How We Created the 'ESV Super Giant Print Bible'
Addressing Common Issues for Low-Vision Readers
For those with low vision, Bible reading can present some unique challenges. Blurred vision can make it difficult for readers’ eyes to follow the intended flow of the page layout or to clearly see each page’s text printed on what is usually a thinner paper stock.
To address some of the most common issues faced by low-vision readers, Crossway consulted with experts in the vision industry to produce the ESV Super Giant Print Bible.
To learn more about the production of this unique edition, we talked with A. J. Penney, Crossway's Bible typesetting manager, and Josh Klos, one of Crossway's Bible typesetters, about some of the obstacles for low-vision readers and how the ESV Super Giant Print Bible was created to help overcome them.
What are some common vision problems you see in those affected with low-vision that might make reading more challenging?
The two most common vision issues that make reading more difficult are age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. Both of these conditions result in blurred vision that may or may not be able to be fixed with prescription eyeglasses or contacts. Those who have age-related macular degeneration can lose the ability to see in the center of their field of vision. Cataracts and age-related macular degeneration tend to afflict older individuals, but low vision can be a difficulty for those of any age and has a variety causes and manifestations.
What are some typical design-related challenges that make reading more difficult for low-vision readers?
Most books, posters, and Bibles are designed assuming a person has 20/20 vision. Designs often assume that you can see the (sometimes subtle) differences between items to help you understand what you’re looking at and reading, and that you can see the whole context. Someone who has low-vision may effectively be "zoomed-in" on a small section of the page and can easily get lost in a sea of text. Or, if the differences are too subtle, he or she may have a hard time telling the difference between a lowercase “L,” an uppercase “i,” and the number “1.”
Who did you consult in the creation of this Bible and what insights did they have to share?
For this Bible, we talked with Dr. Byron Tabbut, the former president of Wheaton Eye Clinic in Wheaton, Illinois, who was invaluable for helping us understand how someone’s vision actually changes for various vision problems. We also talked with Leah Gerlach, director of counseling at Spectrios Institute for Low Vision in Wheaton, Illinois. Leah’s personal experiences as well to better understand what reading with a CCTV Magnification Machine were helpful to consider, especially when it came to how our design choices would affect a reader using assistive technology.
Did the vision experts you consulted share any personal stories about struggling to read books or the Bible?
Dr. Leah Gerlach is a low-vision specialist and counselor at Spectrios in part because she lives with low-vision herself and personally utilizes many of the products and aides that she recommends to others. Thankfully, we were able to sit with her and discuss some early prototypes of the ESV Super Giant Print Bible. She spoke from her own personal experience as much as her professional expertise to tell us what kinds of things were most helpful in our designs and whether we were on track or not.
She is the one who told us about the "black card trick" for diminishing show-through on thin paper. She told us the story of encountering a monk who carried a piece of black cardstock in his Bible while traveling in Israel. She asked why, and he explained how he used it to hide the ink on the opposite side of the page, making it easier to read. She now recommends it as a cheap way to make low-opacity paper books and bibles easier to read.
It's for this reason that we chose to include a black card inside the box of every copy of the ESV Super Giant Print Bible to help solve the problem of show-through.
How does the color of the paper increase/decrease readability?
For someone who is struggling with vision issues, contrast between the text and the paper is crucial for being able to pick out letters and words. It might seem like it’s a simple choice to choose the whitest paper possible. But white paper isn’t always purely white—it often has a cool, blue or warm, yellow tint (similar to the difference between an incandescent light bulb and a fluorescent light bulb). So as we looked at paper, we gravitated toward a paper that has more of that yellow undertone, which is preferable since black and yellow contrast more significantly than black and blue.
ESV Super Giant Print Bible
The ESV Super Giant Print Bible, produced from research with vision-industry experts, features the full ESV text in very large and easy-to-read type, offering an optimized experience for low-vision readers.
What elements did the vision experts suggest adding to create an ideal reading experience for low-vision readers?
The obvious one is increasing the type size of the text. The choice of what typeface to use was also a critical factor. You don’t want a typeface that’s too thin and wispy as that will make it harder for someone who is struggling to actually see the letters. We were pleased to discover that the standard typeface that we use for most of our Bibles, Lexicon, was actually good fit for the ESV Super Giant Print Bible. Lexicon was initially designed to work well at both small and large type sizes.
Contrast between the text and the paper was another important area to emphasize. We worked to achieve maximum contrast by carefully choosing what paper to use for this Bible along with designing this Bible to feature precise line-matching. We also tried to avoid hyphenating words, especially unfamiliar words and names, to make reading the text easier.
However, both Dr. Tabbut and Dr. Gerlach noted that typography is only part of the battle. There are a number of environmental factors, like good lighting, comfortable posture, and limited distractions, that make it much easier to read a text. When it takes a lot of effort to read, eliminating barriers on and off the page is essential.
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