What's actually in a pack?
A pack is a single PDF, built fresh on your device the moment you press the button. Choose one to ten puzzles and they're laid out the way a puzzle book would do it: small grids (up to 9×9) can share a page two-up with a dotted cutting line, while bigger boards get a full page each so the squares stay pencil-sized. The 15×15 flows all its clues down neat columns beneath the grid, and the 21×21 gets the full broadsheet treatment — grid on one page, clues on the next, made to be laid side by side on the kitchen table.
Tick answer key and the solutions print as their own final pages — hand out the puzzles, keep the answers folded in your pocket. Tick name & date and each page gets a fill-in line along the top, which is teacher-speak for "yes, this counts as classwork". And a pack title of your own ("Grandad's Holiday Puzzles", "Class 4B — Week 12") prints as the header of every page.
Which size should you print?
Our honest guide, from smallest to largest. The 3×3 and 4×4 micros are one-breath puzzles — brilliant for kids' lunchboxes, party favors, and convincing a reluctant solver that crosswords don't bite. The 5×5 mini is the classic coffee-spoon size, and 7×7 and 9×9 stretch the same easy clues over a few more crossings. From 11×11 and 13×13 you're in midi country — one puzzle, one page, one proper tea break. The 15×15 is the traditional full daily-paper size, and the 21×21 is the Sunday: around a hundred clues that expect to be picked up and put down all afternoon. Whatever the size, the clues stay at the same everyday-words level — bigger here means longer, never meaner.
One small footnote for grid connoisseurs: our answers run three to ten letters, drawn from a hand-curated list of friendly words, so the biggest grids trade a few extra black squares for staying free of crosswordese. We think that's the right trade for puzzles meant to be finished, and you can read exactly how the sausage is made on how we make our puzzles.
Large print crosswords, done properly
"Large print" on a lot of puzzle sites means "we zoomed the same PDF". Ours re-lays the whole page: one puzzle per page, bigger squares to write in, and clue text sized for reading without hunting for the good glasses. It's the single most requested option we offer, and the people requesting it are exactly who you'd guess — solvers with tired eyes, activity coordinators in care homes, and anyone doing a crossword by lamplight. If you're printing for a grandparent, tick the box; nobody has ever complained that the squares were too big.
For teachers, tutors, and homeschoolers
Crossword packs are quietly one of the best classroom worksheets there is: spelling is enforced by the crossings, self-checking is built in, and early finishers can flip to a second puzzle instead of a second conversation. The pack options were designed around that — the name & date line, the answer key printing separately so you can hold it back, and up to ten puzzles per pack for differentiated hand-outs. Photocopy freely for your class; that's what these are for. For younger groups, the kids crosswords page builds packs with clues a seven-year-old can read solo, and if you want a puzzle built from this week's actual spelling list, the Crossword Maker will turn your own words into a printable worksheet, clues and all.
Why we build your pack fresh instead of hosting a pile of PDFs
Most "free printable crossword" pages are a shelf of the same few files everyone else already downloaded. We don't keep a shelf. When you press the button, your device generates brand-new puzzles from our word list right there in your browser and lays them into a PDF on the spot — which is why the pack is never the same twice, why there's no "you've reached your download limit", and why nothing needs your email address. Your device also remembers every puzzle it prints, so the online games on this site won't deal you a grid you've already solved on paper. The one honest trade-off: a big pack takes a few seconds to build, because the puzzles genuinely don't exist until you ask.
Why a PDF download and not a Print button
We tried the Print button first. Browsers helpfully stamp page headers, URLs, and dates over the margins, shrink things unpredictably, and generally treat your puzzle like a receipt. A downloaded PDF prints exactly as designed, and it earns its keep afterwards too: save it, email it to the grandkids, reprint it when the first copy meets a coffee mug. The file lands wherever your downloads go, named after your pack title.
Printable crossword FAQs
Are these really free?
Yes — the puzzles, the PDFs, the large print, the answer keys, all of it. No account, no trial, no tenth-download paywall. The site runs on being recommended, so if the packs are useful, tell a teacher friend.
What paper size are the PDFs?
A4, the international standard. If your printer speaks US Letter, choose "fit to page" (most printers do it automatically) and everything scales cleanly — the layouts keep generous margins for exactly this reason.
Can I photocopy packs for my class or puzzle club?
Please do. Personal, classroom, and community use is the whole idea. The only thing we ask you not to do is republish the puzzles — selling them on or uploading packs to other websites isn't on.
Will I ever print the same puzzle twice?
Not from the same device — every printed puzzle is remembered in your browser and won't be dealt again, on paper or online. The honest fine print: that memory lives on the device you printed from, so a different computer (or a cleared browser) starts fresh. With the number of puzzles our word list can make, a repeat by chance is the kind of luck you should be spending on lottery tickets.
How do I save ink?
Our pages are already ink-friendly — line art and text, no decorative backgrounds. For maximum thrift: pick sizes up to 9×9 and choose 2 per page, and skip the answer key (you can always check answers by playing the same size online). The black squares in the grid are the biggest ink item; smaller grids have fewer of them.
Why isn't the answer key on the same page?
Because eyes wander. Keys print as separate final pages so you can hand out the puzzles and keep the answers back — or staple the whole pack together for solo solving and enjoy the tiny act of willpower.
Can I print the Daily Crossword?
No, and it's on purpose — the daily is one shared puzzle per date, and printable stacks of future dates would spoil it. The 15×15 in the builder above is the same size and difficulty, just endless.
Can I make a printable crossword from my own words?
Yes — that's the Crossword Maker: paste your words, edit the clues, download the worksheet. Spelling lists, baby showers, revision notes; we've seen it all and we're only mildly judging the stag-do one.