Frequently asked questions

It is a letter grid that hides a set of words under a headline such as “The first word you see is your best personality trait.” Viewers glance at the grid, and the word they notice first is their answer. It works like a word search with a twist: you only need to find one word.

Yes. Every template, size, shape and export is free, with no account and no watermark you cannot remove. The small site credit under the grid is a checkbox in the Grid tab.

No. It is a game, not a test. Which word you notice first depends on where your eyes land, word length, direction and what is on your mind that day. That is exactly why it is fun to compare with friends.

In your browser only. Drafts and saved puzzles use local storage on this device, and share links carry the whole puzzle inside the link itself. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

Square 1080×1080, portrait 1080×1350, story 1080×1920, Pinterest 1000×1500, wide 1920×1080, link preview 1200×630, plus US Letter and A4 at 300 dpi for printing. All exports are PNG.

Twelve to eighteen words of four to nine letters works well in a 12–14 letter grid. Fewer words makes each one easy to spot; more words makes the result feel more personal. Auto-size picks a grid that fits whatever you type.

It opens a playable version of your puzzle. People drag across the first word they see, get the meaning you wrote for it, and can save a result card or share the link on. The link also works as a QR code for posters and slides.

Yes. The clean-grid filter is on by default and re-rolls any random letters that spell a blocked word in any direction. The “unexpected words” scan also lists ordinary dictionary words that appeared by chance.

Yes. Images you make are yours to post, print and use in marketing. The fonts in the templates are open-source fonts that allow commercial use. You are responsible for the words and claims you put on the image.

Put an asterisk before it in the word list. Spotlight words are placed left to right near the top-left corner, where people who read left to right usually start scanning. Short, familiar words also tend to pop first.

It counts. Random letters sometimes spell real words, and if the word you mark is in our English dictionary it is accepted as a bonus word, shown with its definition and counted separately from the hidden words. You never get told off for spotting something real.

Easy places words across and down only. Medium adds diagonals. Hard also allows words to run backwards. For social posts where people should find a word within a second or two, Easy or Medium is best.

Yes. Use the word search maker, or tick “Print the word list under the grid” in the Grid tab. The answer key button downloads a second image with every word highlighted.

They are Unicode characters drawn with the fonts on your device, so the exported image looks exactly like your preview. The preview itself can differ a little between devices, because each one draws those characters with its own fonts.

Yes. The maker, the player and the downloads work in current versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge on phones, tablets and computers.

Yes. Any letters work, including accented and non-Latin alphabets. The random filler uses A–Z plus the extra letters found in your words, and the bundled templates use fonts with Latin coverage, so other scripts fall back to your system font.

It did not fit. A word needs a straight run of free cells at least as long as itself, and shaped grids such as hearts and stars have less room. Turn on auto-size or increase the columns and rows.

A link is a snapshot. Edit the puzzle and share the new link. If you saved it under My puzzles you can reopen it there at any time on the same device.

Open My puzzles and use Export backup to download a file, then use Import backup on the other device. You can also open any puzzle’s share link there and save a copy.