How to play Nonogram
A new 10x10 nonogram every day. Use the row and column clues to shade the right squares and uncover a hidden picture — every puzzle has one solution.
The rules, step by step
- 1Read the numbers to the left of each row and above each column. They give the lengths of the shaded runs in that line, in the order they appear.
- 2Runs are separated by at least one blank square, but the size of each gap is up to you to deduce. A clue of "0" means the whole line is blank.
- 3Shade squares you have proved must be filled, and mark squares you have proved must be blank with an X. The X marks are what make the next deduction possible.
- 4Start with the longest clues. A clue of 10 in a 10-wide grid fills the line outright; a clue of 8 fills at least the middle six squares wherever it sits.
- 5Alternate between rows and columns. Every square you shade or cross out in a row is new information for the column it sits in.
- 6When a line is finished, cross out every remaining square in it so it stops distracting you.
- 7Keep going until all 100 squares are either shaded or crossed out. The shaded squares form the picture — name it and you are done.
Tips that actually help
- Overlap method: for a clue of length L in a line of length N, the run must cover the middle L - (N - L) squares no matter where it sits. In a 10-wide row a clue of 7 always fills four squares in the centre. Do this for every long clue before anything else.
- Edge forcing: if the first square of a line is shaded, the first clue starts exactly there, so you can lay that whole run down and cross out the square after it. The same trick works from the right edge and from either side of a known blank.
- Always mark known blanks with an X. Beginners only shade, then lose track of which gaps are already settled. The X marks split a long line into short segments, and short segments are easy to solve.
- Use segment length as an eliminator: a run of 4 cannot fit into a stretch of three free squares between two X marks, so you can cross that stretch out entirely.
- Count the totals. Add the clues in a row plus the minimum gaps between them; if the sum equals 10, the line is completely forced. Comparing a column's clue total against how much of it you have already shaded also tells you when a column is finished.
- When a shape starts to look like something, trust it — but verify with the clues before shading. Recognising the picture is a shortcut, not a substitute for the logic, and every grid here is solvable without guessing.
About Nonogram
A nonogram — also called a picross, griddler or paint-by-numbers — is a logic puzzle disguised as a drawing. The numbers along each row and column tell you the lengths of the shaded runs in that line, in order, with at least one blank square between them. A row clue of "4 2" means four shaded squares, then a gap of one or more blanks, then two shaded squares. Work out where every run must sit and a picture appears.
The daily grid here is 10x10 and always hides something recognisable: a heart, an umbrella, a cat face, a rocket, a teapot. That matters more than it sounds. Once you have guessed what you are drawing, the half-finished grid starts telling you where the remaining squares go, and the last dozen cells fall in seconds.
Every picture in the library was checked by a solver before it shipped: the clues are fed back in, all possible grids are counted, and any picture that could be filled two different ways was redrawn or dropped. So you never need to guess — if you are stuck, there is an unused clue somewhere on the board.
Where to go next
Today's puzzle is #3, published for August 6, 2026. If you get stuck, the answer page gives you hints before it gives you the solution.
Nonogram questions
What do the numbers on a nonogram actually mean?
Each number is the length of one unbroken run of shaded squares in that row or column, listed in order from left to right or top to bottom. Consecutive runs must be separated by at least one blank square, but the puzzle never tells you how big the gaps are.
Does every nonogram here have a single solution?
Yes. Each picture in the library was fed back through a counting solver that stops at the second solution. Anything ambiguous was redrawn until it was unique, so no guessing is ever required.
What size is the daily grid?
Ten squares by ten, one hundred cells in total. That is large enough for a real picture and small enough to finish in about ten minutes once you know the techniques.
What is the difference between a nonogram, a picross and a griddler?
Nothing — they are three names for the same puzzle. "Picross" comes from the Nintendo games, "griddler" is common in British newspapers, and "nonogram" is the name given by its inventor, Non Ishida.
I am stuck and nothing seems forced. What now?
Switch axis. Almost every stall happens because you have been working rows and the next deduction is in a column, or the reverse. Failing that, re-count a line you finished earlier — a missing X is the usual culprit.
Will the same picture come up twice?
Not until the whole library has been used. Each block of days gets its own shuffled running order over every picture, so you see all of them before any repeats.