30895 puzzles now available.
This is a totally free website where you can create and solve paint-by-number puzzles.
Paint-by-number puzzles are a type of graphical logic puzzle invented by Tetsuya Nishio and Non Ishida. These puzzles are known by a huge variety of other names, including Griddler, Nonogram, Picross, Pixel Puzzles, Art Puzzles by Number, CrossPix, Descarte's Enigma, FigurePic, Illust-Logic, Oekaki Logic, PictureLogic, Logic Art, Paint Logic, Logic Square, Logik-Puzzles, Crucipixel, Logimage, StarPic, Blacken and Solve, Japanolle, Hanjie, and Tsunami.
A simple example is shown below. You can try to solve it right on this page, if you like.
How to Play: The object is to discover a hidden picture by marking each square black or white. You can click on any of the squares. Click once, and a dot is shown. Do that to indicate that you think that square should definately be white. Click again and it is shaded black. Click again and it goes blank again, meaning the color is unknown. Shift-clicking makes things change the other way.
The numbers along the edges tell how how many black squares are in each row and column, and how they are grouped together. "2 1" means the row contains a group of two blacks followed by a group of one black. Groups of black squares will always be separated by one or more white squares. Columns work the same way.
So, you might start by observing that if seven consecutive squares are black in the center column, then the middle four squares of those have to be black, so you can double click on each of those squares to mark them black.
Can you solve the rest of the puzzle? There is only one correct solution, and it can be found purely by logical reasoning - no guessing is required. If you ever see a red dot appearing, that marks a row or column that doesn't match the counts. If you can get every square either dotted or marked black with no red dots appearing, then you've solved the puzzle.
Don't expect a great picture on this one - it's only a 5 by 10 grid. Most paint-by-number puzzles are much larger, and they can get much more difficulty, requiring fancier logic tricks to solve.
What is Here: If you register and login, you'll be able to create paint-by-number games, or play paint-by-number puzzles that other people have created. There is a helper program that you can use to automatically test puzzles you enter yourself for solvability. You can also get the puzzles in PDF format to print out and solve on paper. Currently 30895 different puzzles are available for play. There is no fee, and (at least for now) no advertising.
Requirements: For this site to work for you, you'll need a reasonably fast computer and a reasonably good web browser. The puzzle program is in JavaScript, so your browser needs to be able to run JavaScript and run it fast. We have worked hard to support as many browsers as possible, but Firefox (1.5 or later), Safari, and IE generally work best.