Leave a Review Pencil Bible
What I’ve been wishing for!
I’m an avid journaler , doodler and notetaker, especially in church. I’ve been using Olive Tree Bible for years, and taking notes on a separate app. But sometime you want to make a note in your bible, and while Olive Tree allows you to open a window and make a note, or highlight and underline a passage, you cannot do what this app does with your Apple Pencil. I love drawing arrows, writing related verses in the margins, putting personal insights on the side and more. I just downloaded it today, when I wondered, if I should search Journal + Bible. I would love to see the ability to add extra pages, between the chapters, so I can write down detailed sermon outlines related to the passage. I would also like the option for lines on the side margins. The biggest thing missing is that you can go to the Book and Chapter, but you cannot pick the verse, you just have to scroll through to find it. This might be a problem, say, in Psalm 119. That would be a great feature to add. As one other reviewer mentioned, stickers and other colorful things would be cool. But the biggest need is detailed verse look up.Show lessClayBearNBNC
Developer Response
Thanks so much 💗 - please rest assured that we will be adding all those features in the future. Everything takes a litte time. Appreciate the support 🙏🏻 ErinHopeful!!!
I just downloaded the app and am extremely excited that it exists but there is one feature not available that will be the reason I don't continue to use it. I want to be able to take notes with my Apple Pencil and then use the "scribble" function to change my handwriting to text. I would really like to be able to select from various fonts for that text as well but just getting it to work in a basic font would even work to begin with. I like to handwrite notes but my hands are very shaky so I want to be able to have it automatically converted to typed text. Is this something that will be available? If so do you know what timeframe?
Another feature that I would like to see, but wouldn't keep me fom using it, is stickers. Having a bunch of stickers to drop and drag into the journaling area would be great!!
Thank you!Show lessmrsspivey
Developer Response
Thanks - yes, I will be bringing all those features with time. 😄✔️No Zoom???!!
First off, I love the concept behind this app, truly. And I am thankful to the developers for making this app for people who want to study God’s Word in a traditional way with a nifty device. However, without zoom capability I feel as though the app is very hard for me to use. I like to be neat with my writing, but in order for me to be neat I have to write fairly large on my iPad screen. If I had the ability to scroll I would be able to write large and not take up a bunch of space per page, and the experience would be 100 times better. I’m disappointed because I bought the lifetime access and yet I now feel as though the app is useless, literally only because of the fact that its missing zoom. Please give ear to this and add this simple feature in so that I can adequately use the app :(Show lessJustoose
Developer Response
Hi - we are adding zoom, but it takes time. Making the whole system work is very complicated.Updated review
You came along a bit since the last time I tried the app, glad to see you are getting more bible versions. Love the dark mode. Writing pencils and highlighters are primitive but satisfactory. This is great for journaling, note taking, highlighting. I am seeing growth, and there is so much potential here! Money isn’t a deterrent for me, and money I spend to draw near to God is a good investment in my eyes, but still not enough to pull me from my other bible app. My other app lacks the ability to write in the margin or a side page and that is what keeps me drawing me back to check on the app, but the other app offers a lot of study tools like Strong’s, commentaries, dictionaries, cross reference, more bible versions, the ability to study multiple versions side by side or to swap back and forth. it also is a costly app but again that is not a deterrent for me personally and I have a lot of money invested in the other app already so to leave it at this point I still the more options. Keep going, this app is still the only one I have found that allows writing with my I pencil in a nice wide margin and I can’t tell you how much I love that feature!Show lessGrininbearit
Developer Response
🙏🙏🙏I AM SO HAPPY WITH THIS APP NOW!
I initially downloaded this app because I just bought an iPad. I love to Bible journal, so I tried websites like Etsy to download digital Bible journaling PDF’s. I could never find a NLT version on there, so I settled and bought an ASV version on Etsy. I was dissatisfied with my Etsy purchase.
So, I decided to search the APP store for a journaling Bible and I found this one. At first, I liked it but I didn’t like how you all didn’t have NLT, so I didn’t use this app anymore. But today, I decided to to really get back into reading the Word and God told me to just re check this app again. I checked and you all added the NLT Bible. I was so excited and didn’t care how much it was! I paid the $9.99 for it and I am happy now.
THANK YOU GUYS FOR ADDING THE NLT VERSION. IF NO ONE ELSE IS HAPPY WITH THIS APP, I AM. I WILL FOREVER USE THIS APP. PLEASE NEVER CHANGE❤️Show lessChosenbyGod777
Developer Response
It's out labour of love 💖 (and an absolute pleasure). Appreciate the kind review! Please let us know if you need anything else. Support@pencilbible.com Kind regards ErinI love this app! Just one thing
This is the best bible study app for me, it’s so user friendly and I love how you can adjust everything. It’s a wonderful concept and is exactly what I wanted. The ONLY thing I beg you to fix is the writing or calibration. I write so fast but it glitches and cannot keep up sometimes. My iPad is the iPad Pro 12.9 inch 6th generation and I use an Apple Pencil, and my other apps don’t have this problem. I would just love it if you’d update this to be a bit better/more accurate for writing. Other than that- AMAZING app!! Literally just one tiny complaint on my part! Keep up the great work- I’m a big fan ✝️Show lessMagzisurs
Developer Response
Thanks so much 💖 - the performance issue will be rectified in the next few months. I promise.Love the journal
Bought the premium cause I have been looking for a digital Bible app that allows me to write in my own hand writing. It’s a little bit of a bummer that paying for the full price doesn’t give you access to different translations but understandable for copyright issues. Maybe in the future update we can choose different versions for the premium account.
Couple other suggestions would be if we can zoom in (to be able to write easier on the side), customize the pages as in adding lines for note taking, and to be able to turn the pages like a digital book. I have updated the app (as I’ve seen previous reviews) and it still won’t let me turn the page and requires me to move back to the main menu.
Thanks developers and looking forward to my digital journaling Bible.Show lessAnila9
Developer Response
Thanks - you can swipe up and down to change chapters. Side swiping is almost finished and works perfectly. Releasing next week I hope.Promising but still needing work.
Love the concept. I paid for a monthly sub, but glitches caused me to unsubscribe. Month to month I come back and see from other users the same issues persisting, but I’m not a coder or developer so I don’t know how long those issues take to fix. Biggest issues for me, the pencil tracking isn’t good, every time I use it a random line will shoot up as Im Writing causing me to pause frequently. The undo button after a bit of writing decides to stop working, and the eraser erases entire words or área rather than with precision to help you just fix a small mistakes, the highlighter is better tho! Other than that, A+ for concept, but hesitant to keep paying for an app whose main components are still v glitchy. But I’m sure I will come back to it bc it’s so convenient!Show lessMr.mews
Developer Response
Thanks for your patience. Next few months of all goes well will finally be ironed out 🙏🏻🙌🏻Would love the app, but…..
I have always wanted a digital Bible that I could annotate like I would a paper Bible and was thrilled to find this one. However, after months of using it, I’m abandoning it due to unmet expectations.
If I am going to pay for an app, I have high expectation for quality. In a free version, especially one that is supported by adds (which this is not), I have lower expectations. But the free version is so limited that it is not useful (only 10 pages can be annotated on.
There are three primary issues I have. First, random lines appear from where I am writing up to the top of the page and I have to “undo” them.
Second, the “undo” and erase features are very buggy. You use the feature and you don’t see anything happen sometimes. You have to exit the page and come back to know what was done.
Third, I’ve found that the alignment of highlighting and words gets off sometimes. Like everything is shifted down a half-line.
I have reported the first issue to them and the response was it is a known issue. I think there have been 2-3 updates since and it has not been addressed. And until that is, I am going to let my subscription expire and keep tabs on updates in the future.Show lessjeffnamdor
Developer Response
Jeff 😀 - thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. We have the best of the best (a specialist in drawing tech) starting month end. I promise all will be fixed. Our budget is very limited so things do take more time than funded Startups. Thanks for taking the time to write a detailed review. It's very good. Keep watching for updates. Kind Regards ErinSimple and great
This is a great app. Very easy to use. Although I am very tech-dependent in my personal study, I always missed scribbling over verses on my old paper bibles. I love that you can change the line spacing, font size and even add space for side notes. Simple and genius. My only struggle with this app is that it only has english bibles. English is no my first language. So I end up going back to other bible apps for my devotion. I encourage the developers to try to include modern faithful spanish translation (many hispanic churches are shifting from RV1960 to NBLA, and some textus criticus translations, such as the NTV, are being used in home studies). I know this app would be a slam dunk in the hispanic community, as bible scribbling is extremely common in our community. Please, just include at least two spanish bible options (not only the upcoming RV1960). That would be a great blessing! Praying for the developers.Show lessDrLuiCal
Developer Response
Thanks so much DrLuisCal! Getting those translations are challenging due to publishers holding the right to them. I will be adding the Spanish and Portuguese NIV in the next few months I hope 😁 P.S. Thanks for your prayers!
