The NLT Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible from Tyndale combines a gorgeous cover, the beautiful line art we expect from the Inspire line, extra-large margin space, and the largest print available in a creative journaling Bible.
ISBN:9781496454973
Tyndale provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Table of Contents
Video Review
Construction and Materials
The Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible has a LeatherLike flexible cover. It has a purple with pink and gold galaxy pattern on it. Besides the stars in the galaxy, gold is also used for all the lettering on the front, back, and spine, and there is matching gold gilt on the page edges. Two attached ribbon markers are included, one in purple and one in dark pink.
This is a big Bible. It measures 11″ x 9.25″ x 2.25″ and weighs 5 pounds and 10.5 ounces. I would not want to carry this Bible on a regular basis without a dedicated tote bag for it and lots of room to spread out wherever I planned to use it. It’s very nice for use at home on a desk or table.
The paper seems to be around 38 to 40 gsm and is a soft off-white color. It has extremely thick paper end pages with different illustrated verses inside each cover. The sewn binding easily lays flat everywhere except the end pages and 3 or 4 pages in from each cover. The paper seems fairly typical for art journaling Bibles and I’m sure you’ll be able to use any medium that works well in most other Bibles.
Typography and Layout
This is a black-letter Bible set in a single-column paragraph format. The page numbers are in the outside corner of the headers and the guide verse references are centered over the text. Like most NLT editions it has section headings, letters and quotes offset, and poetry arranged in stanzas.
The most important typographical feature of this Bible is the giant print, a font size of a little over 12.5 point. This is the largest text in any creative journaling Bible to date. Just over 4 lines of text fit in the height of a penny.
The extra-large margins are the other big feature of this Bible. Measuring 3 3/4 inches wide and just over 10 1/2 inches high, you have almost 40 square inches of room to write and create per page that isn’t pre-illustrated.
There are 36 evenly spaced 3 1/4 inch long lines in the margin. I find this style of light lining doesn’t distract from most artwork or lettering I do. It’s useful for centering items or making sure they are straight on the page even when I don’t keep my writing confined to them.
The footnotes are translators’ notes. Asterisks within the text alert you to the presence of a footnote. Bold verse numbers within the footer indicate which note you are looking for.
Artwork
The artwork is always a favorite feature of any illustrated Bible. The Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible has a larger version of the same artwork as the regular size NLT Inspire Prayer Bible. Over 400 illustrations are included. All of which are different from what is found in the original Inspire Bible or the Inspire Praise Bible.
The artwork is in several different forms.
There are illustrated title pages for each book of the Bible.
Most books have a full-page illustration across from the title page that coordinates.
Several other full-page illustrations are also included throughout the Bible.
Full margin illustrations, like this one, are the most common type of artwork.
I colored this one with Inktense pencils. I’ve wet the ink to make the color smoother and brighter on the top portion of the page without any bleed-through.
A type of illustration that is new to the Inspire Prayer Bibles is the verse-inspired prayer prompts. They have a combination of lettering, printed text, and small illustrations, and include space for you to add your own words to the prayer.
An illustrated version of the verse the prompt was derived from is on the facing page.
The colored vellum pages, that were a favorite in the Inspire! Praise Bible, have returned. This time instead of praise verses they have prayers from people throughout history to add to the theme of the Bible.
A portion of the artwork on each of these pages has been left uncolored on purpose.
The vellum is sturdier than the paper so a wider variety of art mediums can be used safely. Just remember to allow extra drying time for anything wet.
Other Features
Prayer Theme
I love the fact that they have added themes to the later Inspire! Bibles. It gives you more of a reason to own one of each. It can also make it easier to decide which one would be more appropriate to gift in certain situations.
The Prayer Theme in this Bible is well implemented. The choice of verses, prayer prompts, and example prayers all work together to give you a good study on prayer. A few helpful pages are included at the front of this Bible also. They give you tips on journaling in general, using this Bible specifically, and a list of verses on prayer.
Index of Designed Verses
A feature found in all Inspire Bibles is the Index of Designed Verses. It comes in handy when using an Illustrated Bible. You can know ahead of time if a verse you are studying has already been illustrated.
Comparisons
With the standard Inspire Prayer Bible
The first Bible I want to compare it to is the standard size NLT Inspire Prayer Bible. Size and color choices for the outside of the Bible are the only differences between these two. It is 3 inches taller, 2 inches wider, and about 2 pounds heavier.
The font is a full 4 points larger in the Giant Print, and the scaled-up page size means more drawing and writing room also.
Larger illustrations can make small details easier to color or even see.
The pagination between the two sizes is identical, including the placement of the colored vellum pages.
With the Inspire Bible Large Print
The second Bible I want to compare to is the original Inspir Bible in Large Print. I’m using the newer softcover version in these pictures. The Giant Print is almost 1 inch taller, a little over an inch wider and nearly half an inch thicker. It also weighs about 2 more pounds.
The font is close to 2 points larger (12.65 compared to 10.8).
Wider margins and the inclusion of more artwork (especially the vellum inserts) is why the other differences in size are more pronounced than the difference in height.
The artwork is very similar in style to the original put all of the artwork is different. The original Inspire Bible covered a variety of topics with its artwork. It mostly focused on frequently quoted or journaled verses. The Inspire Prayer Bible has a noticeable theme with the majority of the verses illustrated being prayers of people in the Bible or about praying.
I think the decision to make all of the Inspire Bibles past the first have themes was a good one. It allows the differences between them to be more noticeable and have more of a purpose. Both the Inspire Prayer Bible and the Inspire Praise Bible are particularly good for someone wanting to focus on those themes in their devotional time.
With the CSB Illustrating Bible
The last Bible I want to compare to is a less obvious choice, the CSB Illustrating Bible. Both of these Bibles have 3 3/4″ wide margins and are a good choice for serious creative Bible journalers. So I wanted to detail what would make each a better choice for some people.
Advantages of the Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible
The main advantage of the Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible is its much larger print. With a font size of 12.65 compared to the 8 point font in the Illustrating Bible, It will be much easier to read.
The margins are the same width but the Inspire is taller. So you have around 40 square inches of space in it compared to around 35 square inches in the Illustrating. In Psalms or other poetry-heavy sections of the Bible, the smaller print means a narrower column of text and you’ll have more room in the Illustrating on those pages if you are willing to go over into the section of the page that would normally be text.
Some people might also consider the more traditional look of the Inspire as an advantage. With its rectangular shape, traditional binding style, and attached ribbon markers.
Advantages of the CSB Illustrating Bible
The main advantage of the Illustrating Bible is the thicker paper, A gsm somewhere in the 60s instead of the near 40 gsm of the Inspire. It is about a half-pound lighter than the Inspire as well. It comes with a much sturdier box, though carrying it in its box will give the weight advantage to the Inspire since the sturdy box weighs almost 2 pounds on its own. The spiral binding could also be an advantage since you can fold the pages completely under and take up less space on a table.
Differences that could be Advantages or Disadvantages
There are a few features that could be either an advantage or disadvantage depending on personal preference. The Inspire Bibles are only available in the NLT translation. The Illustrating Bible is available in CSB or NIV. Some will prefer having colored inserts for inspiration and line art to color or lined margins for their own devotion time. Others will prefer the margins completely free of any drawings or lines so they have more room for their own personal responses.
Final Thoughts on the NLT Giant Print Inspire Prayer Bible
This is a beautiful Bible. My daughter and I loved the look of it from the moment we saw it. If you don’t need this large of font and want your Bible portable one of the smaller Bibles in the Inspire line is more likely to be what you want. If the font size isn’t an issue and you want thick paper and lots of space for your own artwork the CSB Illustrating Bible might be worth considering. However, if you are willing to use a big Bible to get a giant print this is an excellent choice. Especially if you want lots of journaling space, and beautifully done prayer prompts and artwork to inspire your devotion time with God.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Photography by Lucinda Brown
Tyndale provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.
I love this bible,and for someone who has difficulty with prayers it really would ya great asset to have.