Crossway’s newly released Large Print Thinline Bible is an attempt to provide an edition that’s both easy to read and easy to carry. It presents the 2016 ESV in an uncluttered layout without references. For this review, Crossway provided a genuine leather edition, ISBN: 9781433555961.

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Binding

My review edition is black genuine leather. It has a stamped grain that looks and feels nice. The front of the cover is clear of printing, while the spine has Holy Bible, ESV, English Standard Version, Crossway, and four bands printed in gold. It has a paste-down liner and the text-block is section-sewn.

The cover is a little stiff out of the box. It will stay open at the end of Genesis but in will need to break in before it will lay open at the beginning of Genesis. It does lie flat in the hand and is easy to hold and read.

The overall size is 8.75 x 5.75 x 1.125”. It has one black ribbon. The leather edition comes in a clamshell box.

For me this Bible is the perfect size for all-around use. I lean toward thinner editions when possible and I prefer the large print thinline size and shape to the large print personal size format.

Paper

The paper is 28gsm. It’s white in color and has a decent opacity considering how thin it is. It does have some show-though but I can still read it without being distracted by the text on the other side. It looks better in some lighting than others. This is a trade-off I’m will to make to get the Bible to this size. This paper has no glare even under direct light. I had no issues turning pages.

Typography

The text is presented in double-column paragraph format with section headings in a slightly darker oblique type. Poetry is set to stanzas. The header shows the page number in the center and book names, and chapter and verse numbers in the outer margin. Footnotes are placed in the footer.

The font is 9-point with 10-point leading in black letter. It’s dark and crisp. I like this font. It’s highly readable and clean. It’s printed with line-matching (the lines match up on both sides of the page) and greatly improves readability.

It has around 36 characters across with around 7-8 words per line and 51 lines per page. The poetic settings do have quite a few lines with a single word. As expected, the poetry is where the show-through is the most obvious.

Footnotes

Footnotes are placed in the footer and are keyed to the text with letters. The footnotes shed light on difficult words, provides insights on Greek and Hebrew, explains the meanings of names, alternate renderings, explains brackets, weights and measures, etc. The main focus seems to be words used for mankind that can include male a female, and various types of leprosy.

Concordance

The concordance is 44 pages with three columns per page. It is a small concordance but it still has a lot of entries and is useful for basic study. Here are a few example entries with the number of references given for each one to help you compare:

  • Christ – 18
  • Christ’s – 3
  • Christian – 2
  • Christians – 1
  • Faith – 21
  • Faithful – 12
  • Faithfully – 3
  • Faithfulness – 6
  • Faithless – 3
  • God – 57
  • Godliness – 3
  • Godly – 3
  • Gods – 3
  • Praise – 10
  • Praising – 3
  • Pray – 8
  • Prayer – 7
  • Prayers – 2
  • Praying – 5

Maps

There are 8 maps printed in earth-tones (which I like a lot) and printed on thick non-shiny paper. There isn’t an index to maps but they’re labeled well. They include distance, topography, borders, routes, rivers, kingdoms (color-coded), etc. There isn’t an index but they are labeled well and are easy to use. I’m glad these are printed on the thicker paper rather the thinner Bible paper. I found them easy to use. Maps include:

  1. The World of the Patriarchs
  2. The Exodus from Egypt
  3. The Twelve Tribes of Israel
  4. Israel Under Saul, David, and Solomon
  5. Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus
  6. Palestine in the Time of Jesus
  7. Paul’s First and Second Missionary Journeys
  8. Paul’s Third Missionary Journey and His Voyage to Rome

Conclusion

I love the size of the Crossway Large Print Thinline Bible. It’s thin, so it doesn’t feel chunky, and the 9-point font is large enough that it doesn’t strain my eyes for reading or preaching. I love that the text is clear of distractions and doesn’t have to share space with references. Higher opacity would improve readability, but it’s a good trade-off to get a Bible this thin with this large of a print. If you’re looking for a large print ESV that’s easy to carry, the Large Print Thinline Bible is a good choice.

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Buy from Amazon (includes affiliate link)

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Photography by hannah C brown

Crossway provided this Bible free for review. I was not required to give a positive review – only an honest review. My opinions are my own.