The ESV Heritage Bible in Black TruTone
When Crossway released the ESV Creeds and Confessions Bible in TruTone, it was a game changer. It was a high quality block at a very affordable price. It has been used, abused, rebound, and made more premium than many could ever dream. The block I’m reviewing today has the potential to be the next game changer for Crossway.
The ESV Single Column Heritage is a beautiful block, but until now, it has had a heft price tag attached to it. Thanks to the kindness of Crossway, you can now have this beautiful layout for as cheap as $35 in a TruTone edition. TruTone is the name of Crossway’s faux leather. The paper quality isn’t what you’re going to get in the higher priced versions, but this is an amazing Bible. Let’s take a look.
I received the Black TruTone version of this Bible, but it’s also available in a brown if that’s your preference. The TruTone is butter smooth with no real stamped in grain. On the spine in gold are the words, “HOLY BIBLE”, the ESV logo, “ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION”, and the Crossway logo. Each set of words are separated by gold decorative bars on the spine. Sadly, there are no spine hubs. I was hoping Crossway would give this the full Creeds treatment with raised hubs. It makes a TruTone Bible feel more premium.
The page edges are gold and there’s single black, double-sided ribbon bookmark. Inside is a paper paste-down liner with paper end sheets. There are a few blank pages as well as family records pages. The Bible does feature a sewn binding for durability and includes a lifetime guarantee.
The paper certainly isn’t as smooth as the premium version, but it has a good grip to it. It’s nice and opaque as well as line matched for readability. The Bible features a beautiful single column layout. The lines of text have great spacing between them. The type is a 9.25 point and is highly readable. There is a decent amount of space in the outer margin of each page if you’d like to take some notes.
The back features several full color maps that are on card stock paper. They aren’t glossy and I’m a big fan of that choice. Glossy maps in a Bible just aren’t great, but these are well done. I still prefer no maps, but these are great as far as maps go.
All in all, this Bible is high value for the price! I think you could grab this Bible without fear of marking it up and really using it. You could also rebind it and make it exactly the way you want. This Bible is a great offering from Crossway and I highly recommend grabbing a copy!
