Output Files & Specs · Master Files Included

Your book, in files you own.

Most formatting services keep your book inside their app, or sell you the source files afterwards. Here the editable masters come with every project at no upcharge: the Word interior, the layered cover file, your artwork on its own, and press-ready print files for every printer you use. Download them and keep them.

Start Your Book

When you buy, these files are yours. 100% money-back guarantee for 30 days.

Your book is never used to train AI. Ever.

What lands in your Download Center

Interior, print-ready PDF — for KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu Interior, editable Word master ePub, for the eBook retailers Cover, full-wrap print PDF — per printer Cover, layered PSD master Cover, high-resolution JPG eBook front cover Your background artwork, with no text on it

Plus the copyedited manuscript when you bought copy editing, and the Marketing and Premiere Kit as an editable Word document when you bought the kit. Every one of them yours, downloadable, and not locked to this app.

The Interior

Three files, one finished book.

Press-ready print PDF

Fonts embedded, prepared to print standards, and proven against IngramSpark’s own live preflight in production
True print grayscale for the interior, so the press has no color to surprise you with
Your exact trim size, with mirrored margins and a binding gutter calculated from your real page count
Running heads and folios set the way a printed book sets them, and a contents page with real page numbers

Editable Word master, and the ePub

The complete finished interior as a Word document — open it in Word, LibreOffice, Pages or Google Docs
Every style is a real named style, so a future edit keeps the design instead of breaking it
A reflowable ePub for the eBook retailers, built from the same finished book, with your images in full color
Made for your book — one design, one trim size, set page by page. Not a template pack with your text poured in

The Cover

The wrap, the master, and everything around it.

Ready to upload

The full wrap as a press-ready PDF — back cover, spine and front cover, with bleed, the spine width computed from your exact page count and paper, and a scannable ISBN barcode
Sized per printer, with the geometry KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu each ask for — paperback and hardcover case wrap
A high-resolution JPG of the whole wrap, for proofs, review and your own records
The eBook front cover, retailer-ready, included with every cover whatever else you choose

Yours to keep and change

The layered PSD master — artwork, title, subtitle, author name, spine text, back-cover copy and barcode each on their own layer
Included with every cover, at no upcharge, so any designer you ever hire can pick it up
Your background artwork on its own, with no text across it, ready for your website, your social posts and your press kit
Your own artwork is welcome too: bring a painting or a photograph and Cantos builds the wrap around it

Hardcovers are case wrap: the design is printed on the board itself. We do not make dust jackets.

Copy Editing And The Kit

The other two, when you buy them.

Copy editing

Your copyedited manuscript as an editable Word document
Or a tracked-changes red-line, if you would rather accept and reject every edit yourself in your own word processor
Three ways to work: let Cantos run it, sit with it and approve each edit, or take the red-line away and decide later

Marketing and Premiere Kit

Around 30 pieces across three phases, as one editable Word document with a clickable contents page
Descriptions, keywords, categories, comparable titles, a press release, pitch letters and a six-month promotion plan
Written in your book’s language, from your actual book, ready to paste into your retailer listings

Where Each File Goes

Which file goes to which printer.

The three printers do not want the same things, and one of them refuses a file the others accept. Rather than leave you to find that out at an upload screen, here it is.

24 to 828 pagesAmazon KDP

The interior PDF, which is the safer choice, or the Word file. The full-wrap cover PDF for the paperback or the hardcover. For the eBook, either the ePub or the Word file together with the eBook front-cover image.

18 to 1,200 pagesIngramSpark

The interior PDF and the full-wrap cover PDF, and nothing else: it accepts no Word file of any kind. Its eBook channel takes the ePub.

32 to 800 pagesLulu

The interior PDF and the full-wrap cover PDF for print, and the ePub for the eBook.

Never upload these to a printer

The background artwork on its own — there is no title on it
The eBook front cover — it is one flat page, not a wrap

And your page count is checked

Perfect binding has a minimum and a maximum, and the three printers disagree about both
Your finished page count is measured against all three ranges, and you are told plainly if it falls outside one
Better here than in a rejection notice at midnight

The Price

The masters are not an upsell. They are the product.

Every component $99.99

Interior, cover, copy editing, or the Marketing and Premiere Kit, per book. Interior and cover together, $149.99; all four, $249.99. The editable Word master, the layered PSD and your artwork are included in those prices. There is no source-file fee here and there never will be.

100% money-back guarantee for 30 days. When you buy, the files listed on this page are yours. If your book is not what you wanted, ask for a refund within 30 days and you get back everything you paid. No subscription, no trial to cancel.

Refunds: 100% of what you paid, within 30 days, self-service, on every purchase; a refund withholds the files it paid for. The whole policy is in our Terms.

Being Straight With You

What this is not.

NeverNot a locked project

Your book does not live inside a subscription that stops working when you stop paying. The files are downloaded to your computer and they keep working with no account, no login and no us. If we vanished tomorrow you would still have your book.

NeverNot a source-file fee

The editable Word master and the layered cover file are the two things this industry most often charges hundreds of dollars for, or simply refuses. They come with the project. That is a decision, not an oversight.

By designNot a file you need special software for

Everything you upload to a printer is finished as it stands. The Word master opens in Word, LibreOffice, Pages and Google Docs; the layered cover opens in Photoshop and in free tools that read PSD files. Nothing here requires you to buy anything.

One App, The Whole Book

Where these files come from.

InteriorTypeset like a real book. 30-day money-back guarantee. CoverThree complete designs. You choose. Copy EditingCorrections, not rewrites. Marketing Kitaround 30 pieces, written from your book.

Why We Built This

A note from Tracy Atkins, founder

I have watched authors discover, years after publishing, that they cannot change a comma in their own book. The designer moved on, the files were never handed over, or the service they used keeps the project inside an app they no longer pay for. The book is theirs; the ability to touch it is not.

That is why the editable Word interior and the layered cover file are in every project here, at no upcharge, and why they are near the top of this page rather than buried in a fine-print list. Owning your book should mean owning the files it is made of.

The same goes for the vendor list above. We would rather tell you plainly that one printer refuses Word files than let you find out at an upload screen at midnight. Your words stay yours. We claim no copyright on your book and we never use your manuscript to train AI.

Tracy Atkins, founder

Before You Start

Common questions.

Are the master files really included?

Yes. The editable DOCX interior, the layered PSD cover and your standalone artwork come with every project, at no upcharge. There is no source-file fee, no locked project, and nothing you have to ask for. Download them and keep them.

Which file goes to which printer?

Amazon KDP takes the interior PDF, which is the safer choice, or the DOCX; the full-wrap cover PDF for a paperback or hardcover; and for the eBook either the ePub or the DOCX with the eBook front-cover image. IngramSpark takes the interior PDF and the full-wrap cover PDF and nothing else, because it accepts no Word file of any kind; its eBook channel takes the ePub. Lulu takes the interior PDF and the full-wrap cover PDF for print, and the ePub for the eBook.

Which files should never go to a printer?

Two of them. Your background artwork on its own, because it has no title on it. And your eBook front cover, because it is one flat page and not a wrap. They are there for reading, for marketing and for retailers, not for a print upload.

Can I upload these files anywhere?

Yes. Your print files are prepared to the published specifications of KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu, your ePub and cover images work with the major eBook retailers, and the files are yours. Publish wherever you choose, on as many of them as you like, without asking us.

What if my page count changes after my cover is made?

Spine width depends on page count, so tell Cantos the new count and it re-exports your print cover at the corrected measurements from the same approved artwork. That is a measurement fix, not a new design.

Do I need Photoshop to use my cover?

No. Your print PDF, your high-resolution JPG and your eBook cover are finished and ready to upload exactly as they are. The layered file is a gift to your future self: it opens in Photoshop and in free tools that read PSD files, so you or any designer you ever hire can move a line of type years from now without starting over.

Why is my print interior gray and my eBook in color?

Because that is what a black-and-white print run is. The print interior is converted to true print grayscale so what you see is what the press will give you, with no color surprises. The ePub keeps your images in full color, and so does your cover.

Is my book long enough, or too long, to print?

Perfect-bound paperbacks have limits, and they differ: Amazon KDP takes 24 to 828 pages, IngramSpark 18 to 1,200, and Lulu 32 to 800. Your delivered page count is checked against all three and you are told plainly if it falls outside one of them, before you are standing in front of a rejection notice.