CD cover size and jewel case dimensions

What are the standard CD cover dimensions?

A standard CD cover is 120 × 120 mm (4.72 in square) for the front insert and 150 × 118 mm (5.91 × 4.65 in) for the back tray card. These are trim sizes, the size each piece ends up after cutting. The pixel columns are what an image needs to print sharp at that size: 300 DPI is the usual minimum for print, and 600 DPI gives crisp small type.

Templates from disc manufacturers differ by a fraction of a millimetre. One lists the front insert as 120.5 × 119.5 mm and the tray card as 150 × 117.25 mm, for example. If a printer or pressing plant sends you its own template, use theirs. Printing at home, our free CD case template builds both pieces at these sizes with crop marks.

What size is a CD front insert and booklet?

A CD front insert is 120 × 120 mm (4.72 in square), and every booklet page is the same size. The insert slides under the tabs inside the jewel case lid. A two-panel booklet, the simplest kind, is one 242 × 120 mm sheet folded in half, so the front cover is on the right half of the flat sheet and the back of the booklet on the left.

Longer booklets add pages in the same 120 mm square size, folded and stapled at the spine. For a homemade mixtape, a single front card or a two-panel booklet with a handwritten note inside is plenty.

What size is a CD back cover?

A CD back cover, called the tray card, measures 150 × 118 mm, including a 6.25 mm spine at each end. It sits in the base of the case under the clear disc tray. The 6.25 mm strip at each end folds up 90 degrees to form the two spines you read on a shelf, so the visible back panel is 137.5 mm wide.

• Spine text goes on both end strips. Keep it to about 3 mm tall so it clears the folds. In the US and UK it usually reads top to bottom when the case stands upright.
• Tracklist goes on the back panel. Twelve to twenty songs fit comfortably in one or two columns at 7 to 9 point type.
• Fold lines sit exactly 6.25 mm from each short edge. Score them before folding so the card sits flat.

What are the dimensions of a jewel case?

A standard CD jewel case measures 142 × 125 × 10 mm on the outside. A slim jewel case has the same width and height but is 5 mm thick.

The outside of the case is bigger than the cover because the hinge and lid edges take up room. Don’t design a cover at 142 × 125 mm; it won’t fit inside. A slim case has no tray, so it has no back card and no spines. Most people print a single front card and write the tracklist on its reverse.

What size is a CD sleeve?

A CD sleeve has no single standard size, but its pocket must be a few millimetres wider than the 120 mm disc. Our free CD sleeve template uses a 126 mm (4.96 in) square pocket, about 3 mm of room on each side, which is 1,488 pixels square at 300 DPI. It folds together with side flaps, no glue needed.

Disc and label size

A CD is 120 mm across with a 15 mm centre hole, and a full-size disc label covers 118 mm.

Disc labels stop short of the outer edge and leave a ring clear around the hole, and that inner ring varies by label brand and disc. Use the template that comes with your label sheets or printable discs. The CDs we make are plain CD-Rs: we print the cover art and the tracklist, not the disc face.

How many pixels should a CD cover be?

A printed CD cover should be at least 1,417 × 1,417 pixels (300 DPI at 120 mm), and streaming cover art at least 3000 × 3000 pixels. Print needs pixels per inch; screens need total pixels. With bleed, the printed front is 1,492 pixels square. A phone photo is usually far bigger than that, so crop it square and it’s ready.

For streaming services, cover art is a square image measured only in pixels. Apple’s music specification recommends at least 3000 × 3000 pixels, and distributors publish their own minimums, some lower. Making the cover 3000 pixels square gives you one file that works for streaming and prints sharp at CD size, about 635 DPI at 120 mm.

Our free CD cover maker builds a square cover in your browser that you can drop straight into the case template as the front image.

How much bleed does a CD cover need?

A CD cover usually needs 1/8 inch (3.17 mm) of bleed on every side. Printers can’t cut exactly on a line every time, so artwork that runs to the edge is extended past the trim line:

The safe zone works the other way. Keep text and faces at least 1/8 inch (3 mm) inside the trim, and further from the spine folds, so nothing important gets cut off or bent round an edge. Some disc plants print without bleed; they ask you to keep text and lines away from the edges instead.

Why doesn't my CD cover fit the case?

A CD cover most often fails to fit because the printer scaled the page, or because it was designed at the 142 × 125 mm case size. These are the usual problems:

1. The printer scaled the page. “Fit to page” or “Shrink oversized pages” trims a few millimetres off every edge, and the insert then slides around under the lid tabs.
2. It was designed at the case size. 142 × 125 mm is the outside of the case. The insert is 120 mm square.
3. The back card has no spines. A 137.5 mm back panel on its own slides around in the base. The full tray card is 150 mm wide so the spines fold up and hold it in place.
4. The image is too small. A 600-pixel image printed at 4.72 inches works out to about 127 DPI and looks soft. Aim for 1,417 pixels or more.
5. Text runs into the trim. Anything closer than 3 mm to an edge or a spine fold risks being cut off or bent round the corner.

How do you print a CD cover at home?

To print a CD cover at home, put the front insert and tray card on one sheet of US Letter or A4 and print at 100% or Actual size, never Fit to page. Measure something on the printout before you cut. A bright white 28 to 32 lb (105 to 120 gsm) paper looks better behind the clear case than copy paper.

If you are making a mixtape, choose the songs first: our guide to making a mixtape covers picking and ordering them, and the mixtape names list helps with the title.

Rather skip the printing? With our Case + Custom Art package, your photo becomes the printed cover and the tracklist goes inside. Order a custom CD mixtape and we burn, print and post it.