By Feran, Founder of Digible·Reviewed October 2026

Digital Bible Journaling on iPad Pro (2027 Guide)

Digital Bible journaling on iPad Pro means reading a real Bible translation in an app and writing, highlighting and drawing right on the page with Apple Pencil. You need an iPad Pro that runs iPadOS 18, an Apple Pencil that works with it and a Bible journaling app. Then you make a wide margin and start with one verse.

Below you will find what to get, the seven settings that make the big screen work for you, a page layout to copy, a 15-minute routine and how a journaling app compares with a PDF Bible in a note app.

Why the iPad Pro Is So Good for Bible Journaling

A paper journaling Bible gives you whatever margin it was printed with. On an iPad Pro you decide how wide the margin is. The verses sit in a column at full reading size and the rest of the screen is yours for lettering, notes, drawings and stickers. Apple Pencil writes with fine control, so small handwriting and thin lines stay crisp, and nothing bleeds through to the next page.

Digible is the #1 Bible journaling app and it is made for exactly this. On iPad each chapter is laid out as a page, not a list of verses, so you write right beside the verse you are thinking about. Every stroke can be undone, you can move a drawing after you make it and you can add up to 10 journal pages to one chapter when a passage needs more room. If you are new to the idea itself, start with what Bible journaling is and come back here for the setup.

What You Need

How to Set Up Digible on iPad Pro

You only do these seven steps once.

1. Install Digible and choose your Bible. Download Digible from the App Store. During setup you choose your translation, then a cover and a name, then the paper inside. You can add more Bibles later from the end of the shelf on Home with Add New Bible.
2. Make a wide margin. Open a chapter and tap Customize Bible (the Aa button). Under Page, drag Text width narrower, then pick a Text Position icon to move the verses into a column on one side. Tap Apply. The rest of the page is open space for writing.
3. Pick your paper, font and theme. In the same Customize sheet choose one of the 12 Themes, a Font and the Paper. On iPad you can also turn on Ruled Lines and set their spacing, which gives you guide lines for lettering.
4. Move the toolbar out of your way. The floating toolbar can be dragged anywhere. Drag it into a corner and it shrinks to one round button that shows your current pen.
5. Set up four or five pens. Tap a pen to use it and tap it again for its 8 colors, Custom colour and a Size slider. Colors you add stay as extra circles, so build a small set once and reuse it on every page.
6. Check the drawing settings. Tap More options (the circled dots) at the top right of a chapter. Snap Shapes is on by default, Scribble to Erase is off and Finger Drawing lets you write with a finger or a rubber-tip stylus.
7. Make a folder for your pages. In Journals tap + and New Folder. Name it after the book you are reading or the season you are in, then move finished pages into it.

A tip for step two: if you write with your right hand, keep the verses on the left and the margin on the right, so your hand never rests on the text. Left-handed writers often like it the other way round. If a Bible already has journal pages, Apply may ask whether to update them too; your handwriting is always kept and you can go back with Restore Previous Layouts.

Prefer to watch? Our creator made a video walkthrough of starting digital Bible journaling on an iPad with Digible.

A Page Layout to Copy

A blank margin can feel like a lot of space. This layout fills it in four parts, top to bottom, and works for almost any chapter. Copy it into your first page:

1. In the text: highlight the one verse that stood out with the Highlighter and underline two or three key words with the Fineliner.
2. Top of the margin: letter the reference or a short phrase from that verse, big, with the Fountain Pen or Pen. Turn on the Ruler if you want a straight baseline.
3. Middle: three observations as a numbered list or checklist. What does it say? What does it show about God? What word repeats?
4. Lower: one sentence that starts with "Today I will..." so the verse turns into something you do.
5. Bottom: a two-line prayer in your own words, then a sticker or a small doodle. Draw a rough circle or box and hold the pencil still at the end to snap it clean, or add a heart or cross from Shape.

Here is the layout filled in for Psalm 119:105 in the World English Bible: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path." At the top, "a lamp to my feet" in large letters. In the middle: 1. a lamp shows the next step, not the whole road; 2. "feet" and "path" are about daily walking; 3. the light comes from God's word, not from me. Lower: "Today I will read before I scroll." At the bottom, a short prayer and a drawn lightbulb or candle. If lettering is new to you, our Bible verse lettering guide walks through simple styles a beginner can draw.

Make the Most of the Big Screen

Once the basics feel easy, these tools are where an iPad Pro really shines:

• Compare two translations. Tap Compare translation (the book icon) at the top of a chapter and a second translation opens in a floating panel beside your page. Tap a verse in the panel, then press and drag it onto your page, where it lands as a verse box.
• Verse box. Tap Verse box in the toolbar, pick the book, chapter and verses and tap Insert, so you can drop a cross-reference onto the page without copying it out by hand.
• Stickers, photos and shapes. Stickers opens a sheet with 20 packs and a search field. Photo places up to 4 pictures at once. Shape adds a heart, cross, circle, rectangle, star, triangle, line or arrow that you can fill with color.
• Lasso. Draw a loop around lettering, highlights or stickers to move, resize, rotate, copy or duplicate them together. Great for nudging a title that came out a little off center.
• More pages. Add journal page in the top bar gives a chapter a fresh blank page, up to 10, for a long passage or a full study.
• Your own PDFs. In Notes, tap + and Import PDF to bring in a sermon handout or a printable and write on it with Apple Pencil. Any page or note can be exported as a PDF from its More options menu.

Looking for fresh things to try on the page? Our digital Bible journaling ideas has 15 to work through, from simple highlighting to full illustrated pages.

A 15-Minute iPad Pro Journaling Routine

You do not need an hour. This fits before work, at lunch or before bed:

Not sure what to read? In the Paths tab tap + and New Path. Under Create your own, type what you would like to explore and choose 3, 7 or 14 days. Digible builds a study plan for you and each day points you to a chapter to journal. Finished pages stay in Journals, and the reading streak on Home keeps count of the days you show up.

A Journaling App or a PDF Bible in a Note App?

One common way to start digital Bible journaling is a note app like Goodnotes or a drawing app: you find a Bible as a PDF or image, import it and write on it like any other document. It works, but you are building the Bible yourself. Here is how the two routes compare:

We compare the two in more detail in Digible vs Goodnotes. Pencil Bible is another app that lets you write on Scripture with Apple Pencil; its App Store listing says that on iPad journaling "is free for 14 days from when you first open the app". See Digible vs Pencil Bible for how the two differ. In Digible: Reading and journaling are free. Pro adds extra covers, page styles, 800+ stickers, cover decoration and unlimited personal Paths.

Digital Bible Journaling on iPad Pro FAQs