Best Communication Board and AAC Core Board Makers (Free and Paid, 2026)
The best AAC core board and communication board makers compared, free and paid. How to make and print a color-coded core board for autism in minutes, no speech app required.
Key Takeaways
- For a free, customizable, color-coded board you can print today, Spectrum Unlocked's free Core Board Maker is the fastest pick. It runs in your browser with no account, no email, and no cost, and it uses Fitzgerald-key colors so words land in predictable spots.
- A board maker is not a talking device. The tools here help you make and print a paper core or communication board. If you want a device or app that speaks the word aloud when your child taps it, that is a separate category, and our AAC apps and devices guide covers it.
- Project Core, from the University of North Carolina, is the best free ready-made option: a research-based 36-word Universal Core board, poster, and core book you can download and print without any setup.
- You almost never need to pay. Between the free SU maker, Project Core, Global Symbols, Picto Selector, and ARASAAC, most families never spend a dollar. LessonPix (about 48 dollars a year) and Boardmaker (99 to 399 dollars) are for schools and clinics that need bigger symbol libraries.
- A printed board only works if the adults model on it. Print one, keep it where communication happens, and touch the words yourself while you talk. That is how a paper board teaches language.
If someone told you to "start with a core board" and you have been staring at a blank page ever since, this guide is for you. A good communication board can be printed, laminated, and in your child's hands the same afternoon, and you almost certainly do not need to pay for it.
A core board is a single printed page of the highest-use words in everyday language (want, go, more, stop, help, and a few dozen others), arranged so each word stays in the same spot every time. Your child points to a word, and at first you say it aloud and point too, which is how a paper board teaches language. It is low-tech on purpose: no battery, no login, always available on the fridge or in a backpack.
One thing to be clear about up front, because it saves confusion. A board maker is not a talking device. The tools below help you make and print a paper board; they do not speak the word aloud when your child taps it. If what you want is an app or device that produces speech, that is a different category, and Spectrum Unlocked's AAC apps and devices guide compares those. This guide is about making and printing boards.
The Short Answer
If you want the quickest free path, use Spectrum Unlocked's free Core Board Maker. It runs in your browser with no account, no email, and no cost. You choose a grid of 12, 20, or 30 cells, fill each one from a built-in symbol library or your own photos, and keep the Fitzgerald-key color coding so words land in predictable places (people in yellow, actions in green, describing words in blue, social words in pink, things in orange, and the little grammar words in white). Switch to a black-and-white ink-saver version if you like, then print a laminate-ready page. It also ships with ready starting points: beginner, standard, full, an AAC core-words layout, and a classroom board. For most parents who just need a usable, color-coded board printed today, this is the fastest option, and it costs nothing.
"Best" depends on what you need, so here are the standout picks by job:
- Best free customizable board: Spectrum Unlocked's Core Board Maker. Build and color-code a custom board in your browser, no signup, then print.
- Best free ready-made, research-based board: Project Core, from the University of North Carolina. A 36-word Universal Core board, poster, and core book you download and print as-is, no building required.
- Best free symbol depth: Picto Selector. A free desktop program with more than 34,000 symbols in many languages, for parents and educators who want to make a lot of boards.
- Best professional and PCS-based tool: Boardmaker 7, from Tobii Dynavox. The standard in many schools and clinics, with 74,000-plus PCS symbols, and priced accordingly (99 to 399 dollars).
If you want something in between, LessonPix is a low-cost paid maker at around 48 dollars a year with a large picture library and template wizards, though for a single family the free tools usually do everything you need.
The Core Board Makers Compared
| Tool | Platform | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SU Core Board Maker | Web (any browser) | Free, no account | Fast custom color-coded board, printed today |
| Project Core | Web download | Free | Ready-made research-based 36-word Universal Core |
| Global Symbols Board Builder | Web | Free (account to save) | Multilingual boards plus digital open-board export |
| Picto Selector | Windows, Intel Mac (desktop) | Free (donation) | Deep offline symbol library, many boards |
| ARASAAC | Web | Free (CC BY-NC-SA) | Free openly licensed symbols, especially non-English |
| LessonPix | Web | About 48 dollars/year | Low-cost all-in-one printable materials |
| Boardmaker 7 | Desktop and web | 99 to 399 dollars | Schools and clinics standardizing on PCS |
| CoughDrop | iOS, Android, Windows, web | Free trial, then paid (check the site) | A digital board that can also speak and export |
The rest of this guide explains who each one fits, starting with the free pick.
Spectrum Unlocked Core Board Maker
Best for: a parent who wants a usable, color-coded board printed in minutes, for free.
This is the tool built to remove every reason to stall. It opens in any browser with no account and no email gate. You pick a grid size (12 cells for a young or new communicator, 20 for a standard board, 30 when your child is ready for more), then fill each cell from the built-in symbol library or by uploading your own photos, which stay on your device. The Fitzgerald-key colors do quiet work here: keeping people, actions, describing words, social words, things, and grammar words in consistent colors helps your child find a word by its spot, not by reading it. Then print the laminate-ready page in color or in a black-and-white ink-saver version.
Honest limitation: it is a lite-tech printable, not a speech-generating device or a full authoring suite. If you need the board to talk or to track clinical data, this is not that. It is the fastest way to a good paper board, which for most families is exactly right. For the how-and-why, see what a communication board is and how to use it.
Project Core
Best for: a research-based board you can print without building anything.
Project Core comes from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, developed with a US Department of Education grant, and it is free. The centerpiece is a 36-word Universal Core vocabulary, and you download a ready-made printable board, a large classroom-size poster, and a nine-page core book, with high-contrast and three-dimensional symbol versions for kids who need them. No training or account required.
Honest limitation: it is a fixed 36-word set. You download presets rather than building freely, so if you want your own photos or a different layout, a builder like the SU maker fits better. As a proven ready-made starting point, it is hard to beat.
Global Symbols Board Builder
Best for: multilingual families, and anyone who wants both a print board and a digital one.
Global Symbols is a nonprofit board builder that pulls from several free symbol sets (Global Symbols, Open Symbols, and the Noun Project), lets you upload your own images, and gives you per-cell control of colors and borders. Its standout is export flexibility: export a PDF to print, or export an open-board file (.obf or .obz) that digital AAC apps like CoughDrop can open. That makes it a nice bridge if you may move to a digital board later.
Honest limitation: you need a free account to save your work. For a one-off print you can manage without, but to keep and revise boards, plan on signing up.
Picto Selector
Best for: a parent or educator who wants a deep, free symbol library and expects to make many boards.
Picto Selector is a free desktop program (Windows and Intel Mac) supported by donations. It carries more than 34,000 symbols across many languages, lets you add your own, and gives you control over color, borders, and layout before you export or print. If you are outfitting a classroom or building boards regularly, the depth here is generous for a free tool.
Honest limitation: it is desktop-only, so you install software rather than working in a browser, and the interface is older and heavier than the web tools. Worth it for the depth; overkill for one quick board.
ARASAAC
Best for: free, openly licensed symbols, especially for languages other than English.
ARASAAC is a symbol resource from the Government of Aragón in Spain. It offers more than 10,000 pictograms in both color and black-and-white across roughly 20 languages, plus online tools for making materials. It is a go-to source when you need non-English symbols or a large free library to feed another builder.
Two honest notes. First, ARASAAC symbols are released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license: non-commercial use only, with attribution required and share-alike terms. That is fine for personal and classroom boards, but read the license before using the symbols in anything you sell or distribute. Second, it is symbol-centric rather than a one-click board printer, so it pairs best with a builder.
LessonPix
Best for: someone who prints a lot of varied learning materials and wants one low-cost tool.
LessonPix is a paid web tool at around 48 dollars a year (the price rose from 36 dollars in October 2025). It offers more than 80,000 pictures, a Symbol Builder, and wizards and templates for boards, cards, and other printables. The breadth is the draw: if you make schedules, cards, and boards constantly, one subscription covers all of it.
Honest limitation: it is a paid subscription with its own symbol style rather than PCS, and for a single family who just needs a core board, the free tools above do the job without the yearly cost.
Boardmaker 7
Best for: schools, clinics, and SLPs standardizing on PCS symbols.
Boardmaker, from Tobii Dynavox, is the long-standing professional standard. It has more than 74,000 PCS (Picture Communication Symbols), 600-plus templates across 12 languages, and lets you create, print, and play boards, with a large community library. Pricing is 99 dollars a year (Personal), 199 dollars a year (Pro), and a 399-dollar one-time Standard license.
Honest limitation: it is the most expensive option here and has a steeper learning curve. It earns its place in institutions that need PCS and scale, but it is more tool than a single parent needs for a home core board.
CoughDrop
Best for: a family that wants a digital board now and may want it to speak later.
CoughDrop runs on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web. It is really a full AAC app, but it appears in a board-maker roundup because its boards are highly customizable, it opens open-board files (.obf and .obz), and it draws on a big community of shared pagesets, so you can build, share, and also print or export a board. It offers a free trial, and its paid pricing is best checked on the site.
Honest limitation, and an important one: CoughDrop is a speech-generating app first, and printing is secondary. If your real goal is a talking system rather than a paper board, do not evaluate it here. Head to the AAC apps and devices guide, which compares CoughDrop against the other talking apps and devices on the terms that matter.
Core Boards vs a Speech Device
It is worth saying plainly, because the search results blur the two. Everything above makes a paper (or printable) board: your child points, and an adult usually voices the word to model it. That is a cheap, always-available place to start, and for many kids it is enough for a long time.
A speech-generating app or device is the next tier: the child taps and the system speaks, so the child controls the voice. That route costs more and is usually funded through a school IEP or insurance. If your child is ready for a talking app or device, read best AAC apps and devices. If you are not sure whether to start with AAC, picture exchange, or sign, AAC vs PECS vs sign language walks through which route fits which child. Starting with a paper board closes no doors; plenty of families run a printed core board and a device side by side.
How to Choose
You do not need to overthink this. Match the tool to your situation:
- You want a board printed today, your way. Use the SU Core Board Maker. Free, browser-based, color-coded, done in minutes.
- You would rather not build anything. Download Project Core's ready-made 36-word board and print it as-is.
- You need another language, or free symbols to reuse. Start with ARASAAC or Global Symbols, and mind ARASAAC's non-commercial license.
- You will make boards constantly. Picto Selector (free, deep) or LessonPix (paid, all-in-one) reward the volume.
- You are a school or clinic on PCS. Boardmaker is the standard, at its higher price.
- You want the board to talk. That is a different decision. Go to the AAC apps and devices guide.
Whichever you pick, remember the part no tool can do for you: a printed board only teaches language when the adults model on it. Print one, put it where communication actually happens, and touch the words yourself while you talk. For the day-to-day routine, see how a communication board works. The best board is the one that is out, in reach, and used.
More Free-Tool Comparisons
Spectrum Unlocked builds free, browser-based versions of the tools autistic kids use every day, then compares them honestly against the paid apps. If this guide helped, these use the same approach:
Communication support depends entirely on where your child is right now.
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What would Beacon say?
"How do I help my child communicate?"
Beacon knows whether your child is pre-verbal, uses AAC, or is a gestalt language processor, and adjusts every suggestion to fit where they actually are.
Spectrum Unlocked Editorial Team
Editorial Team
The Spectrum Unlocked editorial team combines lived experience as autism parents with research-backed guidance to create resources families can trust.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best free way to make a core board?
- For most parents, the fastest free way is a browser-based maker like Spectrum Unlocked's free Core Board Maker. You pick a grid size, fill the cells from a symbol library or your own photos, keep the Fitzgerald-key colors so words stay in predictable spots, and print a laminate-ready page. There is no account, no email, and no cost. If you would rather not build anything at all, download a ready-made board from Project Core and print it as-is.
- Where can I get a free printable communication board?
- You have several genuinely free options. Spectrum Unlocked's Core Board Maker lets you build and print a custom board in your browser. Project Core offers a research-based 36-word board, poster, and core book as free downloads. ARASAAC and Global Symbols give you free symbol libraries and builders, and Picto Selector is a free desktop program with tens of thousands of symbols. None of these require payment to print a usable board.
- What is the difference between a core board and an AAC device?
- A core board is a printed page of high-use words your child points to, and an adult usually says the word aloud to model it. An AAC device or app speaks the word for your child when they tap it, so the child controls the voice. Core boards are low-tech, free or cheap, and always available even when a battery dies. A speech-generating device or app is higher-tech and often funded through a school IEP or insurance. Many families start with a paper board and add a talking system later. For the talking side, see our AAC apps and devices guide.
- What is Project Core?
- Project Core is a free set of Universal Core vocabulary materials from the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, developed with a US Department of Education grant. It centers on 36 flexible core words and includes a printable board, a large classroom poster, and a nine-page core book, plus high-contrast and three-dimensional symbol versions. You can download and print it without training or an account, which makes it a strong ready-made starting point.
- Do I have to pay to make a communication board?
- No. Between the free browser makers, Project Core's free downloads, and free symbol libraries like ARASAAC and Global Symbols, you can make and print a solid core or communication board without spending anything. Paid tools like LessonPix (about 48 dollars a year) and Boardmaker (99 to 399 dollars) mainly buy you much larger symbol libraries and school-focused features, which most single families do not need.
- Can I use these boards with an autistic child who is not yet talking?
- Yes, and that is exactly who they help most. A core board gives a child a way to point to words like want, go, more, stop, and help before or alongside spoken words. The key is that the adults model on it: touch the words yourself while you talk during real moments of the day. Research on AAC consistently finds that giving a child a way to communicate does not hold back speech, and often supports it. Our guide on how a communication board works day to day walks through the modeling routine.