Images in books behave differently in print and ebook formats — different resolution requirements, different colour modes, different sizing rules. Getting this wrong produces blurry print images or oversized ebook files that erode your royalties. This guide covers every image consideration for both formats.
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Images inside books — diagrams, photographs, illustrations, maps, charts — introduce technical requirements that text-only books don’t face. An image that looks sharp on a computer screen at 72 DPI looks visibly blurry when printed, because print requires far higher resolution than screen display. An image correctly prepared for print may be vastly oversized for an ebook, creating a delivery file large enough to trigger significant royalty deductions. The requirements for print and ebook images differ enough that treating them identically reliably causes problems in one format or the other. This guide covers the complete technical picture for both.
Resolution: The Most Common Image Error
Resolution — measured in dots per inch (DPI) — is the most fundamental image quality consideration for print books. Screen displays render at 72–96 DPI, so an image that looks excellent on a monitor appears visibly blurry when printed. KDP requires a minimum of 300 DPI at the printed size for all interior images in print books. Images below this threshold will appear soft in the output and may trigger a quality warning from KDP during file review.
The phrase “at the printed size” is important. A 1,000 × 1,000 pixel image printed at 3.33″ × 3.33″ is exactly 300 DPI — adequate. The same image scaled to fill a 6″ × 6″ area prints at only 167 DPI — blurry. To check whether an image meets the requirement: divide the image’s pixel width by its intended print width in inches. A 3,000-pixel image printed at 5 inches wide gives 600 DPI — comfortably above the minimum. A 1,200-pixel image at the same 5 inches gives 240 DPI — below it. When sourcing images for print, always request the highest available resolution, and be aware that screenshots and images downloaded from websites are almost never adequate for print use regardless of how they look on screen.
Colour Mode: RGB for Ebooks, CMYK for Print
Print book images should be in CMYK colour mode; ebook images should be in RGB. This mirrors the cover file requirements described in the KDP Cover Design Requirements guide. CMYK is the colour model printers use to mix ink; RGB is the model screens use to mix light. When a print PDF containing RGB images is submitted to KDP, Amazon converts them to CMYK during pre-press — and this automatic conversion can shift colours that are out of the CMYK gamut, particularly very saturated blues, vivid greens, and neon tones.
For photographs where colour accuracy matters, convert to CMYK in your image editing application before including the image in your print PDF, and review the CMYK preview to check for unacceptable colour shifts before committing to the file. For black-and-white print books, convert images to Grayscale mode manually rather than relying on KDP’s automatic conversion — this gives you control over contrast and tonal values that automatic conversion doesn’t provide.
Image Placement in Print
Image placement in print must be handled carefully because the layout is fixed. The safest and most reliable approach is to insert images inline with text — anchored to a specific paragraph, positioned at the point in the narrative where they are referenced. Avoid floating images in Word: Word’s floating object layout is notoriously unpredictable during PDF export, with images frequently jumping to unexpected pages or causing text to reflow incorrectly.
Images need white space above and below. A paragraph immediately adjacent to an image with no spacing creates a visually cramped page. Use paragraph spacing controls in your formatting tool — space before and space after the image paragraph — to add 6–12pt of breathing room around each image. Don’t use blank lines for this spacing, since empty paragraph marks produce inconsistent results across different rendering environments and formatting tools. For books with full-page images, place each on its own page with the page set to no running header. For the complete print layout context, see the KDP Paperback Formatting guide.
Images in Ebooks: File Size and Delivery Fees
For ebooks, the priority shifts from resolution quality to file size efficiency. Screen resolution (72–150 DPI) is entirely adequate for digital display — submitting high-resolution print images in your EPUB increases file size without improving the reader’s experience. KDP’s recommended maximum for inline ebook images is around 127 KB per image, and the total EPUB file size directly affects the delivery fee deducted from your 70% royalty.
KDP charges a delivery fee of $0.15 per megabyte of the converted file delivered to readers. A small text-only ebook generates a delivery file of approximately 0.3 MB — negligible. An ebook with fifty unoptimised images might generate a file of 8–12 MB, with a delivery fee of $1.20–$1.80 per copy. At a $3.99 price point, this represents a significant percentage of your gross royalty. See the Kindle Ebook Pricing guide for worked examples of how delivery fees erode royalties at different price points and file sizes.
To optimise ebook images: resize to the maximum display dimension needed (typically 1,000–1,600 pixels on the long edge), compress JPEG images to 70–80% quality, and use PNG only for diagrams and flat-colour illustrations where JPEG compression artefacts are visually problematic. Most dedicated formatting tools such as Vellum and Atticus handle image compression automatically during ebook export. If formatting manually, run images through a compression tool before embedding them in your EPUB source file.
Black and White vs Colour Interior Printing
A decision specific to print books with images is whether to print in black ink or colour ink. The cost difference is significant: a standard-length book printed in black ink costs approximately $3–$4 less per copy than the same book in colour. For most fiction and text-heavy non-fiction, black ink is the right choice — there is no reason to incur colour printing costs for books whose images are only incidental (a map at the front of a fantasy novel, a chart in a business book).
Books where image quality and colour accuracy are core to the product’s value — cookbooks with food photography, photography books, illustrated children’s books, art books — require colour printing and the pricing and royalty structure should be planned accordingly. See the KDP Print Royalties guide for how colour versus black-and-white printing costs feed through to your royalty calculation and minimum viable list price.
If your book contains a mixture of colour and black-and-white elements, assess whether the colour elements are genuinely necessary. Converting a few accent colour diagrams to high-quality greyscale and switching to black-ink printing saves significant per-copy cost across your entire print run. Verify how the greyscale conversions look in your proof copy — some images that look fine on screen lose critical distinction when converted to greyscale, and the proof is the moment to discover that before readers do.
Licencing: What You Can and Cannot Use
Images found via web search, downloaded from social media, or taken from other publications are not free to use in a commercial book. Copyright applies to images from the moment of their creation — using an unlicenced image in your book is infringement regardless of whether the image carries a visible copyright notice.
For interior images your options are: licensed stock photography with a commercial print-on-demand licence (read the licence terms carefully, as some stock licences exclude POD use), images you created yourself, images published under Creative Commons licences that permit commercial use, and public domain images. The Library of Congress digital collections and Project Gutenberg’s illustrated editions at gutenberg.org are excellent freely accessible sources of public domain artwork for historical non-fiction, illustrated classics, and similar projects. The Wikimedia Commons also maintains a large searchable archive of public domain and Creative Commons-licensed images, with clear licence labelling for each file at commons.wikimedia.org.
Always verify the specific Creative Commons licence variant before using an image — some CC licences permit commercial use with attribution, others restrict to non-commercial use only, and some prohibit modification. Misreading a licence is not a defence to an infringement claim. When in doubt, source from a reputable licensed stock library where the commercial POD licence is explicitly stated.
Checking Your Images Before Upload
Before uploading your formatted files to KDP, audit every image in both your print PDF and your EPUB. For print: confirm each image is at minimum 300 DPI at its printed size, in the correct colour mode, and positioned within the safe zone. For ebook: confirm each image is compressed adequately and that the total EPUB file size is within a reasonable range for your royalty target. Use KDP’s online previewer after upload to check image rendering across simulated devices — blurry or incorrectly positioned images are usually visible in the previewer and should be corrected before your book goes live or before ordering a proof copy.
The text surrounding your images reflects the same professional standard as the images themselves. Vappingo’s manuscript proofreading service ensures every word in your book — including captions, figure labels, and the body text that references your images — is accurate, clear, and free from the errors that undermine reader confidence. For the full formatting framework that image preparation fits within, see the How to Format Your Book for KDP cornerstone guide.
Checking Your Images Before Upload
Before uploading your formatted files to KDP, audit every image in both your print PDF and your EPUB. For print: confirm each image is at minimum 300 DPI at its printed size, is in the correct colour mode, and is positioned within the safe zone margins. For ebook: confirm each image is compressed to a reasonable file size and that your total EPUB file size is appropriate for your royalty target at your chosen price point.
Use KDP’s online previewer after upload to check image rendering across simulated devices. Blurry or incorrectly positioned images are usually visible in the previewer and should be corrected before your book goes live or before ordering a proof copy. For print books, a physical proof copy remains the definitive quality check — digital previews simulate but do not replicate exactly what print production delivers. See the KDP Proof Copies guide for a systematic review checklist that covers image quality alongside every other production element to inspect in a physical proof.
Images that appear in your book sit alongside text that readers judge by the same professional standard. Captions, figure labels, and the body text that references your images are as visible as the images themselves — and errors in that text undermine the authority that well-chosen images are designed to build. Vappingo’s manuscript proofreading service covers your complete text including captions and any image-adjacent content, ensuring every word in your book meets the professional standard your images deserve.
Images Draw Attention to the Text Around Them
A well-placed image makes the surrounding text feel more authoritative. Vappingo’s proofreaders ensure that text is worthy of the attention images will draw — accurate, clear, and completely error-free.
