Large print, in numbers

“Large print” is a phrase anyone can put on a cover. Here is what it means on everything I make, written down so you can check it:

• Instructions set at 18 point or larger, in every set
• Sudoku, killer sudoku and calcudoku: clues and answers at 18 point or larger too
• One puzzle per page, single column, black on white
• Margins wide enough for a thumb and a pencil

Those numbers are printed on the back cover of every book, so you can hold the specification against what your eyes actually need before you buy.

Word puzzles are the honest exception. A 15×15 crossword prints around eighty clues beside the grid; at 18 point they would need three times the page, so nobody’s crossword does it. Those sets get the big grid, the big letters and the 18-point instructions, and their clue lists are smaller. The back cover says which you are getting.

Printing these for someone else

Print at 100 %, not “fit to page” — “fit to page” is the single most common reason a large-print puzzle arrives small. Matte paper takes pencil better than glossy. If the person solving has a preferred pen, print one page and let them try it before you print forty.