Dust jacket design
A book dust jacket is a detachable outer cover with folded flaps. The folded flaps wrap around the front and back of the book covers to prevent dirt and damage from affecting a book's appearance and durability.
Dust jackets preserved cloth-covered Hardcover Books in the 1800s. Today, dust jackets are a great way to enhance the presentation of your book with beautiful art.
We print dust jackets on satin paper stock with a protective gloss or matte lamination. And for a striking and eye-catching effect, you can also add gold or silver foiling.
You can get creative with these detachable covers that wrap around your book. These flaps, a.k.a. panels, are perfect for displaying information about the author, reviews, social media profiles and more.
Ready to order dust jackets? Visit this page for more information.
Dust jacket set-up guide
Because we will print your dust jacket as a single sheet and then wrapped around the outside of your book, please supply your dust jacket artwork as a single spread design.
When you upload your dust jacket file, we urge you to name it so our system can identify it and print it to the correct dimensions. Acceptable file names can include keywords like dustjacket, dust-jacket, dust_jacket or similar.
From the finished internal book size, add:
- 0.275” to the front and back cover width
- 0.275” to the front and back cover height
- Add your spine width
- Add the required flap sizes to each side
- Add 0.125” bleed to all external sides
| Size and orientation | Width x Height | Flap width |
|---|---|---|
| Digest portrait | 5.5” x 8.5” | 2.5” |
| Digest landscape | 8.5” x 5.5” | 2.5” |
| US Trade Portrait | 6” x 9” | 2.5” |
| US Trade landscape | 9” x 6” | 2.5” |
| Letter portrait | 8.5” x 11” | 2.5” |
| Letter landscape | 11” x 8.5” | 2.5” |
| 8.5” Square | 8.5” x 8.5” | 2.5” |
| 7.5” Small Square | 7.5” x 7.5” | 2.5” |
| 7.25” x 9.5” Portrait | 7.25” x 9.5” | 2.5” |
| 7.25” x 9.5” landscape | 9.5” x 7.25” | 2.5” |
| 7” x 9” Portrait | 7” x 9” | 2.5” |
| 7” x 9” landscape | 9” x 7” | 2.5” |
| Pocket Book Portrait | 4.25” x 6.87” | 2.5” |
| Pocket Book Landscape | 6.87” x 4.25” | 2.5” |
| Royal Portrait | 6.14” x 9.21” | 2.5” |
| Royal Landscape | 9.21” x 6.14” | 2.5” |
| Executive Portrait | 7” x 10” | 2.5” |
| Executive Landscape | 10” x 7” | 2.5” |
| Crown Quarto Portrait | 7.44” x 9.68” | 2.5” |
| Crown Quarto Landscape | 9.68” x 7.44” | 2.5” |
| A5 portrait | 5.8” x 8.3” | 2.5” |
| A5 landscape | 8.3” x 5.8” | 2.5” |
| A4 portrait | 8.3” x 11.7” | 2.5” |
| A4 landscape | 11.7” x 8.3” | 2.5” |
Example dust jacket artwork dimensions
Our dust jackets have standard sizing for the spine. For the example below, we have a 5.5” x 8.5” book with a 0.4” spine. The standard sizes for dust jacket spines are 0.375”, 0.575”, 0.775” and 0.975”.
So you must choose a standard size closest to the spine size in your order, always rounding up. So for this example, this dust jacket should have a standard spine size of 0.575”.
Dust jacket special options
If you have selected foiling or Spot UV for your dust jacket, you must create a new file for this layer to your design. Metallic foil requires a custom quote, so please send us an email with your order number if you have one.
