Book Page Template: Interior Layout Design

Okay so interior layout is honestly where most people screw up their KDP books and don’t even realize it until they get that first 1-star review saying the margins are all wonky or the text is cutting off. I just tested like 15 different templates last week because one of my journal interiors was bleeding into the gutter and it drove me insane.

The Trim Size Thing Nobody Tells You About

First thing – your trim size dictates EVERYTHING. I see people designing these gorgeous 8.5×11 interiors and then they’re shocked when KDP’s previewer shows text getting chopped. The most common sizes are 6×9 for books, 8.5×11 for workbooks and planners, and 8×10 which is kinda the sweet spot for coloring books and some journals.

Here’s what I do – I always start in InDesign or Canva (yeah I use both, don’t judge) and I set up the document with the EXACT trim size first. Not close to it, not rounded up. If you’re doing 6×9, it’s literally 6 inches by 9 inches. KDP will reject your file or make it look terrible if you’re even slightly off.

Margins Are Your Best Friend and Worst Enemy

The gutter margin is the inside margin where the book binds and it needs to be bigger than your outside margins. For a 6×9 book under 150 pages, I use:

• Inside margin (gutter): 0.5 inches minimum, I usually go 0.625 to be safe
• Outside margin: 0.5 inches
• Top margin: 0.5 inches
• Bottom margin: 0.75 inches (gives room for page numbers)

But wait – if your book is over 150 pages, that gutter needs to increase. Amazon’s got this weird formula but basically add 0.0625 inches for every additional 50 pages or something. I honestly just use 0.75 inches for anything over 200 pages and call it a day.

Oh and another thing, the bleed. KDP wants 0.125 inches of bleed on all sides if you’re doing full-cover graphics or borders that touch the edge. Most low-content books don’t need bleed for the interior unless you’re getting fancy with backgrounds or edge-to-edge designs.

Templates I Actually Use

I’ve built probably 50+ templates at this point and here’s what’s in my actual rotation:

Basic lined journal template – 6×9, college-ruled lines (0.25 inch spacing), no headers or footers. The lines are 80% gray not black because full black looks harsh when printed. Learned that one the hard way after my first batch came back looking like prison notebooks.

Dot grid template – 8.5×11, dots spaced 0.2 inches apart, 30% gray so they’re visible but subtle. I use a 0.75 inch margin all around for these because people actually write on them and need the space.

Blank recipe book pages – these need designated areas for ingredients, instructions, prep time, etc. I keep the fonts at 10pt minimum because nobody wants to squint while they’re cooking. My cat knocked over my coffee while I was designing one of these last month and I had to redo like 20 pages.

The Font Situation

Okay so fonts are weirdly important. For low-content interiors with prompts or headers, I stick with:

• Montserrat or Raleway for headers (clean, modern, readable)
• Open Sans or Lato for body text if there’s any
• Never use more than 2 fonts per template

And keep the font size at 10pt minimum for anything people need to read. I did an 8pt font once for a planner and someone left a review saying they needed a magnifying glass. Fair point honestly.

For line spacing, 1.15 to 1.5 is the sweet spot depending on the font. Too tight and it feels cramped, too loose and you’re wasting page count which affects your printing costs.

Page Count Math That’ll Save You Money

This is gonna sound weird but page count needs to be divisible by 2, obviously, but Amazon’s printing costs jump at certain thresholds. A 100-page book and a 108-page book cost different amounts to print, and sometimes it’s worth adding a few blank pages or extra content to stay under a threshold.

I keep a spreadsheet of printing costs but generally:

• 24-108 pages: one price tier
• 110-200 pages: higher tier
• 200+ pages: costs keep climbing

So if you’re designing a journal and you’re at 102 pages, maybe add some extra prompts or quote pages to get to 108, or cut content to stay at 100. The profit margin difference can be like $1-2 per book which adds up.

Headers, Footers, and Page Numbers

Most of my low-content books don’t have headers. They’re just wasted space unless you’re doing a workbook where section titles matter. Page numbers though – I put them centered in the footer, 0.5 inches from the bottom, in 9pt font.

Wait I forgot to mention – start your page numbering on page 1 of the actual content, not the title page or copyright page. Those should be unnumbered. InDesign makes this easy, Canva makes it annoying but possible.

Some people do alternating headers where the book title is on even pages and chapter/section on odd pages. That’s fine for higher-content books but overkill for journals and planners.

The Canva vs InDesign Debate

I use both and I’m not ashamed. Canva is faster for simple templates – lined pages, dot grids, basic planners. The templates are already there, you just adjust margins and download as PDF. But Canva’s pagination gets wonky after like 120 pages and it crashes sometimes.

InDesign is what I use for complex layouts – recipe books with multiple sections, workbooks with varied page designs, anything over 150 pages. The master pages feature is incredible. You set up your margins and design once, apply it to all pages, done. Canva can’t really do that efficiently.

Exporting Your File Correctly

This trips people up constantly. KDP wants a PDF but not just any PDF:

• No security settings or passwords
• Embed all fonts (InDesign does this automatically, Canva too)
• Color mode: RGB for digital, but honestly just use RGB for everything, Amazon converts it
• Resolution: 300 DPI minimum for images

In InDesign I export as “Adobe PDF (Print)” with High Quality Print preset. In Canva I just download as PDF Print, not PDF Standard.

Oh and check your file size – KDP has a limit but I’ve never hit it with interior files. Covers sometimes get chunky with high-res images but interiors are usually fine.

Testing Your Template Before Upload

I always do a test print through KDP before I create like 50 books with the same template. Order one author copy, check the margins, make sure nothing’s cut off, see how the colors look. Screen colors and printed colors are different – what looks like a nice light gray on your monitor might be barely visible when printed.

Also flip through the physical book and make sure the gutter margin is actually big enough. If the text curves into the binding and you can’t read it, that margin needs to increase.

Common Mistakes I See Everywhere

Mirror margins that aren’t actually mirrored. Left and right pages should mirror each other – wider gutter on the inside, consistent outside margins. Some people just use the same margins for every page and it looks off.

Page numbers in the gutter. I’ve seen this and it’s painful. Page numbers go in the outside margin or centered, never near the binding.

Too much content per page. White space is good actually. A cramped page with tiny margins and small fonts looks cheap even if your content is solid.

Inconsistent spacing. If you’re doing a lined journal, those lines better be evenly spaced on every single page. I use guides and grids religiously for this.

My Actual Workflow Start to Finish

When I’m creating a new template I do this:

Open InDesign, set document to exact trim size, set margins based on page count estimate, create master page with any recurring elements like page numbers or borders, design the first content page, duplicate it for consistency, export as PDF, upload to KDP, order test copy, wait like a week for it to arrive, check everything, adjust if needed, then I save that template and reuse it for similar books.

For Canva it’s similar but I use their template feature less because I like more control. I’ll create the first page exactly how I want it, duplicate it a bunch of times, then adjust individual pages if needed.

Saving Templates for Reuse

This saves SO much time. In InDesign I save the file as a template (.indt) with all the margins and master pages set up. For Canva I just duplicate the design and rename it. Now when I wanna make another journal or planner in the same size, I’ve got the structure ready.

I have folders organized by trim size and type:

• 6×9 journals
• 8.5×11 workbooks
• 8×10 activity books
• 5×8 mini planners

Each folder has base templates I can start from. Game changer for productivity.

The Details That Actually Matter

People obsess over like font choice and decorative elements but honestly the technical stuff matters more. Get your margins right, get your page count right, make sure the file exports correctly. A simple, well-formatted interior will outsell a fancy poorly-formatted one every time.

Also consistency – if you’re doing a series of books, keep the interior layout consistent. Same margins, same fonts, same overall structure. People notice when book 2 in a series looks completely different from book 1.

Anyway that’s basically how I approach interior templates. Start with the trim size, nail the margins, keep it simple, test before scaling. You’re gonna mess up your first few – I had a whole batch of planners with margins that were too small and had to redo them – but once you’ve got solid templates built it gets way faster.