Adding Names and Messages to a Photo Brick Puzzle
By Giftenova Team – Published October 12, 2026
AI-generated example based on the catalog heart puzzle. The curved Always Us lettering is already part of the customer's uploaded artwork; it is not an effect added by the product's typed-text option.
You can add a short typed message to a photo brick puzzle with the optional Custom Text field, which is labelled for text on the picture and holds up to 32 characters. The separate Notes field is for special requests. The second route is lettering you design into your own photo before uploading, which is printed as part of that one image. The order form offers no font, line-break or position setting for typed text; with your own artwork you make those choices in the file, although the final crop and the visible brick seams can still cross letters just as they cross faces.
How can you add text to a photo brick puzzle?
The order form asks for one photo and offers Custom Text as an optional extra with a 32-character limit. You supply the wording and the photo; the form has no font, placement or line-break selector.
Lettering already in your image, such as a sign in the scene or a caption you added in a photo editor, stays part of that single file. It is not a second text service or an editable text layer, so it is printed with the rest of the picture.
Notes is labelled for special requests. You can use it to ask for a placement or cropping preference, but a request is not a guarantee, and you should not rely on Notes to print extra words. If a particular layout, character or detail is essential, contact us before ordering. There is no live visual mockup for this product, so check your wording and photo yourself before you submit.
For a flat cardboard puzzle and its packaging, use the separate guide to adding text to a jigsaw photo puzzle.
Keep a typed message brief
A brief message leaves the photograph at the centre of the gift. Fitting within the 32-character limit only means the field accepts the text; it does not tell you how readable the words will be on the printed brick face.
Spaces and punctuation count toward the limit. Three examples:
| Typed message | Characters | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Maya & Leo | 10 | The couple's names |
| Milo, our hiking buddy | 22 | A pet's name and a story |
| Milo | 4 | The name alone |
Both Milo versions fit the field. The shorter one gives the viewer less to read and keeps attention on the photograph, which can matter on the smallest panel, the 46-piece square at 4.4 x 4.5 in (11.1 x 11.5 cm). The longer one tells more of the story. You do not set the printed size of either line, so choose by what the words add rather than by how much of the limit they use. Recount after any edit, and remember that the field can stay empty when the photo already says enough.
Choose a photo for the typed message
For a typed message, choose a photo that keeps the main subject clear and has some uncluttered space around it. That space gives the composition room, but it does not decide where the typed words go.
Our catalog example of Custom Text shows "I LOVE YOU" above "2024" in thin script in the lower part of a heart-shaped panel. The letters cross several visible brick seams, the same way the faces in the picture do. Treat that image as an example of how text can look on the bricks, not as the layout every order receives.
There is no setting that keeps typed words on one line, makes them heavier, moves them into a particular part of the heart or steers them away from seams. What you control is the length of the message and the photo you choose. The panel comes in square, portrait rectangle and heart outlines. Use the photo block puzzle sizes and shapes to check your selected photo and panel dimensions. If the visible brick seams change which gift you want, compare the jigsaw and photo block puzzle formats.
If you prepare the lettering in your own image
Typography and placement advice applies only to lettering you put into your own source image before uploading, not to the Custom Text field. When you add words to a photo in an editor, or use a photo where words are already visible, you decide their size, contrast and position in that file, and the result is printed as part of the picture.
A few checks help that lettering hold up on a segmented brick face:
- Contrast: Lettering in a tone close to the area behind it can be hard to pick out, and a busy area such as leaves or a patterned shirt makes that worse. Words that are clearly darker or lighter than their background stand out more.
- Outline: Keep complete words well inside the shape you are ordering. Lettering close to the edge of the photo may fall outside a heart's top notch and lower point or a portrait panel's narrow sides.
- Size: View the whole image at roughly the finished panel size, then look closely at the lettering. More bricks or a larger panel do not add detail that the file lacks.
- Seams: Tiny lettering and thin lines can cross several seams, so expect some letters to be divided between bricks.
These checks help with your own file but cannot guarantee that every detail stays readable after printing. The sizes and shapes guide above covers outlines and face cropping in detail.
Upload the finished image as one JPG or PNG file. The form takes a single photo, so separate layers, a second image or a separate text file cannot be added alongside it. If your image already shows the names or date, leave Custom Text empty or choose different words so the message does not appear twice.
Check the message and selected variant
Before you submit, check the message in the actual Custom Text field, whether your photo already shows the same words, and the shape and piece count you selected.
- Read each name and date as typed, including capitals and punctuation, and recount the characters if you changed anything.
- Compare the field with any lettering in your photo so nothing is repeated by accident.
- Confirm the variant: square, rectangular or heart, and the piece count you want.
- If an unusual character or an exact layout matters, confirm it with us before ordering; a Notes request is not a guarantee that extra words or a placement preference will be printed.
The Photo Block Puzzle is intended for ages 13 and up. Check the current fields and selected variant on the Photo Block Puzzle before submitting your order.