How accurate is Cover preview in KDP upload area?

lite1

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I am working through steps for self publishing eBook using KDP Amazon account. The JPG file that I have uploaded meets Amazon guidelines. The preview that they show online looks fairly "mottled."

I am assuming that the preview is how the image will actually look on the Product Page once it is actually made for sale. Is that correct?

The JPG file looks fine in Photoshop; it also looks fine on our own website.

FYI: our JPG is 500x800 pixels 72 DPI and aspect ratio is therefore the Amazon preferred ratio of 1.6

Thanks for any thoughts an experience.

Unfortunately our graphics artist consultant is out of the country and unavailable right now.

January 25, 2012: My own answer from experience. The preview is extremely low quality and NOT an accurate reflection of what the uploaded image will look like, either as a thumbnail in search results, OR on the actual Product page for my title. The mottled appearance that I originally reported above in the "preview" has completely disappeared. Sure would be nice if Amazon-Kindle gave a text warning in the image upload information that the preview is not meant to be accurate - would have saved me a lot of needless concern and additional testing.
 
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merrihiatt

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Hmmm... I just re-read Amazon KDP's help page about creating covers. I thought the covers should be 300 DPI. That might be Smashwords' suggestion. I know when I insert my cover image into my Kindle book in Word, I use a 300 DPI image and then grab a corner and resize, if needed. Something happens when they reduce the image to thumbnail size.
 

BubbaB

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Well I do alot of graphic Design and I do my own book covers.

If you need help let me know I can help.
 

lite1

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@merrihiatt

Please note that I am referring to book cover product image that Amazon displays on the Amazon product page, and the specs I listed are what Amazon shows as guidelines. They also have check box that when checked will have Amazon use the same image within the actual eBook that you view on your Kindle.

For me this box is unchecked as we have a higher quality image for within the eBook itself.
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My tentative conclusion (to be confirmed when the eBook is actually for sale on the site later this week):
The preview that Amazon offers is primarily to let you know that the file that you browsed to and uploaded is the correct image cover. It is not meant to be completely representative of the quality that will actually get displayed.

Hence the "mottled" appearance I reported is an artifact of their terrible preview. <<As of Feb. 9, 2012 I am able to confirm this.>> If indeed this is the case, it sure would be nice if they warned people in writing where you upload things as I wasted a bunch of time being concerned over what will probably be a non-issue.

I did some additional testing that seems to confirm my hypothesis above and hope that the proof will be in the pudding.
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Thanks to all for your input.
 
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