What Is a Bold and Easy Coloring Book?

A bold and easy coloring book is one where you can see every line from across the table and finish a page before your tea goes cold. That is the whole idea. Here is what the phrase means, what it doesn’t, and how to tell whether a book really is one.

The four things that make a book bold and easy

1. Thick outlines. The black lines are heavy, often several times thicker than in a standard adult coloring book. They are easy to see, and they act as a buffer: if your marker slips a little, the line hides it.
2. Large, open shapes. A flower petal is one shape, not twenty. A cat is a cat, not a cat made of paisley. Fewer, bigger spaces mean you can lay down color in a few strokes.
3. Little or no fine detail. No hair-thin hatching, no mandala patterns in the background, nothing that needs reading glasses or a 0.3 mm pen.
4. One design per page. Each picture gets the whole page, so it is drawn big.

The phrase describes the drawing style, not the subject. A bold and easy book can be about hymns, houseplants, Highland cows or a ghost who runs a bakery.

How it differs from a detailed adult coloring book

The adult coloring boom of the mid-2010s was built on intricate books: mandalas, dense florals, scenes divided into hundreds of tiny sections. Some people love that. For many others it turns a relaxing hobby into eye strain and a sore hand, and the book gets abandoned a third of the way into the first page.

Bold and easy books go the other way. You trade intricacy for the pleasure of finishing. A detailed page might take a week of evenings; a bold and easy page takes an evening, or a half hour.

Neither is better. They are different tools. We make both, and every book page on this site says which one it is: our Brown Sugar Collection is drawn in more detail on purpose, and labeled that way.

Who bold and easy books suit

• Beginners, who want results on the first page.
• Seniors, whose eyes and hands may not enjoy fine detail any more. See our guide to coloring books for seniors.
• People with low vision, for whom thick, high-contrast lines make a page visible again. More in coloring books for low vision.
• People with arthritis or a tremor. Big shapes need less precision and a lighter grip.
• People living with dementia and those who color with them, as long as the subject is grown-up. See what to look for in a dementia coloring book.
• Busy adults who have one free evening, not a free month.
• Children, though a good bold and easy book for adults should not look like a children’s book.

Bold and easy vs cozy coloring books

“Cozy” coloring books are a popular style of warm, homey scenes: kitchens, reading nooks, autumn porches, little animals in sweaters. Cozy describes the mood; bold and easy describes the lines. Many cozy books are drawn bold and easy, but some are surprisingly detailed. Check the sample pages for line thickness and shape size before you buy.

How to tell a real bold and easy book

The label gets used loosely. Before you buy, look at a sample page and check:

• Can you see the lines at arm’s length? If you have to lean in, it isn’t bold.
• Are there shapes smaller than a fingernail? A few are fine. Dozens are not easy.
• Is the background filled with pattern? Busy backgrounds are where “easy” books hide hours of work.
• Is it single-sided? Bold and easy books invite markers, and markers bleed. Here is why single-sided matters.
• Is the subject right for the person? Easy lines and childish pictures are not the same thing.

What to color them with

Markers are the natural partner: a chisel or brush tip fills a big shape in a few strokes, and the thick outline keeps it tidy. Colored pencils work too, especially for shading. Our guide to the best markers for coloring books has specific picks.

The easiest way to know whether bold and easy suits you is to try a page. There is a free sample page from every one of our books, ready to print.