Final Pre-Upload Checklist

What to do

Run through one consolidated checklist covering both your cover file and your interior PDF, confirming everything from this stage before you upload anything to a print platform.

Why it matters

This is your last chance to catch a problem on your own terms, before a printer's automated checker (or a customer) finds it for you. Print platforms will flag some of these issues automatically, but not all of them, a low-but-passable image resolution or a stray blank page can slip through automated checks and only show up in a physical proof.

Step-by-step

• Re-open your final cover file and re-open your final interior PDF side by side with this checklist, don't check items off from memory.
• Work through the cover items first: dimensions, single wrap file, bleed, 300 DPI, CMYK, safe zone, barcode area.
• Then work through the interior items: page size, embedded fonts, image resolution, bleed setup, and no stray blank pages.
• If any item fails, go back to the relevant earlier topic in this stage (Cover File Requirements or Interior Print-Ready PDF Requirements) for exactly how to fix it, then come back here and re-check.
• Only mark this checklist complete once every item is genuinely true of your actual final files, not "probably fine."

Common mistakes to avoid

• Checking items off based on what you intended to do rather than re-opening the actual final files and verifying.
• Skipping the cover half of the checklist because the interior feels like "the real book", a rejected or low-quality cover stops your whole submission just as surely as a bad interior file.
• Treating this checklist as optional busywork right before upload, this is specifically where slow, easy-to-fix mistakes get caught before they cost you a reprint or a bad customer review.

Completion checklist

0 of 12 checked

• Cover: dimensions exactly match my calculated full wrap size, including spine width.
• Cover: it's one single flat wrap file (back, spine, front together).
• Cover: bleed is correctly added around the outer edges.
• Cover: file is at least 300 DPI at final size.
• Cover: file is in CMYK color mode and I reviewed the converted colors.
• Cover: text and design elements are inside the safe zone on front, back, and spine.
• Cover: back-cover barcode/ISBN area is left clear.
• Interior: exported PDF page size exactly matches my trim size.
• Interior: all fonts are embedded in the exported PDF.
• Interior: all images are at least 300 DPI at their printed size.
• Interior: bleed setup in the exported PDF matches what I need (or confirmed I need none).
• Interior: I scrolled through the full PDF and found no accidental blank pages.

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