Book Designer AI

Print File Fix · The Rejection Clinic

Your printer said no. Let’s find out why.

Send the interior PDF, the cover PDF, or both, and Cantos runs the same conformance checks your printer runs and explains, in plain English, exactly what went wrong. The diagnosis is free and needs no account. When everything wrong with a file is something we can put right, the repair is $49.99 for that book, interior and cover together.

Diagnose My File Free

Looking is always free, even if you already have a repair credit waiting. Nothing is charged unless the repaired file passes its own re-check.

Your file is never shared, and never used to train AI.

A diagnosis, in plain words
No trim box on any of the 412 pages Images still in colour on a black-and-white interior The file is not declared press-ready
All three can be repaired in the file The trim box is stamped at the exact size of your page, the images become grayscale, the file is re-declared press-ready. Your pages and your words are untouched.
One font was never embedded — not repairable

Every finding says whether we can put it right inside the file. The one we cannot names the route out instead of taking your money.

70,000+ Authors Served · 15 Years of Publishing Craft · 300,000+ Books Published

From the team behind BookDesignTemplates.com, trusted by first-time authors since 2011. Real people who have designed books for fifteen years, now working for you.

As seen on  Amazon KDP · IngramSpark · BookBaby · Lightning Source · The Huffington Post · The Creative Penn · BAIPA · PBS

Who This Is For

The email that ruins a launch week.

Four sentences from the printer, a rejected upload, and a publication date that has not moved.

InteriorsThe book came back

Refused for colour in a black-and-white book, for a missing trim box, for a font, or for an odd page count, and the message is written for a print technician rather than for an author.

CoversThe wrap came back

The wrap is the wrong size, the bleed is missing, the spine does not match the page count, or the file is not the press-ready kind they ask for. Meanwhile the interior sailed through.

BothYou cannot tell which file is wrong

You uploaded two files and got one refusal. Send us both: each is read on its own, and the ones that are fine are told they are fine.

Before You Pay Anything

The diagnosis is free, and so is the honest no.

Upload the file or files your printer refused. Cantos runs the same conformance checks Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu run, names every finding in plain words, and says for each one whether it is something we can repair inside the file. No account is needed to see it.

What we repair in an interior

  • Colour left in a black-and-white interior, converted to the grayscale a mono book prints from
  • No press-ready declaration, re-declared as PDF/X-1a with a matching colour profile
  • A missing trim box, stamped at the exact size of your page
  • Link annotations a press file may not carry, taken out; your text and page numbers untouched
  • An odd page count, closed with one blank leaf at the end, the way printers bind
  • It is corrected in place: the same pages, the same words, nothing re-typeset

What we repair in a cover

  • The wrong wrap size, rebuilt at the exact size your printer asks for, spine included
  • Missing bleed, added at 0.125 in on every outer edge
  • Live fonts, flattened into the artwork so none can go missing at the press
  • RGB artwork, converted to CMYK with the total ink capped and your blacks kept dense
  • Back, spine and front on separate pages, rebuilt onto one flat page
  • Written as a press-ready PDF/X file, with two refinements included

Being Straight With You

What a file repair cannot do.

Three interior problems are out of reach, and the diagnosis names each one with the door it opens instead of taking the money.

FontsA font that was never embedded

The letter shapes are simply not in the file, and anything we substituted would reflow every page. The reliable route is to get the manuscript back out of the PDF and set the book fresh: that is PDF to Manuscript.

Page sizePages that are not the trim you ordered

Scaling the pages would scale your type and your margins with them. A fresh interior at the right trim is the honest fix, and Cantos builds the whole book free so you read it before you pay.

ScansA book that is pictures of pages

If there is no text under the pages, there is nothing in the file to re-colour or re-declare. Getting the manuscript back out of it is the route, and the diagnosis says so rather than selling you a repair.

Margins are the fourth, and we do not measure them, on purpose: our own delivered books sit tighter than the safety margin some printers publish, so a rule set to that floor would flag good files and sell a repair nobody needs. If your printer’s message is about margins or text too close to the trim, that is a re-layout, and we will tell you so.

The Guarantee

Measured first, charged second.

Conformance is one of the few things in publishing that can actually be measured, which is the only reason we can promise anything here. The repaired file is put back through the same checks before it is delivered.

It passes, or your money back

  • The repaired file is measured against the printer’s own checks before it reaches you
  • If a printer still refuses a file we repaired, you get your money back
  • The promise is narrow on purpose: we guarantee the file check, not the taste of the reviewer

A repair that fails costs nothing

  • Your repair credit is put back when the repaired file does not come back clean
  • Nothing is charged at all in that case, and the diagnosis you already have is still yours
  • Looking is free every time, even with a credit sitting on your account

The Price

One price, one book, both files.

$49.99 per book

It covers whichever of the two files you sent: the repaired press-ready PDF or PDFs, and a conformance report for each. A cover repair carries two refinements as well.

A purchase becomes one repair credit on your account, and you spend it in the Rejection Clinic: upload, diagnose, then choose to repair. It takes a minute or two, the finished files download on that page, and we email you a link when they are ready. A file repair is never a project and never appears with your books.

Charged after it works, not before. Refunds follow our usual policy, in the Terms.

One App, The Whole Book

And if the answer is a fresh start.

Sometimes the honest verdict is that the file cannot be patched. The same app sets the book again from your manuscript, and you read the whole finished thing before you pay a cent.

Why We Built This

A note from Tracy Atkins, founder

A rejection email from a printer is written for a print technician, and it lands on an author two weeks before a launch. Most of what it complains about is mechanical: a colour space, a missing box, a wrap built at the wrong size. None of it is about the book.

So we made the diagnosis free and public, because knowing what is wrong should not cost anybody anything, and because a fair number of people who run it find out their file is fine and their printer was complaining about something else entirely.

And where we can put it right, we measure the repaired file against the same checks before we hand it over. If it does not come back clean, you are not charged. That is the whole promise, and it is a promise we can keep because conformance is something you can measure.

Tracy Atkins, founder

Before You Start

The questions authors ask at midnight.

Is the diagnosis really free?

Yes, and no account is needed to see it. Upload the file your printer refused and the findings appear on the page: what is wrong, in plain words, and whether each one is something we can repair inside the file. You only make an account if you decide to buy the repair, so we can hold your file securely and deliver the finished one.

Can you fix the interior as well as the cover?

Yes, and one price covers both halves of one book. Send the interior, the cover, or both in one go. An interior is corrected in place, the same pages and the same words; a cover is rebuilt at your printer's exact size with proper bleed and press-ready colour.

What happens if the repair does not work?

You are not charged. The repaired file is measured against the printer's checks before delivery, and if it does not come back clean the credit goes back on your account and nothing is spent. If a printer still refuses a file we repaired, write to us and you get your money back.

Which printers do you check against?

Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu: the conformance rules each of them publishes for print files.

Why will you not fix my margins?

Because we do not measure them, and that is deliberate. Our own delivered books sit tighter than the safety margin some printers publish, so a rule set to that floor would flag files that are perfectly good and sell a repair nobody needs. A margin refusal means the book has to be set again rather than patched, and we would rather tell you that than take the money.

My whole book is a scan. Can you repair it?

No, and the diagnosis says so rather than taking the money. A PDF that is only pictures of pages has no text underneath to correct. Getting the manuscript back out of it is the route, and that is a different product.

Where do my repaired files arrive?

On the Rejection Clinic page, where you started, and we email you a link as well. A file repair is never a project and never appears among your books.

Do you keep my file?

It is held so we can repair it and hand it back, and you can delete it whenever you like. It is never sold, licensed or shared, and it is never used to train AI.

Find out what actually went wrong.

The diagnosis is free, it takes about a minute, and it tells you honestly whether we can fix it.

Diagnose My File Free

Free diagnosis first. Charged only when the repair passes.

Diagnose My File Free