What is the best free way to make PECS cards?

For most parents, the fastest free route is a browser tool that prints. Spectrum Unlocked's PECS Card Maker is free with no account and no email required: pick a built-in symbol or upload your own photo, add a short label, choose a card size, and download a print-ready PDF you can cut and laminate the same day. If you need a bigger symbol library and can install desktop software, Picto Selector is free and carries tens of thousands of pictos. ARASAAC is another free source, useful for other languages. You do not need to pay for a few cards, and you do not need to hand your email to anyone.

PECS cards or an AAC device, which does my child need?

They are different tools for different stages, and many kids use both. PECS cards are low-tech, cheap, and a structured way to teach that handing over a picture makes a request happen. An AAC device or app is a speech-generating system that talks when your child selects words. Some families start with PECS and move toward AAC as vocabulary grows, and a speech-language pathologist can help you decide. For the talking-device side, see our AAC apps and devices guide, and for choosing a starting route, see AAC vs PECS vs sign language.

Where can I get printable PECS cards for free?

You can make your own for free instead of hunting for a fixed pack, which means the cards match your child's real routines. The PECS Card Maker is free and includes templates for common sets (core requests, feelings, food and drink, play, daily routine, and potty), so you can print a starter batch in minutes and add more as you go. Picto Selector and ARASAAC are also free if you want a larger symbol pool to draw from.

How do I make PECS cards at home?

Keep it simple. Choose a picture (a clear symbol or a real photo of the actual item works well for beginners), add one short word, and print at a size your child can hold, usually somewhere around two inches for a first set. Cut them out, laminate or cover them for durability, and add a Velcro dot so they stick to a strip or board. A tool like the PECS Card Maker does the layout and sizing for you and gives you a clean PDF, so you are mostly cutting and laminating. Our guide to PECS cards for autism covers how to introduce them once they are printed.

Do PECS cards need to use PCS or a specific symbol set?

No. The PECS protocol is about the exchange, not a particular art style, so any clear picture can work. Schools and clinics often standardize on PCS (the symbol set inside Boardmaker) so everyone's materials match, and some families like a specific look. But at home, a plain symbol or a photograph of the real object is often clearer for a young child than any branded set, and it costs nothing.

Best Free PECS Card Makers and Apps for Autism (2026)

The best PECS card maker tools compared for parents: free printables, symbol depth, and paid options. How to make picture cards, and why a PECS app is not a card maker.

Getting Started|July 18, 2026|11 min read

Updated July 25, 2026

Key Takeaways

For most parents the best free way to make PECS cards is Spectrum Unlocked's PECS Card Maker: a browser tool with no account and no email gate that outputs a print-ready PDF, using built-in symbols or your own photos.
PECS card makers create and print physical picture cards. They are not the same as AAC speech apps like Proloquo2Go or TD Snap, which are talking devices. If you want a voice, that is a different tool and a different guide.
Free covers most families. Picto Selector adds a much larger symbol library for free if you can install desktop software, and ARASAAC is a good free multilingual source.
Paid tools earn their price mainly on library size and school features: LessonPix is the low-cost subscription, and Boardmaker is the professional PCS standard used in clinics and schools.
The official PECS Phase III app is not a card maker. It is a digital discrimination trainer for one step of the formal PECS protocol, so do not buy it expecting to print cards.

If your child's team has mentioned PECS, you have probably gone looking for a "PECS app" and come away confused. Some results are printable card makers. Others are full speech-generating apps that cost hundreds of dollars. A few are neither. It is hard to tell what you are actually looking at.

Here is the distinction that clears most of it up. PECS, the Picture Exchange Communication System, is a structured approach that teaches a child to hand over a picture card to make a request, then to build up from single pictures toward short sentences. The cards are the physical part, and a PECS card maker is simply a tool that helps you create and print them. That is different from an AAC speech app like Proloquo2Go or TD Snap, which is a talking device your child taps to produce spoken words. This guide is about making cards. If you want a voice, that is a separate decision, and we link you to it below.

So this roundup covers tools that create and print picture cards, ranked by who they fit and what they cost. We lead with the free option most parents should try first, then the paid tools that earn their price on library size and school features, and we flag the one official "PECS app" that is not a card maker at all.

The Short Answer

For most parents, the best free way to make PECS cards is Spectrum Unlocked's PECS Card Maker. It runs in your browser with no account, no download, and no email gate. You pick a built-in symbol or upload a real photo of the item, add a short label, choose a card size (small, standard, or large), and download a print-ready PDF. It ships with templates for the sets parents reach for first: core requests, feelings, food and drink, play, daily routine, and potty. You can have a starter batch cut and laminated the same afternoon, for nothing.

The honest trade-off is that its symbol library is smaller than the big paid tools, and it prints cards rather than doing anything digital. For actually making and printing PECS cards at home, that is usually all you need. If you want more, here is how the field sorts out:

Best free pick: Spectrum Unlocked PECS Card Maker. Browser-based, no account, print-ready PDF, photo upload, ready-made templates. The right starting point for almost every parent.
Best free symbol depth: Picto Selector. A free desktop program with tens of thousands of pictos and heavy bulk-printing, if you are willing to install software and live with a dated interface.
Best budget subscription: LessonPix. Around 48 dollars a year for a large image library and wizards that make far more than PECS cards.
Best professional or PCS option: Boardmaker. The clinic-and-school standard built on the PCS symbol set, priced accordingly.

And one important clarification, because it is the single most confusing search result in this space: the official PECS Phase III App from Pyramid Educational Consultants is not a card maker. It is a digital trainer for the picture-discrimination step of the formal PECS protocol, on iPad only. It does not print cards. We cover it below so you do not buy it by mistake.

The PECS Card Makers Compared

Tool	Platform	Price	Best for
Spectrum Unlocked PECS Card Maker	Web (any browser)	Free, no account	A printable set the same day, free
Picto Selector	Windows desktop	Free (donation)	A large free symbol library and bulk printing
ARASAAC	Web	Free	Free multilingual and openly licensed symbols
LessonPix	Web	Around 48 dollars a year	Cheap unlimited printables beyond PECS
Boardmaker 7	Desktop and web	99 to 399 dollars	Schools and clinics standardizing on PCS
Widgit Online / InPrint 4	Web and Windows	US pricing not published (check the site)	Widgit symbol fans and international use
PECS Phase III App	iPad only	Paid (check the App Store)	Practicing picture discrimination, not making cards

The sections below explain who each one fits, starting with the free pick.

Spectrum Unlocked PECS Card Maker (free)

Best for: a parent who wants printable cards today, for free, without creating an account.

This is the tool we would hand a parent who just needs cards. You work entirely in the browser. Choose a built-in symbol or upload your own photo (useful when a picture of your child's real cup lands better than a generic icon), type a short label, pick small, standard, or large sizing, and download a clean PDF ready to print. The templates cover the first sets most families build: core requests, feelings, food and drink, play, daily routine, and potty. There is no email wall between you and the download.

The honest limitation: it makes physical cards and nothing else. The library is smaller than Boardmaker's or LessonPix's, and there is no digital speech or discrimination practice built in. If your plan is to print, cut, and laminate a working set, that is exactly the job it does.

Picto Selector (free)

Best for: an educator or parent who wants a large free symbol set and does not mind installing desktop software.

Picto Selector is a free Windows program (its current Mac status is unverified, so check before you count on it) that carries tens of thousands of pictos, including ARASAAC symbols, in many languages. It is built for making boards and sheets in volume and exporting them to PDF or image, which is why teachers and SLPs use it to batch out PECS cards and communication books.

The honest limitation: it is a desktop install with an older, heavier interface, so it is more setup than a browser tool. If you only need a handful of cards, it is more machinery than the job calls for. If you are printing dozens at a time, the free depth is hard to beat.

ARASAAC (free)

Best for: free, openly licensed symbols, especially in languages other than English.

ARASAAC, run by the Government of Aragón in Spain, offers a large multilingual pictogram library in color and black and white, plus online generators for boards, schedules, and cards. If you need pictures in another language, this is often the first place to look.

The honest limitation: the interface is aimed at general symbol and activity creation rather than one-click PECS printing, and the symbols carry a Creative Commons license that asks for attribution and non-commercial use. Fine for home and classroom use; just note the license if you ever redistribute.

LessonPix (around 48 dollars a year)

Best for: a family or teacher who wants cheap, unlimited custom printables well beyond PECS cards.

LessonPix is a web tool with a large image library (tens of thousands of pictures) and a picture-card wizard, plus builders for bingo, schedules, first-then boards, and AAC overlays. At around 48 dollars a year it is the low-cost subscription in this group, and it can be free for education and SLP students through its University Outreach program.

The honest limitation: it is a paid subscription, and its art is its own proprietary style rather than photographs or PCS. If you want the specific PCS look your school uses, this is not it. If you want an affordable do-everything printables maker, it delivers.

Boardmaker 7 (99 to 399 dollars)

Best for: schools and clinics that need to standardize on PCS symbols.

Boardmaker, from Tobii Dynavox, is the long-standing professional standard. It carries the PCS symbol set (tens of thousands of symbols) and prints boards, cards, and supports, with student data and management features on the higher tiers. Pricing runs about 99 dollars a year for Personal, 199 dollars a year for Pro, and 399 dollars as a one-time Standard license. The reason to choose it is consistency: when a district builds everything in PCS, everyone's materials match.

The honest limitation: it is the most expensive option here and heavier than a parent needs for a few cards. Unless you specifically need PCS or you work across many students, it is overkill for a home set.

Widgit Online / InPrint 4 (US pricing not published)

Best for: families who prefer the Widgit symbol set or are outside the US.

Widgit Software makes cloud (Widgit Online) and desktop (InPrint 4) tools built around Widgit Symbols, with hundreds of templates for communication cards and books that print or work interactively, in multiple languages. It is popular in the UK and internationally.

The honest limitation: its pricing is region-centric and its US figure is not clearly published, so check widgitonline.com/us for current rates before assuming a price. It is a subscription, and the symbol style is specific to Widgit. Worth a look mainly if you already like those symbols or need the international reach.

PECS Phase III App (paid, iPad only)

Best for: running the picture-discrimination step of the formal PECS protocol digitally. Not for making cards.

This is the one to be careful with. The PECS Phase III App, from Pyramid Educational Consultants (the organization behind PECS itself), is a paid iPad app (check the App Store for the current price). It provides a digital PECS book to practice Phase III, the stage where a child learns to discriminate between pictures, with built-in Pics for PECS images, a custom library, a male or female voice, and a four-step error-correction routine.

The honest limitation, and the whole point of listing it here: it does not make or print cards. It is a discrimination trainer that supplements the paper protocol, and it is iPad only. If you searched "PECS app" hoping to print cards, this is not it. For cards, use one of the makers above.

PECS Cards vs an AAC Device

It is worth being clear about where cards end and a talking device begins, because the two often get compared as if they were the same shelf. They are not.

PECS cards are low-tech and cheap, and the system is a structured way to teach a foundational idea: that handing someone a picture makes something happen. That is a powerful early step for a child who is not yet using words to request.

An AAC device or app is a speech-generating system. Your child selects words or symbols and the device talks. If what you need is a voice, a card maker is the wrong tool, and you want our AAC apps and devices guide instead, which compares the talking apps and how to get one funded. If you are still deciding which route to start with, AAC vs PECS vs sign language walks through choosing. Many families use both over time, starting with cards and adding AAC as communication grows.

How to Choose

You can make this decision quickly.

You want cards today, for free. Use the PECS Card Maker. Browser, no account, print-ready PDF. This is the right call for almost every parent starting out.
You want a much bigger free symbol library and print in bulk. Install Picto Selector, or pull symbols from ARASAAC, especially if you need another language.
You want an affordable do-everything printables maker. LessonPix, at around 48 dollars a year, makes PECS cards and a lot more.
You need PCS to match a school or clinic. Boardmaker is the standard, at a professional price.
You searched for a "PECS app" to print cards. Skip the Phase III app; it is a discrimination trainer, not a card maker.

Once your cards are printed, our guide to PECS cards for autism covers how to introduce them, how the exchange works, and how to move from single pictures toward sentences. The tool gets you the cards. The guide gets you started using them.

The takeaway is simple: for making and printing PECS cards, you do not need to spend anything or download an app. Start free, print what your child actually uses day to day, and add more cards as their world grows.

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:

This guide covers the basics. But every child is different.

Beacon learns about YOUR child and gives guidance specific to them. 10 free messages, no credit card.

What would Beacon say?

"What should I focus on first with my child?"

If you asked Beacon "My child was just diagnosed, what do I do first?" it would look at your child's age, communication style, and biggest challenges, and give you a specific starting point. Not a generic list.

Talk to BeaconFree to try

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.

Parent-led editorial teamContent reviewed by licensed professionals

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free way to make PECS cards?: For most parents, the fastest free route is a browser tool that prints. Spectrum Unlocked's PECS Card Maker is free with no account and no email required: pick a built-in symbol or upload your own photo, add a short label, choose a card size, and download a print-ready PDF you can cut and laminate the same day. If you need a bigger symbol library and can install desktop software, Picto Selector is free and carries tens of thousands of pictos. ARASAAC is another free source, useful for other languages. You do not need to pay for a few cards, and you do not need to hand your email to anyone.
Is there a PECS app?: This is where searches get confusing, because 'PECS app' can mean two different things. If you mean a tool to make and print picture cards, the best options are card makers like the free Spectrum Unlocked PECS Card Maker, not an app store download. There is also one official app, the PECS Phase III App from Pyramid Educational Consultants, but it is not a card maker. It is a digital discrimination trainer for one step of the formal PECS protocol (choosing between pictures), it runs on iPad only, and it is a paid app (check the App Store for the current price). So if your goal is to print cards, you want a card maker, not the Phase III app.
PECS cards or an AAC device, which does my child need?: They are different tools for different stages, and many kids use both. PECS cards are low-tech, cheap, and a structured way to teach that handing over a picture makes a request happen. An AAC device or app is a speech-generating system that talks when your child selects words. Some families start with PECS and move toward AAC as vocabulary grows, and a speech-language pathologist can help you decide. For the talking-device side, see our AAC apps and devices guide, and for choosing a starting route, see AAC vs PECS vs sign language.
Where can I get printable PECS cards for free?: You can make your own for free instead of hunting for a fixed pack, which means the cards match your child's real routines. The PECS Card Maker is free and includes templates for common sets (core requests, feelings, food and drink, play, daily routine, and potty), so you can print a starter batch in minutes and add more as you go. Picto Selector and ARASAAC are also free if you want a larger symbol pool to draw from.
How do I make PECS cards at home?: Keep it simple. Choose a picture (a clear symbol or a real photo of the actual item works well for beginners), add one short word, and print at a size your child can hold, usually somewhere around two inches for a first set. Cut them out, laminate or cover them for durability, and add a Velcro dot so they stick to a strip or board. A tool like the PECS Card Maker does the layout and sizing for you and gives you a clean PDF, so you are mostly cutting and laminating. Our guide to PECS cards for autism covers how to introduce them once they are printed.
Do PECS cards need to use PCS or a specific symbol set?: No. The PECS protocol is about the exchange, not a particular art style, so any clear picture can work. Schools and clinics often standardize on PCS (the symbol set inside Boardmaker) so everyone's materials match, and some families like a specific look. But at home, a plain symbol or a photograph of the real object is often clearer for a young child than any branded set, and it costs nothing.