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What is a fixed-layout ebook?

A fixed-layout ebook keeps each page exactly as designed instead of reflowing the text to fit the device. The EPUB standard calls this pre-paginated. It suits books where placement is the point, and it gives up the reader's control over the type size.

What it means in practice

The cost is accessibility and flexibility. KDP’s comparison of its formats, checked on 30 October 2026, lists no user font settings and no screen reader support for its fixed-layout formats. It says to use fixed layout without pop-ups only for books whose type is large enough to read on any device without magnification.

Print Replica, KDP’s PDF-based format, is stricter: KDP says it is not compatible with Kindle e-reader devices, and to use it only when content can’t be converted to something more accessible.

For a book that is mostly text, reflowable is the better choice. Fixed layout earns its costs when the page is the content: a comic, a picture book, a cookbook laid out by the spread.

How Chapbook uses it

Chapbook makes no fixed-layout EPUB. For a designed page it uses a PDF, which holds its layout on every device and prints as it looks.

An activity pack, the kind of book where this matters most, exports as a PDF and a cover image only, with no EPUB or Word document. The brief on this page opens one in Chapbook.

In a real book

A brief to start from

A printable activity pack about the ocean for ages six to eight: coloring pages of sea creatures, a word search of ocean words, a maze through a coral reef and a matching page of animals and their homes.

Start from this brief

Sources

Last reviewed 30 October 2026

  1. W3C, “EPUB 3.3”, section “Fixed layouts” (W3C Recommendation, 13 January 2026)
  2. Amazon KDP, “Comparing Formats”
  1. What is a reflowable ebook? A reflowable ebook has no fixed pages: its text rearranges to fit the screen and the reader's type size. What that changes, and why Chapbook's EPUB works this way.
  2. What is an EPUB? EPUB is the open file format for reflowable ebooks. What is inside one, how it differs from a PDF, and what Chapbook's EPUB 3 export includes.
  1. Activity pack maker: printable coloring pages, worksheets and puzzles Make a printable activity pack from one paragraph: coloring pages, worksheets and puzzles for children or adults, one PDF to give away, and a list of the grown-ups who asked.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between fixed layout and reflowable?

A reflowable ebook rearranges its text for each screen and lets the reader change the type size. A fixed-layout ebook keeps its pages as designed, so the reader cannot resize the text the same way.

Does Chapbook export a fixed-layout EPUB?

No. Its EPUB is reflowable. When exact pages matter, Chapbook gives you a PDF, which keeps its pages but is not a store's fixed-layout ebook format.

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