0.25 in minimum on the three outer edges (top, bottom, outside) for a no-bleed interior — KDP requires 0.375 in minimum if the interior uses bleed instead. The fourth edge, the inside gutter, follows a separate table keyed to interior page count. Line art should stay inside whichever box that leaves.
The four margins on every page
| Edge | Minimum (no bleed) | Minimum (with bleed) | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top, bottom, outside | 0.25 in each | 0.375 in each | Whether the interior uses bleed |
| Inside (gutter) | 0.375–0.875 in, by page count | Same table | Interior page count (see the gutter guide) |
The three outer margins share one minimum, set by whether the file uses bleed. The gutter is separate and larger — it starts where the outer minimum leaves off and grows with the book's interior page count, because it's protecting against a different risk (content pulled into the binding, not trimmed off an outer edge).
300 DPI: 2550 × 3300 px · safe margin 0.375 in = 113 px
Why bleed changes the outer minimum
This is the part that reads backwards at first: bleed pages need a larger safe margin than no-bleed pages, even though bleed exists to let art run to the edge. The reason is that trimming a printed book is never perfectly precise — the cut can land a hair inside or outside the intended line. A no-bleed page has nothing at the very edge to begin with, so small trimming variance doesn't touch real content. A bleed page has art running to the edge on purpose, which means the same trimming variance is now cutting through active content — so KDP requires more distance between the trim line and anything that matters, to absorb that variance safely.
What "safe" protects against, edge by edge
- Outer edges (top, bottom, outside): trimming variance during the cut that separates the book from the press sheet.
- Inside edge (gutter): the physical binding — glue or stitching — which can obscure or curl content placed too close to the spine, and which gets worse the thicker the book is (more pages, more binding depth).
These are different physical risks, which is why they have different rules — one keyed to bleed, the other to page count — rather than a single margin number for the whole page.
Applying this to a coloring page
For a coloring book, the practical version is: draw the line art to sit inside a box that's inset 0.25 in from the three outer trim edges (0.375 in if the book uses bleed — most coloring books don't, see the bleed guide) and inset by whatever the gutter table gives for the book's interior page count on the spine-side edge, alternating sides through the book. Content outside that box risks being trimmed away or pulled into the binding once the finished, bound copy exists — a risk that doesn't show up looking at a single flat page on screen.
Sources
Last verified 2026-09-04. Updated 2026-09-04.