CommentaryJ. MARK BERTRAND31 Comments

Some Thoughts on Type Size

CommentaryJ. MARK BERTRAND31 Comments

The Word is wordy, my friends, and to fit all those words into a handy-sized book requires some compromise. But why say it when I can show it:

Type

I chose the font, Minion Pro, at random to illustrate the situation. The same information can be contained in less than half the space by reducing the type size by 3.6 points. And because with the Bible there is so much information to convey, small type abounds. You may feel like you're reading a microdot, but at least you're not supporting the weight of a pulpit Bible.

If the proportions are right -- column width, line spacing, and so on -- I'm willing to put up with smaller type to have a smaller book. But as a recent commenter pointed out, I'm a young whippersnapper (thirty nine) with good vision (20/20 with my glasses, if I squint). Some readers simply can't cope with type in the 7-8 pt. range without magnification.

WHEN LESS IS MORE
Bibles are often designed to fulfill a variety of tasks, based on the assumption that we'd prefer to read, study, and worship from the same volume. So in addition to the text, you have footnotes, cross references, and other "helps" shoehorned in, as well as front and back matter intended to aid reading. But you know what? Sometimes it's better to do one thing well than do half a dozen things badly.

Strip out the cross references and the notes and the back matter and what you have left is empty space, space for the text to breathe and even expand. The advent of electronic Bibles makes this kind of specialization rather sensible, since there are no space constraints in the virtual book. I don't like to read from a screen, but when it comes to study I don't usually bother anymore with the limited notes and references that can be squeezed onto the physical page. 

Paradoxically, I think less "helps" would actually be more helpful. It would help with one thing in particular, which is reading. I'm content to do away with all the advantages the helps provide (which were not available, after all, to the original readers) to better accomplish the main goal, which is to take and read.

J. Mark Bertrand is a novelist and pastor whose writing on Bible design has helped spark a publishing revolution. Mark is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway, 2007), as well as the novels Back on Murder, Pattern of Wounds, and Nothing to Hide—described as a “series worth getting attached to” (Christianity Today) by “a major crime fiction talent” (Weekly Standard) in the vein of Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin, and Henning Mankell.

Mark has a BA in English Literature from Union University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, and an M.Div. from Heidelberg Theological Seminary. Through his influential Bible Design Blog, Mark has championed a new generation of readable Bibles. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Society of Bible Craftsmanship, and chairs the Society’s Award Committee. His work was featured in the November 2021 issue of FaithLife’s Bible Study Magazine.

Mark also serves on the board of Worldview Academy, where he has been a member of the faculty of theology since 2003. Since 2017, he has been an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Laurie life in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.