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Production

The Bind Edge Is Not Trimmed

·8 min in full, in the book·PagePerfect Journal

Also available as a typeset book

A 6 × 9 in book interior set up with bleed is built at 6.125 × 9.25 in.1 The extra 0.125 in goes at the head, the foot and the outside edge, and nothing goes at the bind.1 Put 3 mm on all four sides and the page size is wrong, which is one of the things both platforms check.2 Each number of that kind holds for one printer on the day it was read. Our argument is that the date belongs with the number wherever the number goes.

The rest of this essay is in the book

It goes on to cover:

  • Three edges, and nothing at the bind
  • What the PDF says, and what it does not
  • A family of standards, and an old part of it
  • Inkjet at both platforms
  • Fonts, and the flag that is not the licence
  • Making the file
  • What the checklist should hold
  • Build at trim, and carry the date with the number

About the book

Notes

  1. IngramSpark 2026, p. 8 black-and-white quick reference (Bleed); p. 9 BLEED; p. 11 BLEED; p. 13 Blue (Bleed) Area and Red (Trim) Dotted Line; Amazon KDP n.d., Bleed; page-size formula and the 6 × 9 in example. IngramSpark’s File Creation Guide, edition 8.24.26 of 24 August 2026, and KDP’s help page on trim size, bleed and margins, which is undated and was retrieved on 15 September 2026. Both entries are verified to 15 September 2026 and set for review on 15 March 2027. 0.125 in is 3.175 mm: IngramSpark rounds it to 3 mm and KDP to 3.2 mm, so the two are one measurement, not two. Evidence A: strong or direct evidence.
  2. IngramSpark 2024, Introductory sentence; Interior Files and Cover Files lists; IngramSpark n.d., Introduction and the interior and cover lists; IngramSpark 2026, Section 7 Submitting Files; revisions or resubmissions. No failure rate is published by either platform or by anyone else that could be traced, so our February claim that many manuscripts fail at first submission is untraced and has been dropped. That rejections happen is documented; how often they happen is not. Evidence A: strong or direct evidence.

Sources

  • IngramSpark (2026). File Creation Guide, edition 8.24.26. ingramspark.com
  • Amazon KDP (n.d.). Set Trim Size, Bleed, and Margins. KDP Help Center. kdp.amazon.com
  • IngramSpark (2024). Print Book File Guidelines (one-page PDF checklist). ingramspark.com
  • IngramSpark (n.d.). File Requirements for Print Books. IngramSpark blog. ingramspark.com
  • IngramSpark (2026). IngramSpark User Guide, Version 3.3, August 24, 2026. ingramspark.com