What they all have in common
The puzzles are different. The sheet is the same.
Twelve builders sounds like twelve products. It is closer to one product with twelve engines behind it, and the part visitors actually use is the part that does not change: a pack of up to 6 puzzles or sheets, an answer key, a paper size, and a name field for whoever has to hand them out.
Start from what you want the sheet to do
Choosing by puzzle name only works if you already know the names. Most people arrive with a situation rather than a puzzle in mind, so this table starts from the situation.
| If you want | Settings to start from | Why that one | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Something a child can start without being taught anything | Mazes | Very small, Easy | No letters, no numbers, and arrows marking the way in and out. |
| A quiet half hour with a pencil and no rules to learn | Word Search | 15x15, Medium, one theme | The only puzzle here you cannot get wrong, only unfinished. |
| The most reading-friendly sheet for a senior center or a group with mixed sight | Cryptograms | Easy, short quotes, large print | Large print here changes the letter cells themselves, and the finished quotation is worth reading aloud. |
| Spelling or vocabulary practice with a written answer | Word Scramble | Easy or Medium, word bank on | A word search asks you to spot the word; this asks you to produce it. |
| A spelling list the class has to write out, with the list still on the sheet | Fill-Ins | Custom word list, 13x13, Medium | Every word is copied into a grid that only has one slot for it, and each crossing checks a letter. |
| Adding and subtracting practice that is a puzzle rather than a drill sheet | Math Puzzles | Pyramids, base of 4, up to 100, Medium | The number range sets the sums and the level sets the reasoning, and the two are separate controls. |
| A first number puzzle that is arithmetic rather than logic | KenKen | 4x4, Easy, addition only | About a third of the grid arrives filled in and no total goes above seven. |
| The familiar one, for someone who already knows what they like | Sudoku | 9x9, your usual level | The only builder here where most people arrive already knowing the rules. |
| A logic sheet you are guaranteed can be reasoned out rather than guessed | Futoshiki | 5x5, Medium | Proves each sheet is reachable by deduction before printing it, and needs no arithmetic to do so. |
| A long sitting for somebody who finds Sudoku too easy | Kakuro | 10x10 or 11x11, Hard | Arithmetic and deduction at once, and the largest grids on the site. |
Settings are a starting point rather than a recommendation with evidence behind it. Each puzzle page measures its own difficulty levels properly; this table only points you at the right page.
Nine of these never repeat themselves. Three of them can run out.
10 of the 12 builders make a puzzle when you ask for one. Change the settings, press the button again, and the result is a puzzle that did not exist a moment earlier. The other two draw from a file that shipped with the site, and that is a real difference in what you can expect from them.
Generating a puzzle does not make the supply endless, and the math builder is the case that shows it. At numbers up to 10, only 50 three-wide number pyramids exist at all, because every brick including the top has to stay at 10 or under. A pack large enough to need more has to repeat one, and that builder says so under its preview rather than quietly printing the same pyramid twice.
| Builder | Where its puzzles come from | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Sudoku | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| KenKen | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Kakuro | 1,154 puzzles | Spread over 17 size and difficulty combinations, from 257 down to 4. |
| Futoshiki | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Word Search | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Word Scramble | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Cryptograms | 88 quotations | 13 to 16 in each of the 6 categories, so one full pack from the smallest uses 46 percent of it. |
| Mazes | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Killer Sudoku | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Math Puzzles | Generated on request | Unlimited from numbers up to 20 upwards. At up to 10 only 50 three-wide pyramids exist, and the builder says when a pack has had to repeat one. |
| Logic Puzzles | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
| Fill-Ins | Generated on request | A new seed makes a new puzzle, so the supply is limited by patience rather than by a file. |
The Kakuro figure is counted from the 17 bank files shipped in this build, the quotation figure from the cryptogram quote data, and the pyramid figure by the math engine's own exact count. None is typed in.
The Kakuro bank is the one to look at properly, because its 1,154 puzzles are not spread evenly. Sorted by size, the shape of the bank is a cliff rather than a slope.
- Comfortable pool for a full pack
- 12 puzzles or fewer, so one pack takes half of it or more
The practical reading is narrow but real. If you ask for 6 sheets at 11x11 on easy, you are taking 150 percent of everything the site has at that setting, and a second pack next week will overlap heavily with the first. At 6x6 easy that is not a concern at all. The builder does not currently warn you about this, which is a gap rather than a decision.
Cryptograms have the same shape of limit for a different reason. Every quotation is out of copyright and attributed to a checkable source, because the terms of use let anyone print and hand out these sheets and that permission can only be given for text that is genuinely free to give away. That checking is why the bank is 88 lines rather than thousands, and it is the right trade rather than a shortcut. A full pack from the smallest category uses 46 percent of it, and no quotation is ever repeated inside a single pack.
Why two builders were banked rather than generated
Neither was a shortcut. A Kakuro grid large enough to be worth printing is expensive to generate and verify, and doing it in a visitor's browser would mean a wait rather than a worksheet, so 1,154 puzzles were generated and solver-checked in advance instead. A cryptogram is trivial to generate and impossible to source: the difficulty is not the cipher but the quotation under it, and no code can check that a line is out of copyright or correctly attributed.
What the answer key is, puzzle by puzzle
Every builder prints a key, and on every one of them the key is derived from the same data as the worksheet rather than stored beside it. That sounds like a technicality until a key disagrees with its puzzle, which is the single worst thing a worksheet site can do.
- On mazes the key is the result of solving the printed maze, not a route saved when it was built.
- On word searches it is a colored line through each word, with each word's color repeated in the list.
- On cryptograms it lists only the letters that appear on that sheet, because a full alphabet would be describing the generator rather than the puzzle.
- On Futoshiki the printed clues are grayed out on the key, so what you had to work out stands apart from what you were given.
What none of these do
There are no picture puzzles here: no coloring pages, no dot-to-dot, no spot the difference. Everything on this site is generated from rules, which is what makes the supply unlimited and the answers checkable, and the cost of that choice is that anything needing original artwork is missing.
There is also no crossword yet, which is the most-asked-for printable puzzle that is not here. A crossword needs an original clue written for every word, which is a writing project rather than a coding one, and a half-built one would be worse than none.
What is being built next
These are plans rather than pages, so none of them is a link. They are listed because a roadmap that only exists in private is indistinguishable from a site that has stopped.
Printable Binary Puzzles
Only noughts and ones, with three short rules. The natural entry point for anyone who finds Sudoku heavy going.
Not built yetPrintable Bridges (Hashi)
Connect numbered islands with the exact number of bridges each one asks for, without crossing any of them.
Not built yetPrintable Codeword
A crossword grid where every letter is a number. Shares the grid-fill work with Crossword, so it follows it.
Not built yetPrintable Crossword
The most expensive page on the roadmap, because it needs an original clue bank before a single grid is worth printing.
Not built yetPrintable Dot-To-Dot
Gated on artwork rather than code: the engine is cheap and the outline bank is a drawing job this site has not started.
Not built yetPrintable Hidden Message Puzzles
A word search whose leftover letters spell a phrase. An upgrade to the word search engine rather than a new one, targeting a distinct set of searches.
Not built yetPrintable Hitori
Shade the duplicates until no number repeats in a row or column, without isolating any square you keep.
Not built yetPrintable Nonograms
Picture logic puzzles driven by row and column number clues, where the finished picture is the answer key.
Not built yetPrintable Picture Sudoku
Sudoku with symbols instead of digits, for children who can match shapes before they can read numbers.
Not built yetPrintable Slitherlink
Draw a single closed loop around numbered clues. Prints beautifully; proving a unique loop is the hard part.
Not built yetWho makes these and how they are checked
Print Puzzles is part of the Hamilton Digital Media Limited puzzle network, and these pages are written and reviewed by Brian Hamilton and Karan Hamilton. Every builder is checked before its page goes live by generating puzzles in bulk and asserting the things that would ruin a printed sheet: that the answer key matches the puzzle, that no puzzle repeats inside a pack, and that the same settings reproduce the same sheet. The detail is on how we make puzzle packs. If a sheet misbehaves, the contact page is the fastest way to tell us, and corrections are made rather than argued about.