CROSSWORD GUIDE

    AI Crossword Solver

    A crossword solver from picture reads the photo of your puzzle and fills in the answers. Here's the hand method I use when I solve without one.

    I got stuck on crosswords for years before I learned this: never start at 1 across. Start wherever the easy clue is. The grid fills itself from there.

    Here's a real crossword, solved from a photo:

    BEFORE
    AFTER
    1. Take a decent photo.
      Page flat, light even, no flash, fill the frame. If you can't read the small print in the photo, you won't be able to read it later when you zoom in either. Same goes if you scan a crossword to solve it with a tool instead of by hand: the tool only sees what the photo shows.
    2. Find the easiest clue on the page.
      Ignore the numbers. Scan all the clues and answer the one you know cold. Any answer on the grid is a free letter somewhere else.
    3. Fill the short answers first.
      Three and four letter answers have fewer options. Each one you place gives you crossing letters for the long ones.
    4. Work the crossings.
      This is the whole trick. Every letter in the grid belongs to two answers. A letter you know in a down answer is a letter you get for free in the across answer.
    5. Read theme answers as a set.
      In a themed puzzle the long answers are connected. If you crack one, it usually hints at the others. They point at each other.
    6. Guess and erase.
      A wrong guess in pencil beats a blank square. Wrong letters still tell you something when the crossings don't line up.

    A small example.

        1 2 3 4
1   C A T S
2   A R E A
3   T E N T
4   S A T #

    (# is a black square.)

    Clues:

    • 1 across: Felines
    • 1 down: Felines, too
    • 2 down: Place for a picnic
    • 3 down: Camping shelter
    • 4 down: Past of sit

    Say 1 across has you stuck. Work the downs instead. 2 down, "Place for a picnic," is AREA. It crosses 1 across at the second letter, so that's an A. 3 down, "Camping shelter," is TENT. It crosses at the third letter, so that's a T. Now you have _ A T _.

    4 down, "Past of sit," is SAT. It crosses at the fourth letter, so that's an S. Now you have _ A T S.

    1 down shares the first square: "Felines, too." CATS fits, and it reads C-A-T-S across as well. Done.

    When this doesn't work.

    Cryptic crosswords barely care about the grid. The answer comes from the wordplay in the clue, and the letters only get you halfway. Heavy theme puzzles can stall you too if you don't spot the theme. And the usual photo problems apply: bad light, curved pages, tiny print. Fix the photo first.

    I built puzzlecrackerai.com because I got tired of doing this by hand. It's a crossword solver from picture: you take a photo of the crossword and it solves it. First solves are free, then $1.99/month.