BOOK COVER MOCKUP
A mockup with a spine,
not a stretched front cover.
Free tools wrap your front art around a whole book. CoverNice renders the real wrap: back, spine and front, at your actual page count.
3D render
Transparent PNG, adjustable spine depth, soft shadow. Drop it into Amazon A+ or a landing page.
Shelf scene
Your book between two others at the same trim size, so the spine actually lines up.
Flat lay
Front cover at 1,600 px with a paper texture — for ads and newsletter swaps.
Why spine depth matters more than the render quality
A 120-page novella and a 480-page epic are visibly different objects. If your mockup uses the same generic 1-inch block for both, readers who handle a lot of books notice — the cover looks like a template. Render the real spine from the real page count and the book reads as a physical object, which is exactly the job of a mockup.
Render it from the real wrap.
Build the cover once, then export 3D, shelf and flat-lay from the same file.
Questions people actually ask
What is the difference between a mockup and a 3D preview?
A mockup is a still image — your cover composited onto a photo or a rendered book. A 3D preview is live: it re-renders every time you change the spine or the artwork, which is what you want before you commit to a print file.
Do free mockup tools show the spine?
Most only wrap the front cover around a whole book, so the spine is a stretched copy of your front art. That looks wrong on any book over 100 pages. A real mockup needs back, spine and front as separate panels.
What size should a mockup be?
2,000 px on the long edge is enough for Amazon A+ modules and most social. Export at 3,000 px if you plan to print the mockup on a poster or a bookmark.