About Big Card Solitaire

I built this site because my parents deserve solitaire they can actually see.

After 60, eyes change. Reading glasses become necessary. Small text gets tiring. Most solitaire sites shrink cards on phones until ranks and suit symbols blur together at arm's length. The game stops being relaxing and starts being work.

Big Card Solitaire is built around one question: is this easy to see? 80-pixel cards on every device, even on a narrow phone. WCAG 2.2 AAA contrast on every text colour. Full keyboard navigation. No pop-ups, no signup, no tracking. The cards are big because eyes get tired, and games should be calm.

How it is built

The site uses Astro and vanilla TypeScript — no React, no game framework, no heavy runtime. A typical page weighs under 50 kilobytes and loads in well under a second on a budget Android phone over cellular data. The Klondike board renders with SVG so cards stay sharp when scaled from 90% to 200%, and nothing depends on a JavaScript bundle larger than what the game itself requires. Hosting is on Cloudflare Pages; deploys are automatic from a private GitHub repository.

Accessibility is the product

Accessibility is not a checklist here — it is the product. WCAG 2.2 AAA means a 7:1 colour contrast ratio (not the 4.5:1 most sites stop at), keyboard navigation that works on every interactive surface, hit targets of at least 44 by 44 pixels (60 by 60 in the larger card sizes), focus indicators that are visible without squinting, and respect for the operating system's reduced-motion preference. Colourblind players see suit symbols, not just red and black. The card-size control saves to your browser, so the size you picked is the size you get next visit.

Who is behind this

I am an Icelandic developer with thirty years in IT and banking. I work on this in evenings. The site is independent — no parent company, no investors, no venture capital, no ads at launch. Future ad revenue, when it exists, will cover hosting costs and fund continued development.

What comes next

Klondike was the first game; the collection has since grown to 29 solitaire variants, from Spider and FreeCell to rarities like Calculation and Auld Lang Syne. Every one is built to the same accessibility standard — no game ships until it is genuinely easy to see and play.

If you have a parent or grandparent who plays solitaire, this site is for them. If you play solitaire yourself and want a calm, readable version that respects your eyes, it is for you too.

Contact

Email info@bigcardsolitaire.com.