How to Make a Cryptogram From Your Own Quote

To make a cryptogram from your own quote, you need a sentence, a code and a PDF. The free LogikLand cryptogram maker does the code and the PDF for you; what you bring is the message, and the choices that decide whether the puzzle is pleasant or frustrating. This article explains those choices with the real limits of the tool, then makes a cryptogram from a birthday wish.

Choose your message

A cryptogram works best when the sentence means something to the person who will solve it. A birthday wish, a family motto, a joke with a punchline or a line from a letter all give the solver a reason to finish. A few guidelines:

• Use words your solver knows. The solver identifies words by their shape, so everyday words are easier than rare ones.
• Keep the punctuation. Commas, apostrophes and full stops stay visible and give clues.
• Avoid names the solver cannot guess. A name has no shape that helps, unless it is a person they know.

One caution, which is our suggestion and not legal advice: a famous line from a book, film or song may be protected by copyright. For a page you print for a friend this is rarely a problem, but for a book you plan to sell, write your own sentences or use text you have permission to use.

Check the length

The free maker accepts a message of at least 10 letters and at most 300 characters. If you type a shorter message it tells you how many letters you have. Within that range, longer messages are usually easier to solve, because the same letter appears many times and the patterns become visible. The Cryptogram book assistant works in a narrower range: 40 to 110 letters, with at least 12 different letters. Here are four messages and what they contain:

The last message works but is hard to solve: ten letters give almost no repeated patterns. Our suggestion, not a rule: aim for 40 letters or more.

Pick the code and the hints

Letters or numbers

With the letter code, each letter is replaced by a different letter, and no letter stands for itself. With the number code, each letter becomes a number from 1 to 26 in random order. The tool's own help says the number code is often easier to read for beginners. Choose letters for a classic cryptogram.

How many hints

You can give 0 to 5 hints. The tool does not let you choose which letters: it picks the letters that appear most often in your message, writes them into the puzzle and lists them under it. It also always leaves at least three letters hidden, so a message with few different letters gives fewer hints. For a solver who has never done a cryptogram, three or four hints is gentle. For an experienced one, use none.

An example from a birthday wish

We typed Happy birthday, Anna! May your year be full of good coffee and long walks. and asked for the letter code with three hints. The most frequent letters in the message are A (8 times), O (6) and Y (5), so those are the three hints. The picture uses LogikLand's book layout, which is close to what the PDF shows.

Notice what makes this one friendly: the word ANNA has a double N in the middle with A on both sides, the word COFFEE shows two doubled letters, and the given letters A, O and Y appear in nearly every word.

Print the PDF

The PDF has the puzzle on page 1 and the solution on page 2. Page 1 starts with your title and one line that explains the code, then the sentence with a line above each coded letter, and a table where you write the letters you find. The footer says that the puzzle was made with LogikLand and is for personal use. Print at actual size so that the small codes under the letters stay readable.

Making many cryptograms

The free tool makes one puzzle per click. If you need twenty cryptograms for a book, you can type a sentence per line in the Cryptogram assistant, which you reach after you create a free account. It uses your sentences first and fills the book from the site's phrase list if you ask for more. Open the free cryptogram maker to try a first message. To learn how to solve what you make, read how to solve a cryptogram, and see printable easy cryptogram puzzles for a ready-made set.

Questions