Using images for titles in self-published books

[Brian G Turner]

I've noticed some people have used images inside their self-published books, both for cover titles on the first page, and also sometimes even for chapter headings/titles.

I just wondered if it's a relatively easy process that only requires common sense, or whether there are clear guidelines about image size and resolution, etc?

 

[Dan Jones]

I used images (not for titles and headers, admittedly) for my non-fiction book, which I SP'd, and there was no problem with the printing; it was fairly common sense. KDP guides you through the process if you require images to be included, For me it was easy as I only used monochrome diagrams, nothing hi-res or colour.

As a rule, if you want to print something it should be at a resolution of (at least) 300dpi; TIFF files tend to be best, but JPEGs also work fine. I'm not sure whether you have the option to include glossy centrefold pages for photographs as some books do, but I suppose that you can get anything if you pay for it.

ETA: for diagrams, I should add that vector graphics (SVG files, or things like Adobe Illustrator files), which are dynamic, are best as they don't lose resolution with resizing. They do tend to be fairly meaty in file size though.