About Large & Giant Print Bibles

Large print Bibles are a real godsend to those of us with vision issues. Great for public reading, they often become the pulpit Bible. However, the term Large Print is a relative term. It can mean different things to different people, and to different publishers. One person may have no trouble reading 10-point text, another may find that too small, and need 12-point—or even larger.

To publishers, "large print" usually means that a given edition has larger print than their standard edition, but this may be no bigger than regular text. For example, a large-print compact Bible may have larger print than other compact Bibles, but it's print is about the same size as a regular Bible.

In the same way, "giant-print" does not necessarily mean that it is larger than large print. Some publishers simply use the term to designate their Bibles with the largest size print.

It is important to consider the overall size of the Bible and what the stated point size is.

For more about this, see below, "About Point Sizes", which includes a simple 3-step way to make your own Point Size Guide to help you choose a print size that works for you.

About Point Sizes

Typeface sizes in Bibles and other books are measured in "points". The point size is used measure the height of a typeface. We've come up with a way that may give you a good idea of the "point size" of the text in the Bibles we carry. Use the following instructions for creating and printing your own comparitive guide to font sizes.

Step 1:

Copy the following lines to your clipboard, then paste them into your word processor:

6-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
8-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
9-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
10-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
12-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
14-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
16-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
18-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
20-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!
22-pt text Thank you for shopping at Christianbook.com!

Step 2:

In your word processor, change the font size of each line to the size specified at the beginning of the line.

Step 3:

Print the document from your word processor. Once you have it printed, you will have a good idea of the font sizes we mention in the descriptions of our Bibles.

Keep in mind:

It is important to actually print the text. Don't rely on your screen display. Monitors and monitor resolution settings will display font sizes differently.
While there is no way to be certain that your sample print out sizes will exactly match the type size in the actual Bible, it should be quite close enough to help you decide what size you are comfortable with, and close enough to use as a buying guide.
The "boldness" of the text in your samples will probably differ somewhat from the actual print in the Bible you purchase (due to different font styles used in publishing), but the size or height of the text should be close.

Smaller text is easier to read in a two-colum format because your eyes don't have to travel too far to follow a line. Most Bibles with smaller text use a two-column format for this reason.
Any Bible can have larger print with a magnifier. Visit our Bible & Book Magnifier Store for our selection of magnifiers.