Custom crosswords
A smart-placement algorithm builds a crossword from a word list and renders it print-ready at 3000×3000 with four theme presets and four grid styles — in about 250 milliseconds.
Try it — right here
This runs the placement solver in your browser. Production renders the same result print-ready at 3000×3000.
Placement is the whole problem
Anyone can draw a grid. Fitting an arbitrary list of names, dates and in-jokes into an interlocking puzzle that looks deliberate is the hard part — and it has to happen while the customer waits. The generator runs as a dedicated service, scoring candidate placements for interlock density and grid balance, and returns a rendered puzzle fast enough that the storefront preview feels instant.
- Interlock scoring
- Prefers placements that cross existing words rather than floating alone.
- Balance
- Keeps the puzzle roughly square instead of growing one long arm.
- Graceful degradation
- A word that genuinely cannot interlock is placed and reported, not dropped silently.
Print-ready, not screen-ready
The service renders at 3000×3000, which is the difference between a crossword that prints crisply on a 40×40cm canvas and one that looks like a screenshot. Four theme presets and four grid styles cover the usual gift aesthetics; clue numbering, filled-cell treatment and the answer key are all part of the render.
Why this is niche, and how it differs
Crossword gifts are a real, seasonal, high-intent category — anniversaries, proposals, retirements — and essentially no personalization app serves it, because it needs a solver behind an API rather than a canvas trick. Customei's version is a layer like any other, so the puzzle can sit inside your own poster design with your fonts and your palette instead of on somebody else's fixed template.
Specifications
The numbers, so you can check them against what your production partner actually needs.
- Render size
- 3000 × 3000
- Typical latency
- ~250ms
- Themes
- Four presets, brand colours applied
- Grid styles
- Four
- Input
- Word list, optional clues
Theme and grid reference: https://docs.customei.com/generators/crossword.
Keep reading
Next step
Try it on your
own product.
Install Customei, attach an option set, and see this working on a real listing. Every plan ships with a 14-day trial — no card.