Frequently Asked Questions

Read the FAQs to learn how BookBildr works and find solutions to common problems. If you can’t find an answer to your question here, feel free to contact us. For step-by-step tutorials and tips, check out our Blog’s Tutorials category.

Order Questions (16)

No, sorry. It’s a digital download, which you can’t give back or complain about the quality – it was you who made the book, after all. PDF downloads are strictly non-refundable. However, if there’s an obvious problem with the file, like broken images, damaged text or even typos, we’ll help you to fix them.

When you download a PDF (digital publication), we grant you the right to print it anywhere you’d like and sell the book if you’d like. We’ve added the fees for those rights to the price. If you want to create lots of PDFs, check out BookBildr for Education. The Personal account makes that possible for only $9.99/mo.

If, for any reason, you’re not satisfied with our product, please let us know. We strive to provide top-quality products, so it’s important for us to know how we could improve. Please submit a support ticket with your order number and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

We know how frustrating it is when something doesn’t arrive when expected. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! As long as you entered your shipping address correctly, we’ll be happy to send you a complimentary replacement.

If the product arrives damaged, send us some photos and your order reference number, and we’ll happily replace it.

The estimated delivery times shown on our website are only estimates based on our experience in shipping products to various countries. So please allow a bit more time for your order to get delivered, especially if you ordered during the holiday rush.

Factors that could delay delivery times include:

  • Mistyped or incorrectly formatted address
  • Customs and import restrictions
  • Failed delivery attempts (i.e. no one was home to receive the order)
  • Postal strikes
  • Other adverse conditions such as natural disasters

The majority of the orders we receive go directly to our print partners. We do not proofread books unless you purchase the proofreading service before submitting your order.

Because expenses are involved, we can’t stop orders that are already in production but if you submit a support ticket within an hour of submitting your order, we might still be able to pause it and let you make the alterations.

BookBildr doesn’t ship books – our printing partners handle that. They have contracts with various shipping carriers around the globe. These include both courier and regular post carriers. If there is a tracking number available from the carrier, it will be included in the shipping confirmation email.

Note that tracking numbers can take 1-2 days to start displaying the actual location of your order.

We’re sorry to hear about that but unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to help. All BookBildr images are high-resolution and are ready to be used in all our formats. When you upload your own images, it’s your responsibility to make sure they are high-res enough for print and can be used legally.

After you place your order, you have 3 hours to contact us and update the print files. Because expenses are involved, we can’t stop orders that are already in production but if you submit a support ticket within 3 hours of submitting your order, we might still be able to pause it and let you make the alterations.

We do not proofread or fix books unless you purchase the proofreading service before submitting your order.

You can select “Express shipping” during checkout. However, keep in mind that we don’t offer rush printing. Your book will still take 5-7 business days to get printed.

AI credit purchases are non-refundable because once the purchase is made, we can’t take the credits away from your account. That’s why we made it possible for you to generate 5 AI images for free per month. Please take this into consideration before you purchase AI credits and pay only if you’re satisfied with the free results.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible for us to change the shipping method after you place your order. That’s why we recommend having a look at all the shipping methods offered for your location before ordering using the “Shipping” drop-down menu and select the option that suits you best.

Our estimated manufacturing timeline is 5-7 business days outside the peak seasons, which are the winter holidays and the back-to-school season. During the high season, manufacturing delays are possible.

Please note that the weekend and national holidays don’t count towards business days and that these times are only estimates.

BookBildr’s printing partners offer four types of color options. Here are some details that will help you choose the best color printing option for your book project:

Premium color: this is the color option we recommend for picture books and photo books, especially if you have images covering the whole page. Premium color is ideal for heavy ink coverage and guarantees rich colors.

Standard color: if your book is mainly text with a small illustration here and there, the standard color option will work for you. This color profile is suitable for textbooks, worksheets, and other books that need to be printed in color but where image quality is not crucial. While this option is more affordable, it’s not suitable for books with full-page illustrations and photo books.

Premium black & white: this option works great for photo books featuring black and white photography, and other works that need top-quality printing of black and white images. Works great with coated 80# paper.

Standard black & white: the standard printing option for text-heavy books with occasional black and white doodle illustrations. Works for novels, short stories, and so on.

Depending on the binding options and your book’s interior, BookBildr books can be printed on the following paper:

Coated 80# white (recommended): Ultra-smooth, high-opacity bright white paper that works great for picture books, photo books, and other books with lots of images.

Uncoated 60# white: cost-effective and versatile paper that works well for books where image quality is not of crucial importance.

Uncoated 60# cream: your standard cream paper for novels and other text-heavy books. Not suitable for books with illustrations.

Cover finish options:

Glossy cover: These covers are more resistant to wear and tear while providing vibrant colors and emphasizing the cover imagery. Recommended for gifts, children’s books, and art books.

Matte cover: A matte finish gives your book a more intimate and natural look. It’s resistant to scratches and works great with many types of artworks.

If there is a print quality issue or your book got damaged in the post, please open a ticket, describe the problem, and include some photos. If we determine a manufacturing defect or the post is responsible for damage, we will provide a reprint with express shipping.

In some cases, when the printing facility determines that a reprint is not possible, we will provide a refund.

Please note that we can’t accept returns or issue refunds. We cannot refund or replace items if you simply change your mind, discover typos that you made when creating the book, used the wrong photo, or ordered the wrong size or shape.

We aren’t being nasty here – we simply can’t accept returns because there is no way for us to sell your custom-made product and cover the manufacturing and shipping costs. Ordinary store-bought products can only be returned because they can be resold to other customers.

General (13)

BookBildr is an online-based tool that makes it possible for you to create your own illustrated book from scratch. You don’t need any design experience because BookBildr has everything in stock. You can choose different backgrounds, shapes, frames and illustrations, and add them to your book. The number of combinations is endless and no story will be alike. All images on BookBildr are in the public domain, which means they are OK for both personal and commercial use. Once your book is finished, you have two options: to download a PDF or to order printed copies that will be delivered to your address. We ship worldwide.

With BookBildr, you can easily create illustrated books in four different formats: medium square, large square, landscape, and portrait. You can download the books you create as PDFs or order hard copies.

You can use BookBildr to create:

– Picture books for children.
– Personalized gifts.
– Learning materials for school, church, or any other organization.
– Photobooks with your own images or a combination of our illustrations and your images.
– and much more!

The short answer is, it’s for anyone with Internet access who wants to make an illustrated book or a PDF. More specifically, it’s for:

– parents and grandparents who want to put their stories to life and make personalized children’s picture books
– independent writers who want to try their hand at writing and illustrating their own stories
– children who want to write books like grownups
– schools, kindergartens and other educational organizations
– the list is endless, really!

Yes! BookBildr uses Google Fonts, which means that there’s a font for practically any language. To find the right font for your language, go to https://fonts.google.com and use the “Languages” dropdown menu to find compatible fonts. You can then select the compatible font you like in the BookBildr Editor.

Yes, you can order proofreading and/or editing from the Services page.

Yes, we can if the book’s size and format are compatible. Our softcover magazine formats are dynamic, so we can print practically any size. However, if you want a hardcover book, it needs to be in one of the following formats: A5, A4, 21 x 21 cm square, or 29.4 x 29.4 cm.

BookBildr doesn’t offer any free or paid storage space. We advise you to download your PDF files as soon as you receive the email with the download link. Purchased PDFs have a 7-day lifetime after which we delete them from our servers. This does not affect your book projects – your books will be available for editing until you delete them.

While the website will open with Safari, you shouldn’t use it to create your book because it may result in broken formatting. Please use Google Chrome instead.

From time to time, BookBildr runs a storage check and, to keep the website efficient for all users, we identify users who haven’t been active for more than 6 months. We then send an email to these users warning them that unless they want to keep their content, we are going to remove it to free up storage space. We ask them to either fill in a form or reply to our email. If we don’t hear back, we put their books in a “deleted” folder, which we keep for one month in case anyone wants to restore their books. But once the month ends, the inactive content is deleted forever.

We print books at print facilities around the world. Our partner facilities are located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and India. Our software automatically selects the printing facility that works best for each customer based on the customer’s address and routes the order there.

We ship print products globally.

Yes, we do. You get:

  • 3% off if you order 5-10 books
  • 5% off if you order 10-20 books
  • 10% off if you order 20-50 books
  • 15% off if you order 50+ books

You can combine different book titles and types to qualify for the discount.

BookBildr’s printing partners offer four types of color options. Here are some details that will help you choose the best color printing option for your book project:

Premium color: this is the color option we recommend for picture books and photo books, especially if you have images covering the whole page. Premium color is ideal for heavy ink coverage and guarantees rich colors.

Standard color: if your book is mainly text with a small illustration here and there, the standard color option will work for you. This color profile is suitable for textbooks, worksheets, and other books that need to be printed in color but where image quality is not crucial. While this option is more affordable, it’s not suitable for books with full-page illustrations and photo books.

Premium black & white: this option works great for photo books featuring black and white photography, and other works that need top-quality printing of black and white images. Works great with coated 80# paper.

Standard black & white: the standard printing option for text-heavy books with occasional black and white doodle illustrations. Works for novels, short stories, and so on.

Depending on the binding options and your book’s interior, BookBildr books can be printed on the following paper:

Coated 80# white (recommended): Ultra-smooth, high-opacity bright white paper that works great for picture books, photo books, and other books with lots of images.

Uncoated 60# white: cost-effective and versatile paper that works well for books where image quality is not of crucial importance.

Uncoated 60# cream: your standard cream paper for novels and other text-heavy books. Not suitable for books with illustrations.

Cover finish options:

Glossy cover: These covers are more resistant to wear and tear while providing vibrant colors and emphasizing the cover imagery. Recommended for gifts, children’s books, and art books.

Matte cover: A matte finish gives your book a more intimate and natural look. It’s resistant to scratches and works great with many types of artworks.

Using the Editor (9)

Currently, the editing tool is for desktops only. We’ll release a mobile app in the near future.

BookBildr works best with Google Chrome. Edge and Firefox are also supported. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING SAFARI.

If you’re experiencing any problems, try using the latest version of Chrome.

The margins designate the safe zone for placing important elements like characters and text. They are NOT where the page will get cut during printing so feel free to stretch the background and other pictures beyond them, right to the page edges. Just make sure all the text (and other important elements) stay inside to prevent them from getting cut off during printing. Oh, and if you’re planning to sell your book on Amazon, then it’s REALLY important to keep all the text inside. Just so you know!

Yes, you can. Use the arrow icons to move your pages around. You can also zoom out to less than 33% and drag the page thumbnails around.

No, it doesn’t. Make sure you press the “Save” icon before you exit the editing tool.

Yes, you can. However, you should make sure none of the hidden rich formatting gets transferred and “break” your book. For best result, paste your text from a simple text editor like Notepad and press Ctrl+Shift+V (Cmd+Shift+V on a Mac) when pasting.

Unfortunately, AI illustrations are not that advanced yet and they can’t generate the same character in different settings. However, you can achieve some level of consistency by:

  • Providing very detailed text prompts: “a boy with light-brown hair playing with a gray kitten on a porch of a log cabin in the woods, watercolor illustration” would work a lot better than “a boy playing with a kitten”.
  • Being consistent in your text prompts. The more similar they are, the better.
  • Specifying the technique you’d like the image to be done with (realistic, watercolor, pastel, cartoon, etc.)
  • Specifying the colors you’d like in the images.
  • Try adding “digital art” to the text prompt.

Keep in mind that you’ll have to always enter the style, technique and details in every AI text prompt so that the results are as consistent as possible.

While AI is a great tool for creating artworks for your book, it has some limitations:

  • The AI illustrator can’t count, which means that if you want 5 cats and 1 mouse, you might get 5 mice and 3 cats.
  • AI can’t generate consistent characters even if you use the same prompt. You might get characters that look similar, but you’ll never get the same character.
  • AI is not very good at interpreting complex, nuanced language. While it does help to write specific and detailed prompts, writing them in a very creative and nuanced manner will confuse the AI.
  • AI has a limited understanding of image context, which can result in scenes looking unrealistic.
  • AI can’t draw complex 3D scenes. Simple 3D scenes work, though.
  • AI can’t spell so if you have signs in your images, they will most likely spell rubbish.

Unfortunately, our printing partners don’t support spread layout out of the box and that’s why we don’t offer a two-page spread design option. However, there’s a workaround you can use to create spread illustrations.

To illustrate your books in spreads, you’ll need to split your spread illustrations into two halves and upload them to facing pages. This way you’ll create a two-page spread illustration. You can then verify the placement and adjust the layout by switching to Spread Layout view mode. To do that, zoom out to 50%.

Book Formatting (7)

Making a beautiful book is easier than you think – just take these tips into account and follow our formatting guidelines from the next FAQ.

– Avoid placing text too close to the edge of each page. Technically, at least 1 cm is required to make sure the page doesn’t look strange or your text or picture doesn’t get cut off. For large books, leave a bit more of blank space for best results. Our “Margins” checkbox will help you to make sure no elements are placed too close to the edge.
– Add a little extra space near the expected fold, especially if your book has more than 20 pages (not applicable to layflat books). Again, the “Margins” function will help.
– Use a photo, an image or a solid color as the background or keep it white. You can use patterns but they usually make your text hard to read and make the page look too busy. We particularly recommend avoiding stripes near the edge of the pages.

BookBildr PDF files aren’t compatible with Amazon out of the box because Amazon and BookBildr use different page sizes. BookBildr uses international sizes, such as A5 and A4, whereas Amazon uses US sizes, such as 6 x 9 inches. Also, Amazon requires picture book files with full-page images to include bleed. BookBildr printing partners add it automatically when we print your books.

Amazon has plenty of resources on how to prepare your book for publication. But if you’re having trouble, you can always hire us to do the formatting for you.

When you order formatting for Amazon from us, you’ll get:

  • A cover file for the paperback version
  • An interior file for the paperback version
  • An ebook file in Amazon’s preferred .kpf format
  • A cover image for the ebook version in .jpg format

The service DOES NOT include uploading the files to the customer’s Amazon account. It’s the customer’s responsibility to make sure they have the technical knowledge and the required technology (a desktop computer) to upload the files to their KDP account.

The minimum number of pages to get your book printed is 10 pages for printing coil-bound and saddle stitch softcovers and 26 pages including the covers to print a hardcover.

We recommend that your book has at least 26 pages including the front and back cover so that you get all of the options offered by our printing partners during checkout.

With BookBildr, you don’t really need to format your book in any special way. However, keep in mind the following:

– A digital publication (PDF) can have as many or as few pages as you like
– The minimum number of pages is 12 for softcovers and 26 for hardcovers including the covers
– The first and last pages are the front and back book covers
– The second page of your book design is printed on the right-hand side
– Don’t place any elements too close to the page edges. Use the “Margins” checkbox for guidelines and place your content within the frame

You can preview your book in spreads by opening your book project in the editing tool and zooming out to 50%.

No, we don’t unless the printing facility needs to add blank pages for formatting purposes. If any changes to your content are needed, we’ll put your order on hold and contact you.

Unfortunately, our printing partners don’t support spread layout out of the box and that’s why we don’t offer a two-page spread design option. However, there’s a workaround you can use to create spread illustrations.

To illustrate your books in spreads, you’ll need to split your spread illustrations into two halves and upload them to facing pages. This way you’ll create a two-page spread illustration. You can then verify the placement and adjust the layout by switching to Spread Layout view mode. To do that, zoom out to 50%.

Policies (4)

PDF files are available for 7 days and then they’re deleted from the server, so please make sure you download your eBook within that timeframe. Your book project on BookBildr DOES NOT get deleted when we remove the PDF. If you discover that your PDF download is no longer available, simply submit a ticket with your order number and we’ll re-generate the PDF for you.

You and only you. BookBildr is just a tool to help you make your book. All the illustrations we offer are public domain, so you don’t have to worry about that either.

All illustrations provided by BookBildr come from free stock websites or from our partner illustrators. The illustrations are public domain and are free for commercial use. If you think that an illustration breaches copyright laws, please contact us via the contact form and report your concern.

BookBildr aims to be a platform for creativity and freedom of expression. However, there are legal and ethical restrictions we expect you to respect when you upload your own content. That’s why we advise you to double-check our Terms of Use before uploading images and texts.

Yes, you can. However, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary rights for all the content in your book or PDF.

Here’s an overview of how you can use BookBildr content.

What’s allowed:

  • Commercial and noncommercial use across print and digital, except in the cases mentioned in “What’s not allowed”.
  • Attribution is not required but very much appreciated. Something like “This book was made with BookBildr.com” would mean a lot to us.

What’s NOT allowed:

  • Don’t sell unaltered copies of an image (e.g. don’t create a sheet with a single image from us and sell it as your own). This also applies to creating photo albums using the photos we provide and crediting yourself as the photographer. That’s not only dishonest, but also illegal.
  • Don’t use our content to portray identifiable people or brands in a bad light.
  • Don’t use our content to create misleading associations with identifiable brands, products, and/or services.

Troubleshooting (4)

This could happen when the server fails to load all the images properly. To fix the problem, refresh the page and wait for the images to load.

No, simply edit your PDF, click on the Save button and let us know by submitting a ticket – we’ll generate the new PDF for you. After all, we all make typos!

To make BookBildr fast and efficient for all users, we automatically delete unused uploaded images that are older than 7 days. Don’t worry, we don’t delete any picture you use in a book, plus you can always upload the missing images again if you need them for your project.

We are really sorry about this! If your PDF has missing images, please submit a support ticket on the BookBildr website as soon as possible. We’ll fix your book file. DO NOT PLACE ANOTHER ORDER FOR THE SAME PDF!

Most of the time, this happens because our image providers’ servers are too busy and images fail to load when your PDF is generated. Unfortunately, BookBildr can’t influence their servers but we can and will fix your PDF.