Puzzle publishing information

Buy crossword puzzles for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

“Where can I buy crossword puzzles to publish?” is a common question amongst publishers of newspapers, magazines, newsletters and websites. We can answer it.

Crosswordsite is an online crossword store, a one-stop shop where you can economically and with no commitment purchase crossword puzzles to print, or publish online, from easy to very hard, singly or in discounted packs.

We provide downloadable crossword puzzles online, offering you a quick and easy way to get printable crosswords for your website, your magazine, your newspaper, your newsletter, your periodical publications or anything else you want to print.

We have been web crossword puzzle authors and publishers since 2000.

Crossword puzzles to print in your publication

If you publish a magazine or a newspaper, crosswords are a great way to keep readers interested.

Or, do you want to print a crossword puzzle in a newsletter or publish one in a flyer to add a little extra class and “stickability”?

There are hundreds of millions of solvers around the world. Some will spend up to a full day on a mind workout, solving a puzzle, battling the setter.

They solve on paper, on desktops, on tablets and on phones. They tackle easy crossword puzzles, cryptics and online crossword puzzles.

They will devour any published crossword they can find. They solve at home, over lunch, on trains, in bars, in aircraft; anywhere they have time to kill.

Do you want that time spent on one of the pages you have spent so much trouble publishing?

So solvers see ads or key messages you've put next to the puzzle?

So they get to know you are providing their regular crossword puzzle fix?

So instead of flicking over your expensively written page in two seconds, they stay there for half an hour?

If you want crosswords to print in a newspaper or publish in a magazine or online, we can help. Following just a few simple steps, you could be publishing some of our crosswords just a few minutes from now.

It's easy. Just choose the puzzle or puzzles you want, check out and download.

For samples and our extensive collection of puzzles and puzzle packs, please click or tap US puzzles, UK puzzles, or Australian puzzles.

Web crossword puzzle publication

When you buy our crossword puzzles for magazines, newspapers or anything else, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the puzzles, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy: Australian puzzles, US puzzles or UK puzzles. 

Downloading our crossword puzzles

When you buy from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web crossword files and print files in formats to suit all publishers and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online crossword purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one puzzle, or several, or discounted packs of 12, 26 or 52. It's your call.

• Sizes from 7x7 squares to 15x15 or by special order. That's your call as well.

• Easy crossword puzzles, more difficult crosswords or tough cryptic crossword puzzles, with answers, all compiled by a skilled crossword setter. That's your call too!

• Special order puzzles by a skilled crossword setter for your particular publishing requirements.

The birth of crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles are Anglo-American in origin. The first known crossword compiler was Arthur Wynne, a constructor from Liverpool, England. His first published puzzle appeared in 1913 in the New York World Sunday newspaper.

The first UK crossword puzzle was not published until 1922, in Pearson's Magazine.

Today, standard crossword puzzles in the US and UK are very different from each other.

In the US a crossword author is normally expected to produce puzzles with every white square crossed by two answers, but this rule (called “no unches” – no unchecked squares) does not apply to crossword composers in the UK and elsewhere.

The rule leads to large differences in the appearance of the puzzles, and often in the styles of the answers and clues as well. For example, UK crossword grids look more like chessboards than their American cousins do.

It also means American crossword grids are more difficult to fill with interlocking words than UK grids. This sometimes leads to answers unacceptable in UK puzzles, such as fragments of phrases.

Another result of the “no unches” rule, combined with a ban on two-letter answer words, is the large percentage of three and four-letter words in many American crosswords, and therefore the large number of acronyms amongst the answers.

Buy anagram crosswords for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Anagram crosswords are a variant of standard crossword puzzles in which every answer is an anagram of its clue. The clues may not themselves be normal words, because there is no need for them to be. They can be random rearrangements of the letters in the answers – which leads to puzzles rather different from the usual type.

You can buy anagram crosswords to publish, singly or in packs, with no ongoing commitment, by clicking or tapping UK anagram crosswords, US anagram crosswords, or Australian anagram crosswords.

Online anagram crossword publication

When you buy our anagram crosswords for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the puzzles, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy: US anagram crossword puzzles, UK anagram crossword puzzles, or Australian anagram crossword puzzles.

Downloading anagram crossword puzzles

When you buy anagram crossword puzzles from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing 13x13 square web crossword files and print files in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online crossword purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one puzzle, or several, or discounted packs of 12 or 26. It's your call.

Buy themed puzzles for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Our crossword puzzles, anagram crosswords, codewords and wordsearches can be themed to a subject of your choice. The theme could be anything you wish. For more information, and an enquiry form, please click or tap here.

Publishing themed puzzles online

When you buy themed puzzles for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the puzzles, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy by clicking or tapping US, UK or Australian for a sample (unthemed) crossword. If your site will run this it will run any themed puzzle that we produce for you.

Downloading themed puzzles

When you buy themed puzzles from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web puzzle files and print files for all the puzzles you ordered in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your purchase emailed to you immediately.

Buy wordsearches for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Sometimes known as find-a-word or word find puzzles, wordsearches challenge solvers to find words hidden in a grid of random letters. Words occur in the grid forwards, backwards and diagonally.

Usually the setter will provide a list of the hidden words (we provide one for every Crosswordsite wordsearch) which the publisher may optionally print for solvers. Wordsearches may or may not follow a theme.

Publishing wordsearches online

When you buy our wordsearches for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the wordsearches, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy by clicking or tapping US wordsearches, UK wordsearches, or Australian wordsearches.

Downloading wordsearch puzzles

When you buy wordsearches from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web wordsearch files and print files in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online wordsearch purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one puzzle, or several, or discounted packs of 12 or 26. It's your call.

Buy codewords for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Codewords are also known as codebreakers. They look very like normal crossword puzzles but differ by having no clues.

Instead, every white square is numbered from 1 to 26, with the numbers corresponding to letters of the alphabet. The puzzle setter will reveal in the puzzle the numbers for two or three letters.

From there the solver has to work out what letters the other numbers stand for, and so solve the puzzle.

An additional 26-square answer grid is normally provided by the setter (all Crosswordsite codewords have them) for the solver to complete, but these are optional for the publisher.

Having no clues, codewords need less space to publish than normal crosswords. You can buy them to publish, singly or in packs, with no ongoing commitment, by clicking or tapping UK codewords, US codewords or Australian codewords.

Online codeword publication

When you buy our codewords for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the puzzles, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy: US codeword puzzles, UK codeword puzzles or Australian codeword puzzles.

Downloading codeword puzzles

When you buy codeword puzzles from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web crossword files and print files in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online codeword purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one puzzle, or several, or discounted packs of 12 or 26 depending on the size of puzzle.

Buy brainteasers for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Brainteasers can be almost any fun-to-solve problems that differ from the other puzzle types we offer. They can be graphic, arithmetical or word problems. For examples of Crosswordsite's wide range, please click or tap here.

Publishing brainteasers online

When you buy our brainteasers for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can view them on your website. You can print the brainteasers, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price.

Downloading brainteasers

When you buy brainteasers from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web brainteaser files and print files in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online brainteaser purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one brainteaser, or several, or discounted packs. It's your call.

Buy Sudokus for newspapers, magazines, web sites and apps

Classic puzzles without clues, for those who want their puzzles solvable by deduction and observation.

Please click or tap here to buy Sudoku puzzles for your publication. You can buy them singly, or several at a time, or in discounted multipacks.

There are four grades from very easy to hard.

As with our crossword puzzles, there is no ongoing commitment – you just buy what you need. And you get the puzzles in a range of formats to suit all types of publishing software and allowing you to scale the puzzles to fit the space you have available for them.

Publishing Sudokus online

When you buy our Sudokus for newspapers, magazines or any other publication, you get files to print them and files so people can solve them interactively on your website.

You can print the Sudokus, or display them on your website, or both, for the same price. To check how they will appear on your site, try before you buy by clicking or tapping here.

Downloading Sudoku puzzles

When you buy Sudokus from Crosswordsite, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing web Sudoku files and print files in formats to suit all publishing software and scalable to any size.

• Paid invoice for your online Sudoku purchase emailed to you immediately.

• Just one puzzle, or several, or discounted packs of 6, 12 , 26 or 52. It's your call.

• Very easy, easy, medium or hard puzzles. That's your call as well!

American hard puzzles

We have introduced some American hard crossword puzzles, printable and with answers, to offer US solvers some really tough cryptic crosswords online.

Although puzzles like this are common in the UK, examples of American cryptic crosswords are much rarer. Set by an expert crossword writer, these printable but very difficult crossword puzzles are intended to challenge the advanced puzzle solver looking online for something a little different which s/he can print and solve at leisure.

While numerous sources offer very hard crossword puzzles online, they are usually not the most challenging kind. We think that ours, which are for personal enjoyment only and not for publication, will stretch you just that little bit further.

Downloading American hard crosswords

When you buy our American hard crosswords, you get:

• Immediate zipped puzzle file download containing four puzzles in Across Lite ® and pdf formats, for your personal use and not for publication.

• Paid invoice for your purchase emailed to you immediately.