Large print word search: what large print means, in millimetres

Large print may suit people who can still read print but find regular print hard work. RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK, puts it this way: "If you have some vision but you struggle to read regular print, large or giant print may be for you." In a word search you read single letters, not words, and the letters around one do not help you guess it, so their size counts.

The words "large print" on a cover do not say how large. We measured what they mean in one book, our own Christmas word search, and set the numbers next to two published guidelines. Both guidelines were read, and the interior PDFs of the book measured, on 3 November 2026. We measured the files, not a printed copy.

The short version#

• Large print is generally 16 to 18 point in RNIB's words, and regular print is usually 10 or 12. UKAAF, the UK Association for Accessible Formats, asks for at least 16 point for large print, ideally 18.
• The grid letters in our book are 18 point, bold. Measured on the ink, the capitals are 4.23 mm tall, and the letters are 10.24 mm apart, centre to centre.
• Nothing in the book is smaller than 16 point. The answers, the page numbers and the level label are 16; the grids and the word lists are 18.
• Every word reads forward. All 1,080 words run across, down, or on a slant to the right, and each appears exactly once in its grid.

Points are not millimetres#

A point is 1/72 of an inch, and the point size measures the whole body of the type, not the letter you see. How much of it the capitals fill depends on the typeface. In our book's grid typeface the capitals are 0.668 of the point size; in the word list typeface, 0.717. At 18 point that gives capitals 4.24 mm tall in the grid, by the font file, and 4.55 mm in the word list.

So millimetres say more. We rendered 5,679 capitals with flat tops and bottoms (E, F, H, I, L and T) from all 60 grids at 1200 dpi and measured their ink: every one was 4.23 to 4.25 mm tall. The word list capitals measured 4.55 mm. The same grid capitals at 12 point, the top of RNIB's regular print, would be 2.82 mm tall; at 10 point, 2.35 mm. The grid letters are one and a half times the height of 12-point print in the same typeface.

The measurements come from the interior PDF of the paperback, whose pages are 8.5 x 11 in, the book's trim size, so the millimetres are those of the page at full size.

What we measured in the book#

• Grid letters: 18-point bold capitals in Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface from the Braille Institute (the font file names it as the maker), 4.23 mm tall.
• The grid: 16 x 16 letters in all 60 puzzles, 10.24 mm apart centre to centre, across and down. That leaves about 6 mm of white paper between one row of letters and the next. The framed grid is 6.62 in (168 mm) square, 78 % of the page width.
• The word list: on the same page, under the grid. 18 words a puzzle in three columns, 18 point, capitals 4.55 mm tall, lines 9.8 mm apart. The words have 3 to 12 letters, 6 in the middle.
• Answers: at the back, two grids a page, in 16-point letters (capitals 3.77 mm) set 6.59 mm apart. Each word is marked with a light grey band 5.1 mm wide: 1,080 bands for 1,080 words. All 60 answer grids carry exactly the letters of their puzzle.
• Smallest text: 16 point, for the answers with their headings and subheadings, the page numbers, the level label under each title ("Medium") and the copyright page. None of the five fonts in the file is italic.
• Margins, measured to the nearest ink on every page: 0.50 in to the outer side edge, 0.80 in to the spine side on the puzzle pages, 0.32 in to the bottom edge and 0.58 in to the top edge.

How that compares with the guidelines#

UKAAF's minimum standards for clear and large print (document MS03, June 2012) are a checklist. Against it:

• Text size: UKAAF asks for a "Minimum text size of 16 point for large print, ideally minimum of 18 point". The grids and the word lists are 18, the ideal. The answers, page numbers and labels are 16: the minimum, not the ideal.
• Page numbers and labels: UKAAF would have them ideally the same size as the body text. Ours are 16 point next to 18.
• Italics: it asks for none, and there are none.
• Capital letters: it asks for no large blocks of capitals. Here the book does not follow it: the grid and the word list are all capitals, so a word in the list looks like the letters you hunt for in the grid.
• Contrast: the grids and the word lists are black on white paper. Only the page numbers, the level label, the subheadings of the answer pages, the subtitle on the title page and the text on the copyright page are dark grey (#6B6B6B).
• Cover: it asks for a cover that is not glossy. The paperback's cover is matte.

RNIB's page on large and giant print gives a range, not a checklist: "Large print is generally 16 to 18 point size. Giant print is anything larger than this." By that measure the grids are large print, at the top of the range.

What else makes a puzzle book easy to read#

1. One puzzle per page. Each of the 60 puzzles has a page to itself, with its word list under the grid, so you never turn the page to see which words are left.
2. Words that read forward. In the paperback every word runs across (258 words), down (309), or on a slant to the right, downwards (239) or upwards (274). None reads right to left, and none runs straight up. A checker searched every grid in all eight directions and found each of the 1,080 words exactly once. The hardcover's 1,080 words follow the same rules, with different counts (257 across, 311 down, 236 on a slant downwards, 276 upwards), so the two editions do not hold identical grids.
3. Room around each letter. Letters 4.23 mm tall sit 10.24 mm apart, so there is more white paper between two rows than the height of a letter.
4. One level. All 60 puzzles are set at the same level, medium.

Our book#

Large Print Christmas Word Search for Adults, by E. M. Linden, is our own book, and the one measured here: 60 puzzles on 60 Christmas and winter themes, such as Christmas Eve, the Twelve Days and the Nutcracker, with full answers, 94 pages.

• Paperback, 8.5 x 11 in: amazon.com/dp/B0HP9GYBBZ
• Hardcover, 8.25 x 11 in: amazon.com/dp/B0HPC31L2N. In its interior PDF the grid letters are also 18 point, the grids also 16 x 16 with the letters 10.24 mm apart, and there are also 18 words a puzzle, on a page 0.25 in narrower.

See the price on Amazon. The front cover picture was made with an AI image tool. The how-to page, the back cover text and the description were written with an AI writing tool. The puzzles, solutions, layout and the cover type are made by ordinary computer programs.

If you make puzzle books, our word search book maker has a large print option.