Crossword builder software recommendations?

[crimsonsky]

I've always hoped to find a forum for crossword makers, and it looks like I'm late to the party.

All my crosswords are done by hand, and I've had difficulty making the actual grids suitable for publication. I make my own designs as I've never been clear on whether there are copyright issues in using someone else's puzzle grid. Currently I have a convoluted system using Photoshop, and it looks good but is very time-consuming. All crossword software I've seen seems more geared toward online or children or is behind a paywall and thus I can't evaluate. A lot of options also seem to have disappeared. Any suggestions are welcome, but the simpler the better because all I need is an image file for my publisher to print. 

Even if there's little activity on this site, I'm still looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.

[Glenn9999]

The standard that most people talk about for crossword creation software is Crossword Compiler, but people talk about Crossfire, too.  You can get (rather limited) demos for both.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with printing out a 15x15 grid and working by hand, as long as you are following all the proper rules.

For simply making the grid once you've written it, you can always use Across Lite (a solving software, free to download and use).  Make a script (examples here), and load it in there and you can save it as PUZ or print it or whatever you need to do.  Across Lite will be much much easier than your Photoshop activities to get a crossword layout.

[crimsonsky]

The standard that most people talk about for crossword creation software is Crossword Compiler, but people talk about Crossfire, too.  You can get (rather limited) demos for both.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with printing out a 15x15 grid and working by hand, as long as you are following all the proper rules.

For simply making the grid once you've written it, you can always use Across Lite (a solving software, free to download and use).  Make a script (examples here), and load it in there and you can save it as PUZ or print it or whatever you need to do.  Across Lite will be much much easier than your Photoshop activities to get a crossword layout.

Thanks for the advice. I work on puzzle design and putting in words by hand, and I prefer 90-degree rotational symmetry to 180 so I follow all the rules. When it comes to making the actual puzzle for publication and adding all the numbers in, things stop being fun. My publisher complained when some of my puzzles had inconsistencies related to font and line thickness. Now that I get paid for this, at least in theory, it's time to automate and make things look cleaner. Compiler looks perfect for someone who only wants to make clean-looking grids and doesn't need vocabulary lists and so on.

[crimsonsky]

By the way, do professionals rely on grid-filler features like this?

[4wd]

By the way, do professionals rely on grid-filler features like this?

Yup, these features significantly cuts fill times, constructors use more of a guided approach to filling, they're picking the final entry out of a list of suggested options highlighted by these features. If it were left to the software's autofill you'd have a dull puzzle.

[crimsonsky]

Yup, these features significantly cuts fill times, constructors use more of a guided approach to filling, they're picking the final entry out of a list of suggested options highlighted by these features. If it were left to the software's autofill you'd have a dull puzzle.

Huh, I'm actually surprised and a little disappointed, though if I tried it I'm sure I'd become an instant convert. Anyway, I'm sure this community went through all these arguments over a decade ago, and I sound like a cave dweller.

[Glenn9999]

When it comes to making the actual puzzle for publication and adding all the numbers in, things stop being fun. My publisher complained when some of my puzzles had inconsistencies related to font and line thickness.

If you just want a professional looking puzzle layout for a puzzle you've already written with no crossword puzzle creation tools or aids (word lists and the like), look into the Across Lite script.  It almost always does a wonderful job in printing a grid, with a lot of good layout options too.  The other two options have more features that are consistent with creating puzzles in the first place.

[4wd]

Huh, I'm actually surprised and a little disappointed, though if I tried it I'm sure I'd become an instant convert. Anyway, I'm sure this community went through all these arguments over a decade ago, and I sound like a cave dweller.

No need to be disappointed, these tools were made for our convenience, a tool is just a tool, its our creativity that gets that final product out there. These tools just make the process a lot quicker. Where you'd struggle thinking of possible entries for a particular area, having the software do the work of listing possible entries takes that strain off you, giving you a lot more time to pick the best possible entry or experiment with multiple variations of that particular area. Plus you'll need a robust world list to really get the benefits and where the word list lacks your knowledge comes in which really streamlines the process.

[Glenn9999]

where the word list lacks your knowledge comes in which really streamlines the process.

Seconded.  The word list is handy because even if we know a lot of words, it's hard to THINK of them (hence my struggle with a lot of crosswords I do to do them in a decent amount of time - or at all).  Having the word list, nuanced with your knowledge to take care of tricky sections or just to throw your personal preferences out there, really is handy.  While I haven't been able to buy the useful version of Crossword Compiler (the base word filling functions in the demo as published frankly suck, as far as I can tell), I have been able to do a lot with my coding skills to build word lists between mining PUZ files, scraping dictionaries, and then scraping other texts for words and phrases that would work in crosswords.  I haven't done as much as I could, between having good themes and trying to learn how to do a grid fill without the software, but there's always plenty to do with word lists and the like.

[4wd]

While I haven't been able to buy the useful version of Crossword Compiler (the base word filling functions in the demo as published frankly suck, as far as I can tell)

Demos are always limited, I remember when I tried building a puzzle with CC's demo had plenty of partials and made up words.

Recently I've been going through the same phase of building my own word list, it's quite small for now though in the future I'd like to have it ranked correctly and hopefully the words aren't too crazy

[Glenn9999]

Demos are always limited, I remember when I tried building a puzzle with CC's demo had plenty of partials and made up words.

Honestly, based on what I see in the CC demo, it baffles me that it's as accepted as it is.  I guess it's either them putting a very bad foot forward or a case of being the only game in town.

[4wd]

Honestly, based on what I see in the CC demo, it baffles me that it's as accepted as it is.  I guess it's either them putting a very bad foot forward or a case of being the only game in town.

They need a 30 day trial version, it'd give potential customers a taste of its full capabilities, the demo's not cutting it with those timed resets. It's just a case of lack of competition, still purchasing its a good investment if you wanna create quality puzzles.

[kwanjul]

4wd, the idea of the CC demo is to give you enough features so that you know what it can do, but not so much that you can simply bypass paying for it. If they had a 30 day trial version, what would stop people from downloading it every 29 days to reset the clock?

[mmcbs]

If you plan to construct puzzles for publication in major markets, you'll need software such as Crossword Compiler (Professional Version) plus a great word list. Check Facebook's Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory group, where you'll find a word list posted that can be merged with your "default" list that comes with the software, or the ALL list on this web site, or one of the word lists available to subscribers of xwordinfo.com or ALL OF THESE - you can't have too many words in your word list.

[4wd]

4wd, the idea of the CC demo is to give you enough features so that you know what it can do, but not so much that you can simply bypass paying for it. If they had a 30 day trial version, what would stop people from downloading it every 29 days to reset the clock?

I'm not saying don't pay for it, I'm just giving a recommendation as to how it would improve a potential customer's reason to pull the trigger. My experience with the demo wasn't an extremely fun one. Timed resets killed creativity, a 30 day trial version would really get your creative juices flowing. There would be limitations as such as not being able to reopen previous projects, or unable to save. This gives a taste of its potential.

I'm from a music production background in which major developers use this approach, there are fail safes to keep it at 30, not saying it can't be bypassed, it's just that if you genuinely want to enter a field you'd invest in the tools. Being able to fully manipulate a piece of software makes the process worth wild