How to Format a Tarot Guidebook for KDP (2026)

A tarot deck without a companion guidebook is a locked door with no key: beautiful, intriguing, and ultimately frustrating. Most tarot buyers expect the little white book tucked inside the box, but independent deck creators who publish a full companion guidebook on Amazon KDP give their deck something far more powerful — a reference their readers will reach for at every reading. If you are ready to format a tarot guidebook for KDP, every layout choice you make has to serve one reader behavior: fast, relaxed lookup at the reading table. Before you set a single margin, study the available trim sizes on KDP, because your page size shapes every layout decision that follows (see our guide to KDP trim sizes explained). A cramped page turns a three-card spread into a headache; a well-proportioned page turns the same content into a ritual object.

This 2026 guide walks you through the whole job in order: choosing a trim size and paper, building a repeatable card-entry template, setting upright and reversed meanings so they never blur together, laying out spreads readers can follow without a ruler, choosing legible mystical fonts, adding journal pages, and running a final pre-publish checklist. Your guidebook will look like it was designed to sit beside the deck — because it was.

What Makes a Tarot Guidebook Different from a Normal Book

When you format a tarot guidebook, you are not typesetting a linear narrative — you are building a reference tool that gets opened, flipped, thumbed, and consulted mid-reading. A novel is read front to back; a tarot guidebook is searched. Readers will jump from the Tower to the Three of Pentacles to a Celtic Cross spread in under a minute, so your formatting has to make every entry findable, scannable, and visually consistent with the other seventy-seven.

That means thinking in systems, not pages. A standard guidebook contains up to 78 card entries, a section of spreads with diagrams, journal pages, and front matter that orients the reader. Each of those four content types wants its own layout treatment, recognizable within a second of landing on the page.

It also means honoring the physical context: guidebooks get carried to cafes, propped on altars, and scribbled in. Generous margins, clear running heads naming the current card, and a table of contents listing every card by name are what separate a book that gets used from one that gets shelved.

Pick Your Trim Size, Paper, and Ink Before You Typeset

Trim size is the first decision because it changes everything downstream: line length, diagram size, page count, and printing cost. For tarot guidebooks, two KDP trims do most of the work. The 6 x 9 inch trim is the most popular standard size on KDP, sits in the lowest printing-cost tier, and fits standard bookshelves — a solid default for text-driven guidebooks. The 7 x 10 inch trim is a large-trim size with higher per-page costs, but it buys you real estate for spread diagrams and journal pages that a 6 x 9 page simply cannot offer. If your book is mostly card meanings, go 6 x 9; if spreads and writing space are the point, the extra cost of 7 x 10 is worth it.

Black ink on white or cream paper is the cheapest route and the right one for a text-only guidebook — note KDP only offers cream with black ink. Full-color card illustrations need color ink, which raises printing costs substantially, so weigh that against your list price before committing: KDP deducts printing cost from your royalty on every sale.

KDP requires outside margins of at least 0.25 inch without bleed (0.375 inch with bleed), and the gutter must grow with the book: 0.375 inch for 24 to 150 pages, 0.5 inch for 151 to 300 pages, 0.625 inch for 301 to 500 pages. A full 78-card guidebook with spreads typically lands between 150 and 300 pages, so plan on a 0.5-inch gutter from the start. The table below compares the trims that matter for this kind of book.

Build a Card Entry Template Readers Can Scan in Seconds

The card entry is the unit of your book, repeated up to 78 times, so it must be a template — never a fresh design decision per card. Build one entry, perfect it, then duplicate it. A strong template keeps the same six beats in the same order: the card name with its number or suit rank; a one-line keyword row (e.g. sudden change, upheaval, revelation); a short paragraph on the card’s imagery; an upright meaning block; a reversed meaning block; and a one-line journal prompt.

Keep each entry a consistent length — readers notice when the Moon gets two paragraphs and the Sun gets two pages. A full page per major arcana card is a luxury worth taking at 6 x 9; minor arcana cards can share pages as long as the template’s rhythm never breaks. Give every card illustration the same frame size and position — consistent placement is what makes a long reference book feel calm (our art book formatting guide covers image handling in detail).

Two habits separate amateur entries from professional ones. First, mark the upright and reversed blocks with labels that never move — small-caps tags, a rule line, or a tinted band — so the eye learns where to land. Second, lead each block with a bolded one-sentence core meaning, then the longer interpretation. The bold lead line is what gets read at the table; the paragraph is what gets read in bed.

Set Upright and Reversed Meanings So They Never Get Mixed Up

Nothing confuses a reader faster than upright and reversed meanings bleeding together. The fix is a two-block pattern with three rules: identical structure, fixed labels, and a separator that survives black-and-white printing. Write the reversed block in the same shape as the upright block so readers compare the two identically on every card.

Label them plainly: “UPRIGHT” and “REVERSED” in small caps beat clever alternatives like “Light” and “Shadow,” because a beginner mid-reading should never decode your label. Keep the same order on every card — upright first, reversed second — separated by a thin rule or white space. Do not rely on color alone: many guidebooks print in black and white, where an elegant red-versus-blue scheme collapses into identical gray.

Keep reversed meanings genuinely reversed, not merely negative: write them as blocked, delayed, or internalized energy of the upright meaning rather than defaulting to doom. Readers trust guidebooks whose reversed meanings feel as thoughtful as the upright ones.

Lay Out Tarot Spreads Readers Can Follow Without a Ruler

Spread pages are diagrams first and prose second. Every spread needs four things on one opening: the spread’s name and ideal question type; a numbered diagram of card positions; a position list explaining what each number means; and a short “how to read it” paragraph. Mirror the diagram numbers in the position list so readers glance between the two without counting dots.

On a 6 x 9 page, a ten-card Celtic Cross works only with small, clearly numbered rectangles — spread-heavy books are the strongest case for the 7 x 10 trim. Use simple shapes rather than ornate illustrations that shrink into mush, and test-print every spread: lines that look crisp on screen can vanish at print resolution. For Kindle’s reflowable pages, keep each spread’s diagram, position list, and instructions together as one unbreakable unit (our eBook image formatting guide explains how to anchor images so they stay with their text).

Choose Fonts and a Visual Hierarchy That Carry the Mood

A tarot guidebook must feel mystical yet read effortlessly under lamplight. Choose a comfortable serif at 10 to 11 points with generous line spacing — old-style serifs like Garamond, Caslon, or Minion print cleanly on KDP. Reserve your decorative display font for card names and part openers only. Two to three typefaces is the ceiling; more makes the book feel like a flyer, not a ritual object.

Build a strict heading ladder: card names in the display font, section titles in a second treatment, upright/reversed labels in small caps or bold. Drop caps suit major arcana openers — but apply them consistently or not at all; a drop cap on the Fool and nowhere else looks like a mistake. Check font licensing: many decorative fonts need a commercial license for a published book, and embedding an unlicensed font in your print PDF is a problem you do not want.

Add Journal Prompts, Ritual Pages, and Blank Space That Invites Writing

The difference between a good guidebook and a beloved one is often the writing space. Format journal prompts as a short italic question followed by ruled or dotted lines, at least five lines deep, set well clear of the gutter so handwriting never dives into the binding. A 1-inch outside margin on journal pages feels generous and costs only a few extra pages.

Group interactive pages deliberately: a “Your Turn” page after each suit, a month of card-of-the-day trackers, and a reading-log section at the back, each with its own simple repeatable layout. Keep ruling light — 30 to 40 percent gray — and leave one blank notes page per major section. In the Kindle edition, replace ruled space with a bordered reflection box and invite readers to journal in a separate notebook; the print edition is where the writing happens.

Tarot Guidebook Formatting Checklist

Run this checklist against your finished file before you upload anything to KDP — catching these on screen is free, catching them in a proof copy costs a week.

• Trim size, ink, and paper finalized and matching your KDP dashboard selections.
• All 78 card entries follow the identical template: name, keywords, imagery, upright block, reversed block, journal prompt.
• Upright and reversed labels read the same on every card, separated by a rule or white space.
• All spread diagrams numbered, matching the position list exactly — no orphans, no unlisted positions.
• Gutter is at least 0.5 inch for a 150-to-300-page book; outside margins are 0.25 inch minimum (0.375 inch if any page uses bleed).
• No more than three typefaces in the whole book; decorative fonts are licensed for commercial use and embedded in the PDF.
• Card illustrations are the same size and position in every entry; the print PDF is exported at 300 DPI.
• Journal pages have ruled or dotted lines clear of the gutter; the Kindle file replaces them with reflection boxes.
• Table of contents lists every card and spread by name with correct page numbers; running heads show the current card or section.
• The copyright page carries the print edition’s ISBN; the back-cover barcode area is clear (see our ISBN guide for self-published books).

Conclusion: Format the Book Your Deck Deserves

A tarot guidebook earns its place on the reading table through consistency: one card-entry template repeated 78 times without drift, upright and reversed meanings in labeled blocks that never blur, spread diagrams a reader can follow mid-reading, typography that feels mystical without straining the eyes, and journal pages that invite a pen. Get the trim size, gutter, and ink decisions right before you typeset, run the checklist before you upload, and your guidebook will feel like it was designed to sit beside the deck — because it was.