Beekeeper Crosswords Themed Puzzles from Beekeeper Labs

In last week’s free crossword (“In His Shoes“), we gave you a Thursday-style theme, packed into a Tuesday level of difficulty (as measured on the venerable New York Times scale).  In the interests of mixing things up, this week’s puzzle gives you the sort of theme you might expect on a Tuesday, but keeps the interest level up by packing a lot of extra ELAN and BRIO into the non-theme entries.  The net result is a puzzle that tests out around a Thursday level of difficulty.  I had a lot of fun with this one, and I think that you will too.

As always you have the option of grabbing the puzzle in Across Lite format — get the software here — or as a printable PNG image.

This week’s offering is another light-‘n-lively puzzle, with a typically Thursday-style theme tucked into a Tuesday/Wednesday level of difficulty. (BTW, I’d still love to hear comments about whether I’m accurately rating these crosswords, and whether you’d like to see them be easier or harder. You can comment directly here — I don’t mind public criticism — or send me private email at keeper@beekeeperlabs.com.)

Download it in your choice of formats: Across Lite or a printable PNG image.

This week’s free crossword has a bit of extra pizazz to it. Inspired by a discussion by the folks at cruciverb.com — a wonderful site — I decided to make a puzzle with full (90°) rotational symmetry rather than the standard (180°) symmetry. This doesn’t affect you as a solver much, but it does make the grid a little bit prettier, and that’s always a nice thing. Don’t worry — the puzzle is still strongly themed, if a bit easier than many you’ll find here. (I’d put it as a Tuesday/Wednesday on the NYT scale.)

As usual, you have your choice of Across Lite format or printable PNG image, and (also as usual) I welcome any comments you might have on the puzzle.

Our newest crossword puzzle boasts a slightly tricky theme and a fairly forgiving (but hopefully not dull) grid and clues.  Put them together, and the difficulty level of this puzzle probably comes in between a NYT Wednesday and Thursday.  Choose the appropriate link to download in your favorite format: Across Lite or PNG.

Our fourth free crossword puzzle marks a return to normalcy. This is a classic themed puzzle, which should be roughly as difficult as a Wednesday New York Times puzzle.

You have your choice of downloading it in Across Lite format (solution included) or as a PNG image. If there are other formats that you would like to see, drop me a line and we can probably add them.

Our third free crossword puzzle is a little bit different than the previous two.  It’s still a traditional themed crossword puzzle, and still aims to meet all the standard you’d expect from a professional publication.  However, it’s theme and clues are primarily oriented to appeal to computer/web geeks.  For these folks, the puzzle should be as easy as a standard Tuesday or Wednesday NYT puzzle.  Non-geek solvers should still be able to handle it without too much more difficulty, but it may be closer to Wednesday/Thursday and the theme might not make much sense.

As always, the puzzle is available in both Across Lite format and as a printable PNG file.

Readers are encouraged to let me know what they think of this style of specialized puzzle.  I probably won’t do them too often, but if I get reasonable feedback, I may revive them occasionally.

Our second free crossword puzzle is somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday on the New York Times scale. Kudos go to the Border’sBarnes and Noble gang for play-testing this one and pointing out where it strayed into a higher difficulty level.

As always, the puzzle is available as an Across Lite file or a PNG image. However, the solution will print best if you use version 2 of Across Lite. The best place I know to find it is at the New York Times site. While you are there, you can check out their free classic puzzles — they are, after all, the Rolls Royce of puzzledom.

Our first free puzzle is (as most will be) a classic themed puzzle in the style of the New York Times daily puzzle. Expect it to be roughly the difficulty level of a standard Wednesday puzzle. You can download the puzzle in Across Lite format or as a PNG image file. (Get the Across Lite software here.) You have permission to copy, and print the puzzles and to distribute them to your friends. However, you should not try to republish them or make a profit off of them

We are striving to keep the puzzles to a professional standard, so please feel free to let us know what you think. Positive or negative feedback is welcome.