Bingo Card Generator
Make up to 200 bingo cards at once, from a word list you paste in or from the 75 and 90 ball number ranges, and get the call list that goes with them. Two things here are different from the pages this competes with. The draw runs off a seed word you type, so the same word and the same settings bring the same set back tomorrow, and card 7 stays card 7 whether the run made eight cards or two hundred: that is how you reprint the single card a player lost without reprinting the room. And instead of promising that every card is unique, the page counts and shows how many different cards your settings can actually produce, because with twenty-four terms in twenty-four squares that number is fixed by arithmetic and no generator can improve on it. Inside one card nothing repeats, the free centre sits in the middle of a 3 by 3 or a 5 by 5, and the call list is drawn from the values that are really on the cards, so every call is somewhere in the room.
Drawing cards.
75 ball draws each column from its own fifteen numbers, so a 5 by 5 card covers 1 to 75 with the familiar B I N G O columns. 90 ball draws each column from a block of ten. Words mode fills the card from your own list. Everything runs in this browser: the terms you type are not uploaded, and the mode, grid, free centre, count, seed and term list are remembered here so the next session opens where you left it.
Common questions
- A player lost their card. How do I reprint just that one?
- Type the same seed word in the Seed field, set the mode, grid size, free centre and, in words mode, the same term list, and the set comes back identical. Each card's position is part of its own draw, so card 7 is card 7 whether the original run made eight cards or two hundred: you can ask for a run of the same size, look at card 7 on the full sheet and print that page alone from your browser's print dialog. The seed is printed alongside the number on every card for exactly this reason, so the card in a player's hand tells you what to type. If you left the seed empty, the tool generated one and shows it: write it down before you close the tab, because a seed you never saw is a set you cannot bring back.
- Are the cards all different from each other?
- They are drawn independently, and the page shows you how many different cards your settings can produce rather than promising that no two match. With 75 ball on a 5 by 5 grid with a free centre the figure shown is about 5.52 × 10^26, so a repeat is not something you will ever see. Words mode depends entirely on your list: twenty-four terms in twenty-four squares can only be rearranged 24 factorial ways, which is a big number, but every card carries the same twenty-four words in a different order, so two players will mark similar squares. Add more terms than the grid needs and the cards start to differ in content as well as in layout. That count sits next to the card count so you can see the effect of adding terms as you type them.
- What do 75 ball and 90 ball mean here?
- In 75 ball each column draws from its own block of fifteen numbers: 1 to 15 under B, 16 to 30 under I, 31 to 45 under N, 46 to 60 under G and 61 to 75 under O. On a 5 by 5 grid that is the familiar American card, letters and all, and the letters are printed as the heading row. In 90 ball each column draws from a block of ten instead: 1 to 10, 11 to 20, and so on. Be clear about one limit before you print a hall's worth: this tool makes square cards, so a 5 by 5 in 90 ball mode uses columns 1 to 50 rather than the full 1 to 90, and it does not produce the British six-ticket strip of 9 columns by 3 rows. If you need the whole 1 to 90 range on one card, 90 ball here is not what you want.
- Can I use my own word list for a classroom or a party?
- Yes, that is what words mode is for. Paste your terms one per line or separated by commas, and blanks and repeats are removed before the draw, so a list pasted from a document does not quietly put the same word on a card twice. A 5 by 5 card with a free centre needs 24 different terms, a 3 by 3 needs 9, or 8 with the free centre on, and if the list is short the tool says how many terms it has and how many more it needs rather than filling the gaps with something. There is a sample list of thirty everyday classroom words to press if you want to see the shape of it first. The ceiling is 1,000 terms and 200 cards in one run.
- Is anything uploaded, and do I need an account?
- No to both. The cards, the call list and the printable sheet are all built in your browser, and nothing you type is sent anywhere. The mode, grid size, free centre, card count, seed and term list are kept in this browser so the next session opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. Printing uses your own browser's print dialog, which is also how you save the set as a PDF.
- Why is the free centre refused on a 4 by 4?
- Because a 4 by 4 grid has no middle square. An even grid has four cells in the middle and no single centre, so rather than picking one of them and calling it the centre, or turning the option off behind your back, the tool says what is wrong and offers the two grids that do have a centre: 3 by 3 and 5 by 5. On those the centre cell prints as FREE and is not counted against the terms or numbers a card needs, which is why a 5 by 5 with a free centre asks for 24 values instead of 25.
Cards are drawn with a seeded generator, so the same seed and settings reproduce the same set exactly. No value repeats inside one card, and the call list is drawn from the values actually used, so every call appears on at least one card. With few terms and many cards, two cards can still come out similar: that is arithmetic, not a fault, and the number of possible cards is shown.