Commission
You tell us about them.
The commission takes about ten minutes. A few guided questions, a list of words and moments that belong to the person, and the tone you want the clues to take — warm, witty, or reverent.
Vol. I · №1An heirloom puzzle
An heirloom puzzle
for the people
you actually know.
Bilingual crosswords, built around the names, places, and private jokes that belong to one specific table of guests. Delivered printed — or sent by link.
Begin a puzzle →From $89
1T
2I
3N
4T
5A
6
1 Across · 1 Horizontal
Spanish for ink — and the name of this puzzle.
Materia con la que se escribe el nombre de este crucigrama.
A crossword is only ever as interesting as the person it's made for. A generic grid asks you to know what nine-letter actress played opposite Bogart; a good one asks you to know the street your grandmother lived on, the summer you learned to ride a Vespa, the joke your brother has been making since 1994. Tinta makes the second kind. Constructed bilingually where it helps and monolingually where it doesn't, printed if you want to hold it and sent by link if you don't — built for a single table of guests who will recognize themselves in every clue.
Construction
A constructor builds the grid.
Our constructor works with a proper American-style grid — symmetrical, properly checked, no stacked two-letter words. The clues are written bilingually where it makes sense and monolingually where it doesn't. You'll see the draft before it's final.
Delivery
It arrives, digital or printed.
A PDF in your inbox within a few days. Or, for the Heirloom tier, a letterpressed copy on cotton paper, delivered in a sleeve you won't want to throw away.
A specimen
A clue from Sofía’s puzzle, for her mother’s 70th.
1S
2O
3F
4I
5A
6M
7A
E
L
O
R
A
8S
A
N
9T
A
R
D
E
10D
A
E
11A
O
12N
C
E
S
13M
A
R
I
A
N
E
O
B
R
14A
S
15C
S
16L
I
S
T
17R
A
Y
18L
A
S
E
T
E
“Her mother's Wednesday ritual, at 3.”
Every grandchild in the family knows the three-o'clock coffee habit. A shared memory that only the right table would recognize.
“La palabra que siempre pronuncia mal.”
A Spanish/English cognate joke — the word her mother mispronounces every time, now affectionately fixed in the grid.
“The green door on Calle Sol.”
A proper noun that only the family would know. The kind of clue that makes a guest say, aloud, "oh."
Sofía M., Mexico City · For her mother’s 70th · September 2025
Editions
Three ways to hold it.
Digital, printable, delivered as a PDF.
$89
- 11 × 11 grid, approximately 40 clues
- Bilingual where it helps
- Delivered as a print-ready PDF within three to five days
- A draft for your review before the final
Sunday
The full edition. Digital and shippable.
$129
- 15 × 15 grid, approximately 72 clues — the Sunday size
- Bilingual throughout
- PDF delivered within three to five days
- A printed specimen on cotton paper, shipped to one address
Heirloom
Letterpressed on cotton paper. Built to be kept.
$249
- 15 × 15 grid, approximately 72 clues
- Letterpressed in a two-color run — tinta and bermellón
- Delivered in a cloth sleeve, hand-addressed
- Turnaround is two to three weeks — the slowness is part of it
Evidence
What a few readers have said.
My mother opened it at the table and went quiet for a minute. Then she started reading the clues out loud, in Spanish, translating to my brother as she went. I did not expect that reaction to a puzzle.
— Sofía M., Mexico City, for her mother's 70th
Three of our guests took it home and framed it. That was not an outcome I was budgeting for — but it says something about how the thing feels in the hand.
— Roland & Priya, Brooklyn, for their wedding
A colleague asked what stationer made it. When I said it was a crossword, and that it was custom to our department, she wanted the link before I finished the sentence.
— Marcus L., San Francisco, for a retirement