The Story
The Pencil Bible (PB) started as a simple idea during the Christmas Holidays of 2019 🎄. Every morning, Erin (the founder of PB) would wake up early ☕️ (usually before the kids) to do Bible study. When he gets to his favorite couch though, his pencils, erasers, and notebooks are usually missing or have been procured for drawings of kittens and trees ✏️. He was super frustrated and needed a simpler solution 😫.
Exploring the then-available Bible apps for the iPad, Erin found them very limiting and frustrating when it came to taking notes, journaling, or doodling. He started thinking about the concept of a digital Bible app that gives you the total freedom to do this 🤔.
The more he thought and prayed 🙏 about it, the more various possibilities took shape. What if you stripped away all the unnecessary functionality of current Bible apps, and add a beautiful, minimalistic design that is purely focused on the iPad in line with modern UI and UX principles?
With that foundation in mind, what if you add the ability to freely annotate any Bible translation as well? Boom 💥🤯
After some more brainstorming, a team of talented designers called Pepper Plane made the first design prototypes for what was then called “The Bible for Creatives” just before the lockdown started in 2020. Funds to build the very first version of the app were raised via an Indiegogo campaign which successfully ran till October 2020. This also helped to prove the concept works and build a fantastic following along the way.
The project was later renamed Pencil Bible instead of the Bible for Creatives (to make everyone feel included - even though we all are creative).
The journey to the current version of Pencil Bible was over 2 years long, using three different developer agencies to code the app and getting rejected by 2 Bible publishers (Erin blogged about the whole experience here 👉🏻 https://erinchampwalker.medium.com/).
Rewards:
One of the Indiegogo Campaign Perks was: “Your name will be on the apps about page!”. As promised we will honor those backers who gave $500 or more:
Christy Childers $5500 🤯
Scott Matthew Lee $500
Latimer Bowen $1000
Please know PB is an Indie Project with no additional venture funding. We want to make it better. Much, much better. Please help us by subscribing and supporting further development.
Our Vision
To be the number one Bible app for tablets.
Our Mission
To help people discover God's word in creative, new, and wonderful ways.
Core Problem
The core problem the Pencil Bible wants to solve for its users is the lack of mobility and simplicity for exploring the Bible with the Apple Pencil.
How?
Pencil Bible is a beautifully simple Bible app for journaling, crafting notes, and visually capturing scripture using an iPad and Apple Pencil.
Who's It For?
- Regular readers of their digital Bible, wanting more freedom to journal, make notes, and doodle.
- A mobile solution for the Bible journaling community.
- Professionals who like to study and explore the Bible on their iPad.
Benefits
God is the ultimate creator and He made all of us in His image. Thus we were all born with the gift of creativeness in various forms and strengths. Since mobile technology is an everyday part of life and we read the Bible on these devices why not give worshippers of God the ability to write, doodle, and create next to scriptures in the Bible - on their digital devices.
This has various advantages:
- Helps you remember scriptures better
- Gives you a fresh approach to the Bible.
- Brings more depth and understanding into your Bible study time
- Discover God's word in new and different ways
- Enhances the Bible experience on a digital device like an iPad
With the Apple Pencil, Pencil Bible brings the closest thing to a physical writing tool to your iPad. Ultra-low latency, with tilt and pressure support, makes pens, pencils, and other drawing tools come alive.
We are always refining the app and adding new translations monthly. If you have any suggestions please send a message to the founder: erin@pencilbible.com.
A special thanks to the Indiegogo backers (especially Christy Childers) who made this possible and believed in me and the idea.