One of the most frustrating parts of publishing on KDP is having your interior file rejected during the print check. Most rejections are avoidable with the right setup from the start. This guide covers every technical requirement for KDP puzzle book interiors so you get it right the first time.
KDP accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, HTML, and several other formats for interior files. For puzzle books, PDF is always the correct choice. PDFs preserve exact formatting, font rendering, and grid alignment in a way that Word documents cannot guarantee. Never upload a puzzle book interior as a Word file.
Your PDF must be a flat PDF — all fonts embedded, no interactive elements, no form fields, no layers. Most PDF export tools produce flat PDFs by default. If you are using design software, look for a "Flatten" option before exporting.
| KDP Size | Width | Height | With Bleed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5 x 11 in | 8.5 in | 11 in | 8.75 x 11.25 in |
| 6 x 9 in | 6 in | 9 in | 6.25 x 9.25 in |
| 5 x 8 in | 5 in | 8 in | 5.25 x 8.25 in |
Your PDF page dimensions must match your chosen trim size exactly. A 6x9 book uploaded at 8.5x11 will be rejected. KDP measures your PDF's actual page dimensions during the print check — this is one of the most common causes of rejection.
KDP requires minimum margins on all sides to ensure content does not get cut off during trimming. The gutter — the inside margin where pages meet at the binding — must be larger than the outside margins to account for the spine binding.
For puzzle books, the gutter is particularly important. A word search grid that extends too close to the inside edge will be partially hidden in the binding after printing. Keep your grids well within the safe zone.
KDP requires a minimum resolution of 300 DPI (dots per inch) for black and white interior content. For puzzle books, this means your grid lines, letters, and numbers must be rendered at 300 DPI or higher. Content below 300 DPI will appear blurry or pixelated in the printed book.
If you are exporting from a browser-based tool, make sure the PDF is vector-based rather than a rasterized image. Vector PDFs scale to any resolution without loss of quality. A rasterized PDF is essentially a screenshot and will often fail the resolution check.
Bleed is the extra area beyond your trim size that gets cut off during printing. It is only required if you have background colors or images that extend to the edge of the page. Most puzzle books have white backgrounds and do not require bleed.
If your puzzle book design has a colored background that extends to the page edges, add 0.125 inches of bleed on all sides. Your PDF page dimensions will be slightly larger than the trim size — the bleed dimensions are shown in the table above.
If your puzzles are black text and grids on a white background — the standard format — you do not need bleed and can upload at exactly the trim size.
The most common reasons KDP rejects puzzle book interiors are wrong page dimensions, content outside the safe zone margins, and low resolution images. A fourth common error is embedding fonts incorrectly — always use standard fonts or embed your fonts before export.
KDP's print previewer will flag most issues before you submit for review. Use it — click the preview button after uploading your interior and zoom in on a few pages to check that grids are sharp and margins look correct.
PuzzleForge generates puzzle PDFs that are pre-configured for KDP requirements. When you select a page size — 6x9, 8.5x11, or 5x8 — the export uses the correct trim dimensions, appropriate margins, and vector rendering. You do not need to configure any of these settings manually.
The exported PDF is a flat vector PDF with no interactive elements, ready to upload directly to KDP without any modification. This eliminates the most common rejection errors for new publishers.
Generate KDP-ready puzzle book interiors with correct formatting built in
Open PuzzleForge →