A flapped cover starts as one flat sheet
A French-flap cover is one long sheet carrying back flap, back cover, spine, front cover and front flap side by side. Artwork is built at that flat width with the fold positions marked as guides. Get a coordinate wrong by a fraction and type lands right on a crease once the piece is folded.
How it is calculated
The flat width is two flaps plus two cover panels plus the spine. Fold positions are cumulative from the left trim edge: flap, flap plus cover, flap plus cover plus spine, then flap plus two covers plus spine. Adding bleed pushes the artboard edge outward, so artboard coordinates include that offset and are listed alongside. Current as of October 2026.
Limits and disclaimer
No recommended flap width is offered, because no recognized standard exists and every printer and stock differs. Cover height, crease allowance for thick board and turn-in margins for case binding are out of scope, so confirm final dimensions with your printer.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on trim size, stock and binding, and there is no recognized standard figure. This tool does not propose a flap width; enter the one agreed with your printer and it returns the layout.
The arithmetic still works, but the folded flap edge then meets the spine fold exactly. Printers normally specify something narrower than the trim width, so confirm the figure with them.
The folds stay where they are, but the artboard starts outside the trim by the bleed amount, so artboard coordinates shift by that much. Both sets of coordinates are shown.