Tuesday, September 16, 2008
posted by Kevin O'Brien at 10:38 AM
I am often asked this question. Deep down, I'm always tempted to answer “the title”. Not terribly helpful I know, but sometimes it feels that way. The real answer is a little, well really a lot more complex. There is no adhered to industry standard for what constitutes a large print or giant print Bible, even though there are several standards for print products in general. A Google search yielded several, and all had to do with font size - 14,16, and 18 point were listed as either as either minimum or preferred.[1] There are no large print Bibles that I am currently aware of which meet any of these general standards and in fact, most giant print Bibles do not. Broadman and Holman’s “Super Giant Print” is printed in an 18 point font but that is the only one that you are likely to find on the shelves of a bookstore near you, and then only in a few translations (KJV and HCSB).
It’s all about the font size?!
Additionally, it is important to note that the different publishers title competing products in different ways. This is most notable in the best selling personal size category which includes Large Print Personal Size (ZON, TYN); Hand Size Giant Print (BRO); and Personal Size Giant Print (NEL). These Bibles are all similar in trim and font sizes but that would not be readily apparent unless you were standing in a store and comparing them side to side.
Tyndale Bibles labeled “large print” have a variety of font sizes as do all other Bible publishers. In some instances a large print Bible is created by photographically increasing the typeset pages at the printer. This process eliminates redundant typesettings and helps to contain costs but yields a fractional font size. This is why you may find font sizes like 9.6 listed for some of these products.
If there is no standard font size, how is a large print Bible created?
Font size alone is not a good judge of whether or not a Bible is readable. There are at least two other issues that make a huge difference in readability.
The first is the choice of the font used. For instance, the font that Tyndale developed for the NLT - Lucerna - looks as big at 12 or 14 as many 13 and 15 point fonts respectively. Lucerna was designed to be as efficient as possible in terms of both page length and overall legibility. Since the NLT runs between 7-10% longer than many formal equivalent translations, efficiency on the typeset page becomes crucial in light of market realities.
The picture on the left is a great illustration of just how two fonts at the same point size can be visibly much more or less readable. (I know, they do not look like they are the same size at all, but our design team assures me that they are). The x-height is crucial in this regard. By increasing the x-height relative to the ascenders and descenders (think the top of a lower case f or the bottom of a lower case j) the font appears to be much larger than many other fonts of exactly the same point size. The second and related issue is leading, which basically refers to the spacing between lines. If the leading is too small then the text becomes much harder to read. If the leading is too large, then the length of the book will increase, thus increasing the cost to produce it and its retail price. (Not to mention they just plain get heavy).
Do to screen resolution variations it is virtually impossible to show an accurate comparison in this blog article, but you can see what I am talking about by simply opening several books and visually comparing the space between the lines. In the case of NLT Bibles, Lucerna gives an added benefit. The combination of short ascenders and descenders with optimized leading helps to ensure maximum readability. (And for this I must commend Timothy Botts, who has been helping to design page layouts for Tyndale Bibles for more years than he would probably care for me to mention and who also had a hand in designing Lucerna as well).
So where does that leave me?
Well, not quite back at the beginning of this entry, but close. There are a lot of factors in play, and you can get a general idea of the Bible in question, but in the end, the only real way to determine if a large print Bible is large enough is to look at the actual text for readability and find what works the best for you.
http://www.aph.org/edresearch/lpguide.htm
American Printing House for the Blind: The American Printing House for the Blind takes the position that large print for use by the low vision population is print that is eighteen points in size or larger.
http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/circulars/largeprint.html
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS): Most adult books are set in 10- to 12-point type, newspapers are often 8-point, and some editions of the Bible are in 6-point type. The minimum size for large-print materials is 14-point type. Large-print materials are most commonly available in 16- to 18-point type.
American Printing House for the Blind: The American Printing House for the Blind takes the position that large print for use by the low vision population is print that is eighteen points in size or larger.
http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/circulars/largeprint.html
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS): Most adult books are set in 10- to 12-point type, newspapers are often 8-point, and some editions of the Bible are in 6-point type. The minimum size for large-print materials is 14-point type. Large-print materials are most commonly available in 16- to 18-point type.
Labels: font size, Giant Print Bibles, Kevin O'Brien, Large Print Bibles, Lucerna, NLT
Couldn't a PDF file be made with the exact point size and then instruct people to print it out to see exactly what it looks like? I'm not sure if that foolproof way of demonstrating it or not.
Jeff
That explains why I liked the font in the Study Bible so much!
Jeff,
That may work, I'm not sure. One of our web guys told me that the screen resolution was the biggest issue for showing the true size comparison and I hadn't looked beyond that.
I believe Crossway (if that's ok to mention) does the PDF thing.
I wonder if these accurately reflect the text size if printed out:
http://www.nltstudybible.com/05_downloads/downloads.asp
The CBD site does the scans of the Bible pages but those are images and those would also render differently on different systems as your web guy explained. So they can only be used to see what the font and layout look like.
I hope it's not right under my nose, but do you know what the typeface/font and size is in the NLTSB? And how that compares to the NLT LP Personal Edition? If that's asking too much don't worry about it. I know you must be awfully busy.
I like the NLT the more I read it, having the NLTSB, and am considering the Personal Edition as a reading Bible. I would imagine others may be interested in a comparison.
Jeff
@scripture zealot: Yes, if you print out the download PDFs of the NLT Study Bible at 100%, it should match the printed product exactly (with all the usual caveats about not knowing what your printer is doing).
If anyone wants more information about the Lucerna typeface, see the post I wrote a couple of years ago here:
http://tinyurl.com/4yjavg
I am working on providing pdfs of the typesetting for several of our Bibles in the next week or so. I will include several of our most popular editions for comparison.
Jeff:
The NLT Study Bible font sizes are as follows:
Scripture text - Lucerna - 9/9.75 the first number is the font size, the second nuber refers to the leading.
Study Notes - Ocean Sans - 7.5/8
The Personal Size Large Print - Lucerna - 12/13
Thank you very much. This will be very helpful for a lot of people.
Jeff
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