Cryptogram maker

What a cryptogram is

Every letter of the alphabet is swapped for a different one, consistently, for the whole message. If E became Q in one word it is Q in every word. Spaces and punctuation are left alone, which is what makes the puzzle solvable — word lengths, apostrophes and the shape of short words are most of the evidence you have.

No letter stands for itself

The cipher is built as a derangement: a shuffle of the alphabet with no letter left in its own place. That matters more than it sounds. A puzzle where T happens to encipher to T has a free answer sitting in it, and an experienced solver will spot it. Press the button again and you get an entirely new cipher for the same text.

Choosing how much to give away

Giving nothing away is the proper version and it is genuinely hard for a first-timer. Two letters is a reasonable classroom setting. Four is gentle. Giving all the vowels turns it into a different and much easier puzzle — close to a fill-in-the-blanks — which is about right for younger children or a warm-up.

Where to start solving

Count the letters. The most frequent one in ordinary English prose is usually E, then T, A and O. A one-letter word is A or I. A three-letter word that keeps appearing is very often THE, and that single guess cracks three letters at once. Apostrophes are a gift: the letter after one is nearly always S, T or a vowel in a contraction.

Printing it

Press Print or save as PDF. The puzzle and its solving grid come out on the first sheet, the answer key on a second, so you can hand out the first page without the answers showing through. Nothing leaves your browser — the cipher is generated on your machine, so your quote stays on it.

The other makers

The word search maker and the crossword maker build their puzzles from your own word list, and the word scramble maker jumbles a list of words one at a time.

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