on The Book Designer:

You may recognize the name of our guest post author today. Tracy Atkins of Book Design Templates, explains how to create custom trim-sized PDFs for POD publications. If this is something that has perplexed you, you’re not alone. I think you’ll find this helpful.

For publication to major print on demand book vendors, you typically have to supply a print-ready PDF version of the book for print, set to the proper trim size for your book project. In this quick guide, I will go over the process to create a PDF to trim size using several popular applications.

By default, most PDF applications will create an 8.5”x11”, or A4 sized PDF. This article will help you overcome this often frustrating limitation with ease.