Bibles are usually printed in two columns

It is also a question of how texts are received and read or should be read. The advantage of single-column printing with a larger font is often felt to be that it results in a more pleasant reading flow without major distractions and thus less fatigue during reading. This is usually the case with literary texts.

A different approach can be found, for example, in dictionaries, encyclopaedias, scientific reference works and also in the Bible.

There are several reasons why the Bible was written more like an encyclopaedia than a literary text. On the one hand, there is the gigantic size of the body of the text: Depending on the translation, one is dealing with about 800,000 words in the Bible. Reducing the size of the typeface saved a considerable amount of paper. However, if the lines had been allowed to run across the entire width of the page, reading would have been considerably more difficult with such a small font.

The two-column printing with small type could therefore help to save enormous amounts of paper.

In addition, the numbered verses could thus always begin on a new line and clergy who read the texts more as historical or scholarly sources could also work more easily with cross-references, for example, to make comparisons with other passages in the text.