Single Column Week @ Bible Design Blog
Today we're kicking off Single Column Week at Bible Design Blog, a celebration of one of the things I have been advocating for from day one: single column text settings of the Bible. Why am I so passionate about single column settings? It's simple, really. Books we read are set in single columns. Books we look stuff up in are set in double columns. Reading = single. Reference = double. If you're new to the topic, here's a crash course in my single column philosophy:
Why Paragraphs? Why Single Column?
Making Single Column Settings Work
Short and Stout: Ideal For Factor for Single Column Settings
But here's a photograph that helps make the case for me:
On top is Cambridge's new Clarion KJV, the first in a whole line of Clarion single column settings Cambridge will be introducing. We'll be taking our first detailed look at the Clarion KJV this week, and I hope to bring you more as the complete range of binding options are available. On bottom is my trust Cambridge Pitt Minion ESV. Now I love the Pitt Minion and use it constantly, but I think you'll agree that the Clarion is more readable and more elegantly proportioned.
As we'll see, there are some trade-offs. The Clarion is a slightly taller and wider. It's perhaps twice as thick. But the trade-offs aren't as significant as you might think. To enjoy a readable, single column text setting, you don't have to give up as much as you may have feared. The Clarion is still relatively compact and beautifully sized for the hand.
Some of you are already single column converts. Others cling tenaciously to the traditional double column look. Whether this week will change any minds, I don't know. The good news is, for those of you who've been waiting for well-designed, proportional single column text settings of the Bible in a wide variety of translations, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Check back for more throughout the week.
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.