every path into the platform.
No spreads. "We cannot accept files in spread format (2-up per page)." Single page PDF only.
No crop marks. No crop, printer or registration marks in the file.
No spot colours or ICC profiles. Both "can produce unexpected results during processing".
Rule lines need a minimum weight of 0.125pt at 100 percent black. Anything finer may not print.
Ink coverage should stay within 240 percent total CMYK. The recommended rich black is 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, 100 black.
File naming is mandated: isbn_txt.pdf for the interior, isbn_cov.pdf for the cover, isbn_jacket.pdf for a dust jacket.
Images and Colour
| Requirement | |
|---|---|
| Black and white line art | 600 ppi, 1-bit |
| Black and white continuous tone | 300 ppi, 8-bit grayscale |
| Colour interior | 300 ppi, CMYK |
| Cover | 300 ppi, CMYK |
The rejection floors sit lower than the recommendations. Interior images under 72 ppi "will be rejected", and cover images under 200 ppi "may be rejected". Treat 300 as the target rather than the threshold.
Colour space is not optional. All images in a text file must be CMYK, and all images in a cover file must be CMYK. This is the requirement that most often surprises authors coming from a screen based workflow, where everything is RGB by default.
Bleed, Margins and Tolerance
Bleed is 0.125 inches on three edges only. The Guide is emphatic: "Please do not add bleed to the bind (gutter) edge as this will cause incorrect positioning." An interior without bleed should be built at exact trim size instead.
The cover is the exception. Cover bleed is 0.125 inches on all four sides.
Margins are a recommendation, not a band. A minimum of 0.5 inches on all sides of the text block, with no scaling by page count, plus a recommended 0.125 inch white strip on the bind side in addition to that 0.5 inches for perfect bound and hardcover books.
Printing tolerance is 1/16 inch (0.0625 inches) on every book. This is the number people ignore. Content placed right at the edge of a legal margin has less real safety room than the margin implies, so treat the stated minimum as a floor rather than a target. The same reasoning is why book margins and gutter are usually set well above the minimum.
Note that IngramSpark publishes no gutter table keyed to page count, unlike KDP. A 20 page book and a 1200 page book get the same 0.5 inch recommendation, which is generous at the short end and thin at the long end.
Cover Files
The cover must be built on a template from IngramSpark's own Cover Template Generator, found under My Tools on the dashboard. "Cover artwork should be placed within the crop marks on the correct template produced by the template generator", and nothing on the template may be repositioned except the barcode, because trim size, crop marks and spine calculation are placed for the press workflow.
Templates must be ordered with a page count divisible by two.
Type safety is 0.25 inches recommended on all sides. Spine type safety is 0.0625 inches left and right for spines 0.35 inches and larger, and 0.03125 inches for spines under 0.35 inches.
Spine text is allowed from 48 pages on paperbacks and 18 pages on hardcovers, following a change dated 23 April 2026. The frequently repeated figure of 100 pages is out of date.
Barcodes are mandatory on all covers. If you cannot supply one, leave a clear area at least 1.75 inches wide by 1 inch high.
IngramSpark publishes no paper thickness multiplier for perfect bound spine width. The template generator computes it, which means you cannot calculate it yourself from published figures the way you can with KDP's multipliers.
Ebooks
IngramSpark requires EPUB 3.0, compliant with current validation, with no single image inside the file exceeding 3.2 million pixels. The cover must be a JPG under 100MB, at least 1873 pixels on the longest side and 1600 on the shortest, and RGB rather than CMYK, which is the opposite of the print cover requirement.
What Deckle Exports
Bleed matches exactly. Deckle applies bleed to the outside edge, top and bottom, and never to the spine edge, which is precisely what IngramSpark's Guide requires. A 6 by 9 interior exports at 6.125 by 9.25.
Fonts are embedded in the exported PDF, satisfying the requirement that causes most rejections.
The EPUB is EPUB 3, matching the stated requirement. Its package document declares version="3.0", which is not an old version number: the EPUB 3.3 specification requires that exact value for every EPUB 3 file, since each 3.X release is "a continuation of the EPUB 3 format" rather than a new version.
Two gaps to close yourself. Deckle exports a standard PDF rather than a PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-3 file, so if IngramSpark's preflight objects, convert the exported PDF to PDF/X-1a in Acrobat or an equivalent preflight tool. And Deckle enforces KDP's page count banded gutter rather than IngramSpark's flat 0.5 inches plus a 0.125 inch bind strip, so for a short book set your inside margin to at least 0.625 inches manually.
Deckle does not produce cover files, which suits IngramSpark's workflow anyway, since the cover has to be built on their generated template rather than assembled independently.
For where the two print platforms conflict, see IngramSpark vs KDP formatting requirements.
Common Mistakes
- Unembedded fonts. The single most common rejection, and Acrobat's default setting causes it.
- Submitting multiple files. The interior must be one PDF.
- Bleeding into the gutter. Three edges only, or the pages sit off centre.
- RGB images. Everything in a print file must be CMYK.
- Building the cover without the template. The generator's placement is required, not advisory.
- Ignoring the divisible by 12 rule. Blank pages get added at the back without asking you.
FAQ
Q: Can I upload a Word document? A: Not on the print ready PDF path. The Book Building Tool accepts a .docx interior.
Q: PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-3? A: Either. Both are named as compliant.
Q: What is the real minimum page count? A: 18, for every paper and both bindings.
Q: Why did blank pages appear at the back of my book? A: Page counts are stored divisible by two, and the press prefers multiples of 12.
Q: Does the ebook cover need to be CMYK too? A: No. Print covers are CMYK, ebook covers are RGB.