A crossword made from your own words.

Name: Custom crossword puzzle from your own words, printable PDF
Brand: ARLing
Price: 21.90 EUR
Availability: InStock

Type 10 to 25 words with your own clues: the places, names and jokes only the two of you, or your whole family, know. Our puzzle software turns them into a printable crossword, ready a few minutes after your payment goes through.

21.90 € on Etsy

One crossword from your list, as a PDF in A4 and a PDF in US Letter. 5 pages each: cover, how to play, the puzzle, the solution and a keepsake page for a frame.

Buy on Etsy See the real pages first

You buy on Etsy: Etsy takes the payment and sends the receipt, and any refund goes through Etsy too. In the EU, Etsy adds local VAT (23 percent in Slovakia), and elsewhere it may add local tax; Etsy shows the final total before you pay.

The keepsake page of the sample crossword, titled Our Story, est. 2019: a filled grid where 15 words cross each other, among them LISBON, CAMPFIRE, BISCUIT, COFFEE, SOURDOUGH, TOMATOES, UMBRELLA and PANCAKES — **Page 5 of our sample file,** the keepsake page with every answer filled in. The 15 words belong to an invented couple, Anna and Daniel; the file was built on October 3, 2026 by the same puzzle software that builds yours.

Minutes, not days. Your crossword is built automatically as soon as your payment goes through. There is no waiting for a person.
Checked before you get it. A second, separate program checks that the words included in your crossword match your entries in capital letters, without spaces, accents or punctuation, and that every number matches its clue. Any entries left out are listed on the download page with the reason.
Your own clues. Nobody writes or proofreads your clues for you. The software standardizes spacing and quotation marks, removes invisible formatting characters and replaces long dashes with commas. Read your list once more before you order.

How your crossword is made.

Four boxes on the Etsy order page, and only the first one is required. After that, your crossword is built automatically as soon as the payment goes through.

Type your words and clues. One entry per line: the word, a colon, then the clue. You need 10 to 25 entries. The first box holds about 13, and the second box is for the rest.
Add a title, a date and a dedication, if you like. For example Our Story / est. 2019 for the cover and the keepsake page, and For Daniel, on our 7th anniversary under the title. Leave the title empty and we use Our Story.
Our software builds it. It builds a numbered grid from the entries it can use, and a second program checks the result before your files are released.
Download it a few minutes later. A few minutes after your payment goes through, your crossword is ready at arling.sk/case. Choose Custom crossword, enter your Etsy order number and the first word on your list (or your own surname from the order), and download two PDF files: A4 and US Letter.

You type, one per line

LISBON: City where we had our honeymoon
BISCUIT: Name of our first dog
COFFEE: How we met: you spilled it on me

The puzzle page of the sample: an empty numbered grid and the clues under it. Across: 6 City where we had our honeymoon (6), 8 Where you first said I love you (8). Down: 2 Name of our first dog (7), 4 How we met: you spilled it on me (6), and eleven more clues — **Page 3 of the same file,** the puzzle. The three entries above became 6 Across, 2 Down and 4 Down; the number in brackets is the letter count. Open the picture for the whole page.

Five pages, two paper sizes.

You get one PDF in A4 and one in US Letter, with the same five pages in each. These are the real pages of our sample file.

1CoverYour title, your date and your dedication.
2How to playFour short steps, with an example from your own clues.
3The puzzleThe numbered grid, Across and Down clues, and the letter count after every clue.
4The solutionThe filled grid and the list of answers.
5Keepsake pageThe filled grid with your title and date, ready for a frame.

Open any page to see it larger. It is a digital download: nothing is shipped and no frame is included. You may print as many copies as you need for yourself, your family or your friends; please do not resell the files.

Writing your words and clues.

You type them in the boxes on the Etsy order page. This is how our software reads them.

Each entry: One per line: the word, a colon, then the clue. For example PARIS: Where we got engaged.
How many: 10 to 25 entries. Each word can be used once.
Word length: Up to 15 letters. Spaces, hyphens and apostrophes are fine: New York goes into the grid as NEWYORK, and the clue shows (3,4).
Letters: English letters, A to Z. Accents are written without marks: Zoë becomes ZOE. Numbers and symbols cannot go into the grid, so write 2019 as a clue, not as a word. Clues can be in any language that uses these letters.
Clues: We recommend keeping each clue to 60 characters or fewer for 10 to 20 words, and 40 characters or fewer for 21 to 25 words, including spaces and punctuation. These are guidelines, not guaranteed limits: whether everything fits also depends on your words and the layout. Nobody writes or proofreads your clues for you. The software standardizes spacing and quotation marks, removes invisible formatting characters and replaces long dashes with commas.
If a word does not fit: An entry we cannot use, for example a word with no clue or a word that shares no letters with the others, is left out, and the download page tells you which one and why. You can then correct your list once on the same page, and your crossword is built again right away.
Too few words: If fewer than 10 entries can be used, or the clues are too long to fit on one page, no file is made. The download page tells you what to change, and you send the list again there.
Privacy: We use your words and clues only to build your crossword. Your files contain them and are deleted automatically 30 days after they are ready, so please save your files. More in section 8b of our privacy policy.

Who it is for, and who it is not for.

A good pick if

you want a gift for an anniversary, a birthday, a wedding, Christmas or Valentine’s Day: for a husband or wife, parents, grandparents or a best friend
the two of you, or your family, share words nobody else would guess
you need it soon: it is ready a few minutes after you pay, and you print it at home

Not the right pick if

you want a large, dense crossword like the ones in a newspaper; this is a free-form crossword, where your words cross each other like on the pages above
you want someone to write or proofread the clues for you; nobody proofreads them for you
you want something printed, framed or sent in the mail; it is a digital download
your words need letters other than A to Z in the grid
you have fewer than 10 words

You need a printer and plain A4 or US Letter paper, printed at 100% scale. A pencil makes changes easy.

Before you buy.

How many words do I need?

10 to 25. Each word can have up to 15 letters and can be used once. The first box on the Etsy order page holds about 13 entries, and the second box is for the rest.

How do I write the words and clues?

One entry per line: the word, a colon, then the clue, for example PARIS: Where we got engaged. We recommend keeping each clue to 60 characters or fewer for 10 to 20 words, and 40 characters or fewer for 21 to 25 words, including spaces and punctuation. These are guidelines, not guaranteed limits: whether everything fits also depends on your words and the layout. Spaces, hyphens and apostrophes in a word are fine: New York goes into the grid as NEWYORK and the clue shows (3,4). Accents are written without marks, so Zoë becomes ZOE. Numbers and symbols cannot go into the grid, so write 2019 as a clue, not as a word. Nobody writes or proofreads your clues for you. The software standardizes spacing and quotation marks, removes invisible formatting characters and replaces long dashes with commas.

When and where do I get the PDF?

Right after you pay, your Etsy download has a one-page Start here file with the link and the steps. A few minutes after your payment goes through, your crossword is ready at arling.sk/case: choose Custom crossword, enter your Etsy order number and the first word on your list (or your own surname from the order), and download two PDF files. The files are on our page, not in an Etsy message. The order number is in Purchases and reviews on Etsy and in the receipt email from Etsy. If your crossword is not there within 30 minutes, message us on Etsy (ARLingStudio); we reply within one working day.

Do I get A4 or US Letter?

Both. Every order has one PDF in A4 and one in US Letter, 5 pages each: the cover, how to play, the puzzle, the solution and the keepsake page. Print at 100% scale on plain paper.

What if a word does not fit?

An entry we cannot use, for example a word with no clue or a word that shares no letters with the others, is left out, and the download page tells you which one and why. You can then correct your list once on the same page, and your crossword is built again right away. If fewer than 10 entries can be used, or the clues are too long to fit on one page, no file is made: the download page tells you what to change, and you send the list again there.

What happens to my words and clues?

We use your words and clues only to build your crossword. Your files contain them and are deleted automatically 30 days after they are ready, so please save your files. The details are in section 8b of our privacy policy.

Is it like a newspaper crossword?

No. It is a free-form crossword, where your words cross each other like on the pages shown here. It is not a dense newspaper-style grid, and it is built by our puzzle software, not drawn by hand.

How many copies may I print?

As many as you need for yourself, your family or your friends. Please do not resell the files. It is a digital download; nothing is shipped, and no frame is included.

Your words, crossing on paper.

Type 10 to 25 words with your own clues, and print your crossword a few minutes after you pay.

21.90 € on Etsy

Buy on Etsy

In the EU, Etsy adds local VAT (23 percent in Slovakia), and elsewhere it may add local tax; Etsy shows the final total before you pay.

Already bought it? Download your crossword with your Etsy order number.
A gift for a group of friends? Your friends as witnesses is a printable murder mystery with their names in it.

Colophon

Publisher: ARLing s. r. o., Ivanská cesta 32E, 821 04 Bratislava, Slovakia. Company ID 56583486, VAT ID SK2122352100.
Who makes it: Andrej in Bratislava looks after the products and the support. Texts and puzzles were created with the help of AI tools: the crossword is laid out by puzzle software we wrote with their help, and the words and clues are your own. Every page is drawn in code; no AI images are used on this page.
Where you buy: On Etsy, in our shop ARLingStudio. Etsy takes the payment and sends the receipt. A one-page Start here file is in your Etsy download right away, and your crossword is ready at arling.sk/case a few minutes after your payment goes through. Nothing is shipped.
Questions: Before you buy, write to support@arling.sk. After you buy, message us on Etsy (ARLingStudio).

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