Upload your book cover or interior PDF and get a CMYK-converted, print-ready file back in seconds. Free. No account needed.
CMYK · FOGRA29 profile · 300 DPI · Ready for IngramSpark upload
IngramSpark and B&N Press print in CMYK. If you submit RGB images, their system converts them automatically, but the conversion can shift your colors in unexpected ways. Converting yourself gives you control.
This tool uses Ghostscript, the same engine professional print shops use, to convert every RGB image in your PDF to CMYK using the FOGRA29 (ISO Uncoated) color profile, which matches IngramSpark's printing stock.
KDP Print actually prefers sRGB, selecting KDP above will convert your file to sRGB instead of CMYK. This matches Amazon's printing workflow and produces more accurate colors on KDP paperbacks.
Your file is uploaded, converted, and deleted. We don't store your manuscript or cover art. Files are permanently wiped from our servers within 24 hours.
You do not need a $240/year Acrobat Pro subscription to get a CMYK PDF. Here are the three ways that actually work, and the honest trade-off with each one.
Drop your PDF in, pick your printer, download the converted file. It runs Ghostscript with the FOGRA29 (ISO Uncoated) profile, which is the same engine and the same profile a print shop would use. Takes about 20 seconds and there is no account to make.
Pick KDP Print rather than IngramSpark if you are publishing to Amazon. KDP wants sRGB, not CMYK, and sending it CMYK is a common way to get muddy blacks on a paperback.
Ghostscript is free and open source, so you can run the same conversion locally if you are comfortable in a terminal. Install it, then run:
gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sColorConversionStrategy=CMYK -dProcessColorModel=/DeviceCMYK -sOutputFile=cover-cmyk.pdf cover.pdfThis is exactly what the tool above does for you. The catch is that installing Ghostscript on Windows and getting it on your PATH trips up a lot of people, and a wrong flag can flatten your transparency or drop your embedded fonts.
Both are real design tools that can export CMYK PDFs. Affinity Publisher is a one-time purchase and Scribus is free. Either is a good answer if you are redesigning the cover anyway.
They are a poor answer if you just need to convert a finished file, because you have to import, re-lay-out, and re-export, and every one of those steps is a chance to shift your trim size or lose your bleed.
Color mode is one of eighteen things IngramSpark checks. Converting to CMYK does nothing about missing bleed, unembedded fonts, a wrong trim size, low-resolution images, or total ink coverage over 240%. Those are separate rejections and they are the ones that cost you another 72-hour review cycle.
If your file has already been rejected once, run the full scan before you resubmit so you find all of it at once instead of one rejection at a time.
18 compliance checks, fonts, bleed, PDF/X, image resolution, TrimBox, metadata, and more. The check is free.
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