# What is a bold and easy coloring book?
By Nora Ember, Lantern & Ladder · Updated 28 October 2026
**The short answer:** A bold and easy coloring book is drawn with thick outlines around big open spaces, one subject to a page, so a page can be finished in an evening. A good one is also printed single sided, counts its designs rather than its pages, and tells you how the effort runs from the first page to the last. All six can be checked in the preview before you buy.
The words are a format, not a guarantee, and any cover can carry them. Here is what they should mean, as six things you can check in the preview before you pay, and how to use them to choose a coloring book for an adult.

## What the words mean

"Bold" is the line. "Easy" is the space between the lines. A bold and easy
coloring book is drawn with thick, even outlines around shapes big enough to
fill without care, so that a page can be started and finished in one
evening, with markers as well as pencils.

That is the whole idea, and it is the opposite of the intricate book: the
mandala or the kitchen with forty jars, beautiful on the cover and easy to
abandon on page twelve. A bold and easy page is not meant to
be dull. It is meant to be finished, and to leave room for the color itself
to be the interesting part: a blend, a palette, a clean edge.

The trouble is that the words are a format, not a promise anyone checks. Any
book can say "bold and easy" on the cover. So the useful question is not
what the phrase means but what a book has to do to deserve it. Six things,
and every one of them can be seen in the preview before you buy.


## Line weight you can see at a glance

The first check is the outline itself. In a bold book the line is thick
enough to read from across the room and the same weight all the way round.
A thick line does two jobs. It hides a wobble: if your marker strays a
little, it strays onto black. And it gives the page its shape after it is
colored, so a light fill still looks finished.

What to look for in the preview: lines that stay thick in the small parts of
the picture too, not a bold outline around a finely drawn middle. A page
with a heavy border and thin, sketchy detail inside is an intricate page in
a bold frame.


## Open space: no shape too small to fill

The second check is the size of the smallest space. Look at the busiest
page you can find in the preview and ask whether every closed shape on it
would take a broad marker nib without touching the line. If a shape is
smaller than your fingertip, it is detail, and detail is what "easy" is
supposed to leave out.

Two smaller checks go with it. Every line should close, so a fill stops
where the shape stops. And there should be white space around the picture,
not texture filling every gap: wood grain on every plank and a pattern on
every cushion turns a simple room into an intricate one.


## One subject to a page

The third check is what the page is of. A bold and easy page has one
subject: a mug, a penguin, a reading chair with a lamp. A fuller page may
put a few things together, a chair and a rug and a stack of books, but they
are one scene with one center, not a crowd. When a page tries to hold a
whole street, the shapes have to shrink to fit, and the second check fails
with it.


## Single-sided pages

The fourth check is the back of the page. Alcohol markers soak through
ordinary paper. Altenew, which sells
them, says plainly that they tend to bleed and are not recommended for
double-sided coloring books (Altenew), and the colorist and publisher
Thaneeya McArdle says the same of her own experience, adding that her books
avoid the problem by being single sided (Art Is Fun).

A single-sided book prints each design on one side of the sheet and leaves
the back blank. A marker that soaks through then spoils nothing. If the
listing does not say "single sided", assume it is not. Single sided does not
mean the paper stops ink: a sheet of scrap paper behind the page you are
coloring still keeps the next page clean. [Why markers bleed through a
coloring book, and what stops it](/guides/markers-bleeding-through-coloring-book)
goes through the fixes in order, and [the best markers for bold and easy
coloring books](/guides/best-markers-for-bold-and-easy-coloring) is about
which nibs suit big spaces.

A note on paper, because listings blur it. A paperback printed through
Amazon KDP uses its standard paper, which KDP lists for black ink
paperbacks at 50 to 61 pound, 74 to 90 GSM (Amazon KDP). That is ordinary book paper, not marker
paper, whatever the description says. Single-sided printing is what makes it
work with markers, not the paper.


## Designs, not pages

The fifth check is the count. A single-sided book has about twice as many
pages as designs, because every design has a blank page behind it. So "110
pages" and "52 designs" can describe the same book, and a listing that gives
only the page count is telling you less than it seems.

Count designs, then check what counts as one. A full design fills the page.
Watch for quarter-page pictures, the same drawing twice with a different
border, and a scene repeated from the same publisher's other books. A preview
that shows enough pages, or a contact sheet of every design, lets you see
whether the designs are whole and different from each other.


## An effort order you can see

The sixth check is the hardest to see from a cover and the one that decides
whether you finish the book. The cover says easy; is the middle of the book
easy too? A good bold and easy book knows how much effort each page asks
and puts them in an order you can rely on: quick single objects first, a
few fuller scenes in the middle, quiet pages at the end.

What to look for: a preview from the middle of the book, not only the
first three pages. If the busiest page in the book still passes the second
check, the whole book is bold and easy. If the publisher tells you how the
book runs, front to back, that is a good sign they planned it.


## How to choose a coloring book for adults

With the six checks in hand, choosing comes down to a few honest questions
about the person who will color it.

**What will they color with?** If the answer is alcohol markers, single
sided is a requirement, not a feature, and a scrap sheet behind the page is
still wise. If it is colored pencils, a single-sided book matters less, and
a slightly fuller page can suit them. If you do not know, choose single
sided: it costs nothing when pencils are used and saves the book when
markers are.

**How long is an evening?** Someone who colors for twenty minutes before bed
wants pages that end in twenty minutes: single objects, big spaces. Someone
who colors for an afternoon may enjoy fuller scenes. A book with an effort
order serves both, because you can pick the page to fit the time.

**Do they want a subject or a season?** A season is a reason to color, and
it also dates a book. A Christmas book is perfect in December and waits in
a drawer until the next one. A book with no season in it, a cozy room, a
bakery counter, animals, works in any month.

**How big is the page?** Check the trim size in the listing. A smaller page makes every shape smaller, which works
against the second check. A larger one is harder to hold on a sofa.

**Can you see inside?** Buy only what you can preview, and look at the
middle of the book. Plaid, a craft supplies company, gives one piece of
advice for new colorists that holds for experienced ones too: be selective,
and buy books one at a time, because styles differ and you will find you
prefer some (Plaid). And test markers on a page at the back of the book
before you start on a design (Plaid): a good book gives you a page for it.

If you are choosing for someone else, [coloring book gifts for
adults](/guides/coloring-book-gifts-for-adults) turns these questions into a
checklist, including how to avoid giving the book they already have.


## What our books do with this

The Lantern Coloring books are this press's own, so read this part as what
it is. Each volume is [52 bold and easy designs on 110 pages](/series/lc),
8.5 x 8.5 inches, one design to a right-hand page with the back left blank,
and a page to test your pens before you start. Each one opens on single
objects, moves into fuller scenes in the middle and closes on quiet pages
again. They are for adults and teens 14 and up; Cute Animals is drawn for adults
and kids from 7.

The paper is KDP's standard paperback paper, not thick and not marker proof,
so the single-sided pages and a sheet behind are what protect the next
design. The pictures start in an image generation tool and are then checked
and corrected one by one, for a line that does not close or a space too
small to color; [how the books are made](/about) says more.

If you want the one with no season in it, [Cozy Corners](/series/lc/cozy-corners)
is reading nooks, window seats and kitchen shelves, and the page above is
from its middle. Plenty of other publishers make good bold and easy books
too. Whichever you look at, the six checks are the same.


## Sources

- Altenew. [Water-based vs alcohol markers](https://altenew.com/blogs/paper-crafting-inspiration-and-tips/water-based-vs-alcohol-markers), 4 February 2022. Alcohol markers tend to bleed and are not recommended for double-sided coloring books.
- Thaneeya McArdle, Art Is Fun. [Tips for using alcohol markers in coloring books](https://www.art-is-fun.com/tips-for-using-alcohol-markers-in-coloring-books). Alcohol marker ink tends to bleed through; single-sided books and sheets of paper underneath avoid the damage.
- Amazon KDP. [Print options](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834180). The weight of KDP's black ink paperback paper, 50 to 61 pound (74 to 90 GSM).
- Plaid. [10 tips for adult coloring book newbies](https://plaidonline.com/inspire-and-create/article/13-effective-tips-for-adult-coloring), 10 December 2019. Buy coloring books one at a time; test markers on a page at the back of the book.

## From the series
Every Lantern Coloring volume is built to these six checks: 52 designs in a thick line, one to a right-hand page with the back left blank, running from single objects to fuller scenes and back. [Lantern Coloring](https://lanternladder.com/series/lc.md)

## Related guides
- [Why markers bleed through a coloring book, and what stops it](https://lanternladder.com/guides/markers-bleeding-through-coloring-book.md): Slip a sheet behind the page, color on single-sided pages, test the marker first, use a light hand and let each layer dry. Alcohol ink goes through most paper.
- [The best markers for bold and easy coloring books](https://lanternladder.com/guides/best-markers-for-bold-and-easy-coloring.md): A broad brush or chisel nib for the big spaces, a fine tip for the small ones. Alcohol ink fills evenly but goes through paper, so put a sheet behind the page.
- [Coloring book gifts for adults: how to pick one they will finish](https://lanternladder.com/guides/coloring-book-gifts-for-adults.md): Check what they own, pick pages they can finish in an evening, single sided if they use markers, and add a small set of pens or pencils.
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