Matte vs Glossy Book Cover: Which Finish Should You Choose?

You've finished the cover, you're setting up your paperback on KDP, and then a tiny question appears: matte or glossy? It looks like a small choice. But the finish is the first thing a reader's hand touches, and it changes how your colours look under the lights. Here's how the two finishes really differ, which books tend to use which, and what Amazon KDP and IngramSpark offer, checked against their own help pages on 2 November 2026.

Key takeaways#

• Matte and glossy are the two cover finishes on both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, for paperbacks and for case laminate hardcovers.
• Glossy is shiny and makes colours and dark areas look richer. Matte has little or no shine and feels softer and more understated.
• Amazon itself says glossy is typical for textbooks, children's books and non-fiction, and matte is typical for novels and other fiction.
• On KDP the finish doesn't change your printing cost, and IngramSpark includes lamination in the cover price, so choose on looks and genre, not money.
• A screen can't show you shine or texture, so order a printed proof before you publish if you're torn.

What's the difference between a matte and glossy book cover?#

Both finishes are a thin protective layer over your printed cover. IngramSpark calls it lamination, and Amazon describes its hardcover finish as a glossy or matte lamination. The artwork underneath is printed the same way. Only the surface changes.

• Glossy reflects light. Colours look brighter, blacks look deeper and the cover feels slick and polished.
• Matte takes the shine away. There's little or no reflection, colours look a touch softer, and the cover feels calmer and more understated.

Amazon's own wording is a good summary. It says glossy "makes black covers darker and artwork more striking", while matte has "minimal sheen and a subtle, polished look".

How each finish looks#

Glossy is the finish for colour. If your cover is a bright illustration, a photograph or a bold, saturated design, gloss makes it pop, and it stays close to the vivid version you saw on screen. The trade-off is glare. Under shop lights, or when you photograph the book for social media, a glossy cover can bounce light back and hide part of the design.

Matte is the finish for mood. Moody photography, painterly art, lots of white space and elegant type often look better without shine. Colours come out slightly gentler than on screen, which can be lovely on a literary cover and a little flat on a cover that depends on neon brights.

If you're not sure what your cover depends on, look at it as a small thumbnail. If its strength is colour and contrast, lean glossy. If its strength is atmosphere and type, lean matte.

How each finish wears#

Books get handled, packed, posted and thrown into bags, so wear matters too.

• Glossy shows fingerprints more easily, but it wipes clean. That's one reason it's so common on children's books, workbooks and textbooks.
• Matte hides glare and light smudges, and it feels nice in the hand. Very dark matte covers can show scuffs and greasy marks after a lot of handling, so a black matte cover may look a little tired sooner on a book that gets used every day.

Neither finish is fragile. Both are there to protect the print, and both do that job.

Which genres use matte, and which use glossy?#

Amazon's KDP help page says glossy is "typical for textbooks, children's books, and nonfiction" and matte is "typical for novels and other fiction". That's a fair rule of thumb. As a starting point:

• Matte: literary and upmarket fiction, memoir, poetry, romance and most adult novels.
• Glossy: picture books and other children's books, cookbooks, photography books, textbooks and workbooks.
• Either: thrillers, fantasy, business books and self-help. Here the cover art decides. Bright, punchy designs lean glossy. Dark, minimal or type-led designs lean matte.

Genre habits are a guide, not a rule. The best test is to look at the bestsellers in your own category and see what they feel like in your hand.

What KDP offers#

For paperbacks, Amazon prints covers on 80 lb (220 GSM) white stock with a choice of two finishes: glossy or matte. You pick the finish in the print options when you set up the book.

For hardcovers, KDP prints case laminate books. Amazon says it wraps your printed cover around two-millimetre solid case board and finishes it with a glossy or matte lamination. There's no dust jacket on a KDP hardcover. If you're still deciding whether a hardcover is worth adding, our comparison of hardcover vs paperback walks through it.

The finish doesn't change your printing cost on KDP. Amazon's printing cost page says bleed settings and cover finish don't affect it. So your royalty is the same whichever you choose.

What KDP doesn't list is anything beyond those two. There's no spot gloss, foil, embossing or soft-touch option on its print options page.

What IngramSpark offers#

IngramSpark also gives you gloss or matte for paperbacks, and its user guide says lamination is included in the cover price. Its hardcovers come in a few more flavours:

• Case laminate, with gloss lamination, matte lamination or a cloth-look cover IngramSpark calls Digital Cloth.
• Jacketed case laminate, where a laminated dust jacket wraps over the printed case.
• Digital Cloth, available with or without a jacket. IngramSpark says the textured feel is only available on hardcovers printed in the US and UK, and its user guide notes that linen-textured lamination isn't available in Australia.

If you're weighing up these hardcover styles, our guide to types of book binding explains case laminate, jacketed and cloth bindings in plain terms.

Getting your cover ready for either finish#

The finish won't rescue a cover file that's the wrong size. Before you worry about shine, make sure the full wrap is right for your trim size, page count and paper. Our guide to book cover size on Amazon KDP covers the dimensions and bleed, and how to calculate spine width shows how your page count sets the width of the spine.

A few design habits help with each finish:

• On matte, give dark areas a little more lift than you think they need, and check fine detail and small text in a printed proof.
• On glossy, think about where light might catch, especially on large dark areas or a cover you'll photograph a lot.
• On both, keep important text away from the trim and the spine edges. If you want a refresher on the names of each part of the outside of a book, see our labelled guide to the parts of a book.

So, matte or glossy?#

Here's the short version:

1. 1Writing a novel, memoir or poetry? Start with matte.
2. 2Making a children's book, cookbook, workbook or photo-led book? Start with glossy.
3. 3Somewhere in between? Let your cover art decide: colour and contrast lean glossy, mood and type lean matte.
4. 4Still torn? Order a printed proof of each. Hold them side by side in daylight and under a lamp. One of them will feel more like your book.

When you'd like a designer's eye#

Your finish is the last touch on a cover that has to work at thumbnail size on Amazon and in the hand in a bookshop. Our book cover design packages start from £197 ($249) for an ebook front cover. The Print Ready package is £297 ($377) and includes the full wrap with spine and back cover, ISBN barcode placement, two concepts and three revision rounds. The Launch Bundle is £397 ($497) if you also need an audiobook cover and social graphics. Every cover is delivered with files ready for KDP and IngramSpark.