Nonogram Game and Solver: Play Nonograms Online, Free
Play nonograms online, free: a new picture at every press, 5×5 to 20×20, hidden behind the numbers of its rows and columns. Fill and cross by tap or drag, with hints when you are stuck. Have one from a book or an app? Type its clues into the nonogram solver and watch it filled, line by line.
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- Each row and each column has a clue, a list of numbers.
- The numbers are the lengths of the line's runs of filled cells, in order.
- Two runs have at least one empty cell between them.
- Fill the cells so every line matches its clue: the picture is the answer.
Nonograms 5×5, 10×10, 15×15 and 20×20
Every picture here is new, has one solution, and is solved by logic alone. The size sets how long it takes:
- 5×5a first nonogram: a few lines and the picture is there
- 10×10the classic size; the overlap and the edges carry most of it
- 15×15longer clues, where crosses matter as much as fills
- 20×20the big one: line after line, row and column in turn
How to solve nonograms: four techniques
The overlap
Slide a block as far left as it goes, then as far right. The cells it covers both times are filled. A clue of 8 in a line of 10 fills its middle 6 at once.
Crosses
When a line's blocks are all placed, cross every other cell of it. A cross is as useful as a fill: it tells the crossing lines where their blocks cannot go.
The edges
A filled cell near the edge of a line pins its first block: the block must cover it, so it can only reach so far, and the cells beyond its reach get filled or crossed.
Rows and columns in turn
Every cell you mark in a row is a new fact for its column. Go back and forth: each line you finish gives the lines across it something to start from.
Stuck? Press Hint on the game: it shows the line that gives something next, and which cells, from wherever the picture stands.
How the nonogram solver works
It checks your clues first: each line's blocks fit in it, and the rows fill as many cells as the columns. Then it works the way a person does: for one line at a time, it finds every way the clue's blocks can lie with the cells known so far, and marks the cells all of them agree on. When no line gives anything more, it tries a cell and follows where that leads. It also says when the clues allow no picture, or more than one.
Where nonograms come from
In 1987 Non Ishida, a graphics editor in Tokyo, won a competition with pictures made of the lit windows of skyscrapers, and turned the idea into grid puzzles; Tetsuya Nishio, a puzzle maker, came to the same puzzle on his own at about the same time. In 1990 James Dalgety in Britain named them nonograms, after Non Ishida, and The Sunday Telegraph began printing them every week.
Questions
How do you play a nonogram?
Each row and column has a clue: the lengths of its runs of filled cells, in order, with at least one empty cell between two runs. Fill the cells so that every line matches its clue, and a picture appears.
How do you solve a nonogram?
Start with the longest clues: their overlap fills cells at once. Then cross the cells no block can reach, and go back and forth between rows and columns. Press Hint on the game for the next line to look at.
What does a 0 mean in a nonogram clue?
That the line is empty: every cell of it is crossed.
Does a nonogram have only one solution?
A good one does, and every puzzle here does: each is made so that the clues allow one picture only, reached by logic, line by line, without guessing.
What are hanjie and griddlers?
The same puzzle under other names: hanjie, griddlers, paint by numbers, logic pictures. Nonogram is the name most use.
How do I solve my own nonogram?
Pick its size in the solver above, then press a row or column clue and type its numbers, a space between them, ↵ for the next line. Then press Solve: it fills the picture one line at a time and says why.
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