Thirty years of book design and print production experience. Hundreds of printed titles. Printers report one error at a time, so we check your cover and interior against every rejection cause at once, then send back a print-ready PDF in days, not weeks.
IngramSpark tends to report errors one at a time. You fix the thing it named, resubmit, and it rejects the file again for something else. That cycle can burn a week of your launch window. These are the six causes behind nearly every rejection, and a File Fix diagnosis checks your file against all of them at once. The same check works as a preflight before you upload: send the file first and we will tell you what the printer will object to.
Cover does not match the specifications for the title's trim size, binding, or page count.
Spine width is calculated from your final page count, paper stock, and binding. It isn't a number you choose. Add a chapter, switch from creme to white 70, or change binding after generating your template, and the spine shifts. The whole wrap moves with it, so the front and back panels land in the wrong place too.
This is the single most common cover rejection, and the one authors most often try to fix by nudging artwork. It needs a fresh template.
File is not PDF/X-1a:2001 compliant.
PDF/X-1a is a strict standard built for predictable commercial printing, and IngramSpark requires it for covers and interiors alike. A file fails when any single condition is present: unembedded fonts, RGB color anywhere in the file, live transparency that was never flattened, a missing output intent, or an export from software that isn't PDF/X-1a aware.
Because one bad element fails the entire file, re-exporting from the same source usually reproduces the same error.
Fonts are not embedded in the submitted file.
If a font isn't embedded, the press has no way to reproduce your typography and will substitute something else. That is why printers reject the file outright rather than guessing. You can check this yourself in Acrobat under File → Properties → Fonts: every font listed should read Embedded or Embedded Subset.
Certain licensed and variable fonts refuse to embed at all, which is a design problem rather than an export problem, and needs a substitution decision.
File contains images below the minimum resolution.
Print resolves far more detail than a screen. Printers want roughly 300 DPI at the image's final printed size, and covers are checked more strictly than interiors. An image that looks crisp on your monitor at 72 DPI will print soft.
Resolution can't be added after the fact. Upscaling invents pixels rather than recovering detail. Part of the diagnosis is telling you which images can be corrected and which genuinely need re-sourcing.
Content extends beyond the trim or safety area.
Every printed book is trimmed with a small tolerance, so anything closer than about half an inch to the edge of the text block risks being cut off or drifting into the gutter. Bleed works the other way: artwork meant to run to the edge must extend past the trim line, usually by an eighth of an inch, or you get a white sliver along the edge.
Page numbers, running heads, and full-bleed cover art are the usual casualties.
File contains RGB color space objects.
Screens make color with light (RGB); presses make it with ink (CMYK). A single RGB image anywhere in the file is enough to trigger a rejection, and embedded color profiles cause their own problems on cover files.
Converting isn't just a mode switch, either. The vivid blues, oranges, and greens that live comfortably in RGB fall outside CMYK's range and will shift on press unless someone corrects for it deliberately.
"Working with The Cadence Group, GKS Creative was able to provide solutions for the client's numerous file set-up issues. Truly effective and a pleasure to work with. I will look nowhere else when I bring my next novel to market."
"Anything I threw at Gwyn was handled quickly and in a very organized, professional manner. She has a solution for everything. GKS is an eleven on a scale of ten."
"There is no designer I trust more to bring creativity, professionalism, and integrity to every project she touches. GKS Creative is the gold standard for book design, and Gwyn Flowers is one of the true gems in publishing."
Upload your PDFs and paste in the exact error message the printer sent you, along with your book's specifications.
Within three to five business days you get a plain-English breakdown of every problem in the file, including the ones the printer hasn't told you about yet.
Typically three to five business days, depending on tier and severity. If the diagnosis changes the tier, you approve the quote first.
Print-ready files sized to your printer's exact specifications, with notes on anything to watch on your next edition.
Start at Tier 1. If it turns out to be bigger, your $99 comes off the price of the tier you actually need.
Single PDF file.
You get:
Two to three PDF files. Non-fiction, and novels over 300 pages.
You get:
Four to five PDF files. Files that need rebuilding at the source.
You get:
Start with the $99 Tier 1 diagnosis. If it turns out your file needs the deeper work in Tier 2 or Tier 3, we subtract the $99 you already paid from that tier's price. You pay only the difference, never the $99 again. We send you a quote first, so nothing more is charged until you approve it. You can also stop after the diagnosis, keep the guide, and do the repairs yourself.
The more of this you can send up front, the faster the diagnosis comes back. If you don't have all of it, send what you have.
Start Your File FixSame service, same tiers. KDP rejections come from the same underlying causes, with a few platform-specific quirks worth knowing.
KDP derives spine width from its own per-page paper thickness, and white and cream stock use different multipliers, so a cover built to an IngramSpark template will not fit KDP, and vice versa. If you distribute through both, you need two correctly sized covers, not one.
KDP is strict about anything extending past the printable area, and about interiors whose page size doesn't match the trim size declared in your account. Stray blank pages from leftover section or page breaks in a Word manuscript are a frequent cause.
Cover PDFs carrying live transparency or unflattened layers get rejected. So do files containing crop marks, annotations, comments, bookmarks, or leftover placeholder text, all of which survive a careless export.
Nothing can be corrected in the KDP interface. Every fix has to happen in the original source file and be re-exported and re-uploaded. That is exactly where most authors get stuck, and where a repaired file saves the most time.
What authors ask us most often about print file rejections, PDF/X-1a compliance, spine widths, and what it costs to put it right.
Almost every IngramSpark rejection traces back to one of six causes: the spine width on your cover doesn't match your page count and paper stock; the file isn't PDF/X-1a compliant; fonts aren't fully embedded; images fall below 300 DPI at final print size; text or images sit outside the safe margins; or the file is in RGB when the printer needs CMYK.
IngramSpark's rejection notice often names only one of these at a time, so a file can be rejected repeatedly for different reasons. A full diagnosis finds all of them at once.
PDF/X-1a:2001 is a strict PDF standard built for predictable commercial printing, and IngramSpark requires it for both cover and interior files. A file fails compliance when any one of several conditions is present: fonts aren't fully embedded; the file contains RGB color; live transparency hasn't been flattened; the output intent is missing; or the PDF was exported by a tool that isn't PDF/X-1a aware.
Because a single non-compliant element fails the whole file, exporting again from the same broken source usually reproduces the same error.
Spine width is calculated from your final page count, paper stock, and binding type. You do not choose it. Change any one of them after generating your cover template and the spine width shifts, which breaks the wrap and triggers a rejection.
The fix is to lock trim size, binding, paper, and final page count first, generate a fresh template from those exact values, then rebuild the cover to the new template. Manually nudging the old artwork rarely works, because the front and back panels shift along with the spine.
Yes. Most File Fix projects are files built by someone else: the author, a cover template tool, a freelancer, or an earlier designer. We work from whatever you have.
If you can supply the source files, repairs are usually cleaner and faster; if all you have is the exported PDF, we can still diagnose the file and repair most problems directly in it.
File Fix is priced in three tiers. Tier 1 is $99 for one PDF file and novels up to 300 pages, and includes a full diagnosis, simple repairs, and a step-by-step guide. Tier 2 starts at $299 for two to three PDF files, non-fiction, and novels over 300 pages, and includes full repair with print-ready PDFs delivered. Tier 3 starts at $599 for four to five PDF files and includes repair of the source files plus template creation.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 are quoted on the severity of the issues found, so you'll see the price before work begins.
Start at Tier 1. If the diagnosis shows the file needs the deeper work in Tier 2 or Tier 3, the $99 you already paid is credited in full against the higher tier, so you never pay twice for the same diagnosis.
You see the quote before any additional work begins, and you're free to take the diagnosis and guide and stop there.
We return a diagnosis within three to five business days of receiving your files and the printer's error message. Repairs are typically complete three to five business days after that, depending on the tier and the severity of the issues.
Complex Tier 3 work involving source file rebuilds and template creation can run longer, and you're told the timeline with your quote.
Yes. KDP rejections come from the same underlying causes, with a few platform-specific differences: KDP calculates spine width from its own per-page paper thickness, is strict about content sitting outside the printable area, and rejects covers containing unflattened layers or transparency.
We prepare files for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble Press, Lulu, and direct-to-printer specifications, and can supply a correct file for each if you distribute through more than one.
Commercial printing resolves far more detail than a screen, so printers require roughly 300 DPI at the image's final printed size. An image that looks sharp on your monitor at 72 DPI will print soft or pixelated.
Resolution cannot be added after the fact. Enlarging a small image invents pixels rather than recovering detail, so a genuinely low-resolution image has to be replaced with a better source. Part of a File Fix diagnosis is telling you which images can be corrected and which ones you need to re-source.
Send us the file and the error message. We'll take it from there
Start Your File Fix