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Good Bible Typography

Carl Shank • November 10, 2021

Good Bible Typography. In a recent issue of Bible Study Magazine (November–December 2021), Mark Ward, editor, provided a well written and visual article "A Revolution in Bible Design: Meet the People Who Designed Your Bible." In that piece he reviewed the work of Bible designers and crafts people who design today's versions of the Bible, noting the typeface designs used and paper quality. In fact, in a YouTube segment, Mark has an entire talk on Bible typography well worth your time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu4t9FKn9M4).


He quotes Dan Farrell, VP of Design Crossway (who publishes many modern Bibles, especially the ESV version today) on the best Bible font — "Bram de Does created two of the finest typefaces ever designed when he developed Trinité and Lexicon for Enschedé in the late 80s and early 90s. Lexicon is especially well suited to Bible design because of its option for shorter ascenders and descenders, its tall x-height, and its readability at small sizes. It has a calligraphic elegance without being delicate. For these reasons, I think it's a timeless typeface that will continue to be highly effective in Bible typesettings many decades from now." Indeed, a Google search for the type used in Bible today lists Lexicon as the most used Bible typeface with masterful Trinité N°2 Roman used in the ESV edition published by Crossway. (See Sample 1 Below)


There are a multitude of de Does Lexicon fonts available at various weights — two main groups: Lexicon No.1 and Lexicon No.2. Lexicon No.1 has short stems (ascenders and descenders); Lexicon No.2 has 'normal' stems. Both groups share the same widths thus making it possible to change fonts without reflowing text. Each main group contains 12 weight variants, six upright weights (A to F) and six italic weights (A to F), where A is the regular weight and F the boldest weight. These are expensive, asking over $4,000 for the complete set, and over $2,000 for set No. 1 or No. 2. (See Sample 2 Below).


Why is Bible typography important? The older KJV (King James Version) two-column Bibles often used by congregants were ill-designed, hard to read at small sizes, and each verse a separate paragraph with verse numbers and other markers interrupting the flow of the textual thought. They were not reader-friendly Bibles, and they often separated biblical thoughts and gave unfortunate fuel to "biblicism," that is, quoting verses and thoughts out of context. Atomistic quoting of single verses became the trend of preachers and well-intentioned Bible study leaders. Contexts were ignored, and through bad typography verses were clumped together in an unfortunate manner. Mark Ward offers some notable examples and instances of this in his YouTube talk.


Those who appreciate the biblical text want it read accurately and legibly. Paragraph divisions were incorporated into the Biblical Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek texts (New Testament) arbitrarily. Even the verse numbers and divisions were arbitrary, supposedly for better study of the inspired Word, but led to unfortunate theological problems and even heretical points of view. The point I am making is that while we need to study the Bible as the Word of God to us and pore over the biblical theology therein, we need better Bible typography to do so.

Successful Layout & Design

By Carl Shank March 15, 2025
Wide Is Beautiful What makes a typeface beautiful? Aesthetically pleasing fonts or typefaces have differing qualities that make them suitable and beautiful in different contexts and uses. I have chosen six (6) wide or "extended" font faces to highlight the inherent beauty and usability of such type. The samples chosen range from well used Adobe fonts to a specialty antique wide font CARE Typography crafted from an old fashioned type book published by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc of New York back in 1945.
By Carl Shank February 22, 2025
Italics . Typography historically received its most valuable improvements from the printers of Italy giving us three text-letters of greatest usefulness : (1) the Roman typeface, first founded by Sweinheym and Pannartz in 1465, and afterward perfected by Jenson at Venice in 147 1 ; (2) Italic and (3) Small Capitals, introduced together by Aldus Manutius at Venice in 1501. The first volume entirely in Greek was printed at Milan in 1476 ; the first book entirely in Hebrew, at Soncino in 1488. The transition from Gothic to Italic typefaces was part of the broader evolution of typography that took place during the Renaissance period, driven by shifts in cultural, aesthetic, and technological factors. Gothic script was primarily used for religious texts, legal documents, and early printed books like the Gutenberg Bible. It symbolized tradition, formality, and authority. Gothic, was characterized by its dense, angular, and ornate letters, often with sharp vertical strokes, tight spacing, and elaborate flourishes. It was designed to mimic the style of manuscript writing at the time.
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