How to make an Imprint crossword

Every Imprint magazine features a crossword puzzle on the inside back cover. With one recent exception, I’ve been the one behind these puzzles since Imprint shifted to a magazine format in August 2023. Now, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, but I figured it’s about time to share my process.

How does one get started?

The first thing you’ll need is a crossword construction program. I use Crosserville, which is browser-based, free to use, and fairly straightforward. Other good options include the

free-to-download Ingrid and the industry standard (but paid) CrossFire. I use Crosserville in this article.

Start creating your puzzle by first making a grid. The puzzles I make for Imprint are American-style — they use rotational symmetry for the black squares, have a minimum entry length of three letters, and are fully keyed, meaning that every white square is used for both a horizontal and a vertical entry. If you want to start submitting your puzzles to newspapers, you’ll want to follow these style rules, but don’t worry about them too much for your first puzzle. To make a grid in Crosserville, click on the squares you want to block off and press the period key. You can make a fun grid shape with the black squares for the whimsy of it if you’d like. I’ll be making a fairly simple 6×6 mini for demonstration purposes.

Once you have your grid, start putting in some key entries. Generally, you’ll start with the longest ones. I like birds, so I’ll put in bird names.

Unfortunately, filling the verticals with bird names results in nonsense horizontal entries like _RCCI_ and _OOEN. The program has highlighted the blank squares of these entries in red because it has checked its database for words that match those patterns and hasn’t found any way to make this puzzle work. Unless I know words that will fit the nonsense patterns, this is an unfillable grid. Let’s dial it back a little.

I’ve rearranged AVOCET, HERON, and FALCON so the grid is easier to manage, and I’ve accepted that I probably can’t fit ROBIN into this puzzle without changing its shape. Now to find the rest of the words. If I get stuck, I can head over to the Fill tab for some suggestions.

The numbers in parentheses are an estimation of how good each word is as an entry to any crossword. The grid score is irrelevant for now. I had my days of playing online dungeon crawlers, so let’s try LFG. 

The program has checked my puzzle against its database and is warning me that the only valid option it’s found for G__EN is GREEN. The space _OR_ is highlighted in yellow because it can only come up with a few options. I’m okay with GREEN, but I don’t have any original ideas for L__OR_ and upon reviewing the suggestions I don’t like any of them, so I’m going to rule out LFG and try something else. 

After reviewing a lot of terrible autofill suggestions, including several obscure acronyms and names of old celebrities I’m assuming my university-age audience wouldn’t recognize, I’ve settled on a fill that I am content with. 

Now for clueing, which is generally the easiest part. I can head on over to the Clues tab and start entering my clues.

I like to start with the words I like the most and finish with the ones I grudgingly accepted, but you can complete them in any order. When you’re done, click on File > Export in the top right corner and choose your preferred export format.

So why wouldn’t you just let autofill complete the whole thing? 

You could, but the end result wouldn’t be fun to solve. Autofill just checks to see what entries will fit in your spaces, so it doesn’t take into account what makes a puzzle worth solving. You’ll end up with a lot of obscure acronyms and roman numerals that might not match your theme. I’ve come across so many suggestions of words that I’m convinced that no one actually says. I’ve said before that half of crossword creation is just curating autofill suggestions, and that’s only a slight exaggeration.

Am I limited to the list in the software?

You can write whatever you want in the spaces and clue them however you’d like. As for autofill, the standard dictionary that comes with Crosserville is fairly large, but to expand your horizons and get more interesting suggestions, you’ll want to download and import some wordlists. Some major standouts are the Collaborative Word List started by Alex Boisvert and Spread the Word(List), both of which are extensive and free to download. Many creators also publish their wordlists on their personal blogs. A web search for “crossword wordlists” should give you a wealth of options, including free ones.

How do I get better at making crosswords?

There are two components to this. First, keep making puzzles. The more you make, the more you’ll get a feel for what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to avoid locking yourself into situations where you’re unhappy with your grid. Second, which is equally if not more important, keep solving puzzles. The more you solve, the better sense you’ll get of what makes a crossword interesting and what you should avoid. I recommend solving indie creators’ puzzles – self-published puzzles you won’t find in major publications – in particular to help you find your own style. To find indie puzzles, I suggest browsing the community platform Crosshare to see what constructors have made and shared. Many constructors have personal blogs, so if you encounter a style you really like, you can link to it from Crosshare. If you want new puzzles delivered to your email inbox a few times a week, you can sign up for a subscription service like AVCX+.

Can I submit a crossword to Imprint?

We published a student submission in September 2025 and that went well, so if you have made a puzzle that you’re proud of and want to submit, by all means give it a shot. I’m proud of my position as the guy who makes crosswords for Imprint, but I will graduate eventually, and if this guide inspires someone to make a puzzle, it’s done its job.