The Honest Split
For most self-published books, use Canva, or a professional designer, for the cover and LiberScript for the interior. Canva is a design tool that excels at images and type on a single canvas. LiberScript is a book workspace built to turn a manuscript into formatted ebook and print interiors. They rarely compete head to head; they cover different halves of the job.
The main exception is a highly visual book, such as a planner or a simple picture book, where Canva can handle the interior too. Everything else in this guide follows from that simple division of labor between the two tools.
Different Tools, Different Jobs
Canva gives you templates, a large library of photos and graphics, and easy tools for arranging images and text. It is used for everything from social posts to posters, and many authors use it for book covers and marketing graphics.
LiberScript treats a book as chapters, front matter and back matter. It lets you write or import a manuscript, critique it, design the interior with themes and typography controls, and export an EPUB, a print PDF and a DOCX. It is also gradually rolling out a cover studio, but that is not available on every account yet, so most authors should plan to make the cover elsewhere.
Comparison Table
| Canva | LiberScript | |
|---|---|---|
| Best at | Covers, graphics and visual pages | Text-led book interiors |
| Pricing | Free plan plus a paid Pro subscription | Passes from $3.99 a day to $299.99 lifetime |
| Long text | Placed page by page | Flows automatically into chapters |
| Running headers and page numbers | Built by hand | Automatic |
| Reflowable ebook (EPUB) | Not built for it | Yes |
| Print PDF | PDF Print with bleed option | Print PDF sized to your trim |
| Stock images and graphics | Large built-in library | Not a focus |
| Manuscript critique | No | Whole-book critique and grammar check |
For the Cover
Canva is the stronger choice for the cover. You can set up an ebook cover at the size KDP recommends, 2,560 pixels tall by 1,600 wide, or build a full paperback wraparound from the dimensions KDP's cover calculator gives you, using Canva's print bleed option and PDF Print download.
Canva's license allows its content in products you design and sell, including books, as long as the design is your own original work rather than a template or element used as-is. Check the current license, and your printer's terms, before publishing a cover built from library elements.
Our step-by-step guide to designing a book cover in Canva covers sizing, bleed, spine text and testing at thumbnail size.
For the Interior
For a novel, memoir or most nonfiction, LiberScript is the better tool. Import your manuscript and it detects the title page, copyright page, dedication, chapters and back matter automatically. Text flows into pages on its own, so adding a paragraph in chapter three does not mean rebuilding every page after it.
The Design tab offers themes plus controls for fonts, sizes, line spacing, chapter openers, drop caps, epigraphs and numbering. Running headers and page numbers are applied for you, and the preview shows real paginated spreads at your trim size. You then export an EPUB for ebook stores and a print PDF for KDP Print, IngramSpark or another printer from the same project.
Doing the same in Canva would mean placing text page by page and building headers, page numbers and a table of contents by hand, and Canva cannot produce the reflowable EPUB most ebook stores expect.
The Exception: Visual Books
Some books are made of designed pages rather than flowing text: gratitude journals, planners, habit trackers, coloring books, recipe cards and simple picture books. For those, Canva can be the better interior tool, because each page is laid out like a small poster. Design one page, duplicate it and adjust.
These books are usually print-only, since fixed designed pages do not reflow well as standard ebooks. Set up your Canva design at the exact trim size, extend backgrounds into the bleed and keep important content away from the spine.
I format interiors and design covers that match, with files ready for KDP and other stores.
A Workflow Using Both
- Write or import the manuscript into LiberScript and run the critique to tighten the text.
- Design the interior in LiberScript and check the paginated preview.
- Note the final page count from the print preview, which sets your spine width on the cover.
- Get your cover dimensions from KDP's cover calculator using that page count.
- Design the cover in Canva with bleed, a correctly sized spine and room for the barcode.
- Export the EPUB and interior PDF from LiberScript and the cover from Canva, then order a printed proof.
If you change the interior after the cover is finished, for example by adding an afterword or switching to a larger font, check the page count again. Even a few extra pages change the spine width, and the cover must be rebuilt to match before you upload new print files.
Keeping Cover and Interior Consistent
A book feels professional when the cover and the pages inside look like they belong together. A few simple choices make that happen even when you use two tools:
- Echo the title font. Use the cover's title typeface, or one with a similar character, for chapter headings in the interior.
- Keep the mood consistent. An ornate cover suits decorative chapter openers; a minimal cover suits clean, simple ones.
- Check font licenses. Make sure any font you use on the cover or inside allows commercial use in print and ebooks.
- Match series details. For a series, keep the same chapter opener style and cover layout across every book.
Marketing Graphics After Launch
Once the book is out, Canva earns its keep again. Use the cover to build social media posts, ad images, newsletter headers and a banner for your author website, all in matching colors and fonts. A consistent look across your cover, interior and marketing makes your books easier to recognize at a glance.
What You Will Spend
Canva's free plan covers a lot, and its Pro plan adds more of the library and tools as a recurring subscription. If you already pay for Canva Pro for other work, the cover costs nothing extra.
LiberScript's passes cost $3.99 for a day, $9.99 for a week, $29.99 for a month, $99.99 for a year or $299.99 for Lifetime, with no automatic renewal. A Week pass is often enough to format a finished manuscript.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Formatting a long novel in Canva and rebuilding pages after every edit.
- Designing the paperback cover before the interior's page count is final.
- Using a cover template so popular that the book looks like many others in its category.
- Leaving crop marks on when uploading a cover to KDP, which asks for files without them.
- Skipping a printed proof of both the cover and interior, which is the only reliable way to check colors and margins.
- Forgetting to update the cover when the interior grows or shrinks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Canva, or a professional designer. LiberScript is rolling out a cover studio gradually, so it is not available on every account yet, while Canva is built for exactly this kind of design.
For visual books such as planners and journals, yes. For text-led books, a book formatter like LiberScript is far easier, because text flows automatically and it exports a proper EPUB.
Yes. It exports an EPUB for digital stores, a print PDF sized to your trim and a DOCX.
Use the final page count from your interior, then enter it in KDP's cover calculator with your trim size and paper type to get the exact cover dimensions.
Canva has a free plan, and its license allows content in products you sell if the design is original. Some images and features require the paid Pro plan.
No, but they ask for different skills. Canva rewards a good eye for layout and type, while LiberScript's themes handle most interior design decisions for you, leaving you to adjust details such as fonts and chapter openers.
For a few images, a book formatter handles them well. For image-heavy books such as cookbooks or picture books, where every page is designed, a design or page layout tool is the better fit for the interior.
Yes. Many authors format the interior in a book tool like LiberScript and design the cover and marketing graphics in Canva.