Beginner path

Nonograms for Beginners

The three rules of a nonogram, the overlap trick that gives you your first certain squares, and a set of easy boards to practise on.

Easy boards

Start with these

Useful sections
Daily nonogramAll NonogramsJapanese NonogramsPrintable Nonograms

Difficulty

Browse by difficulty

Level Easy Nonograms

Short, friendly puzzles for first-time players and quick breaks.

 Level Medium Nonograms

Balanced picross with more clues and more satisfying solves.

 Level Hard Nonograms

Bigger or more fragmented grids for experienced nonogram players.

The whole ruleset, in three lines

Each number is a run of filled cells in that row or column. Two numbers mean two separate runs, in that order, with at least one blank between them. A row clued 4 1 has four filled cells, then a gap, then one filled cell — and you do not yet know where in the row they sit.

That is the entire game. Everything else is deduction from those three facts.

Your first certain squares: the overlap trick

Take a row of 10 clued 8. Push the run as far left as it goes, then as far right as it goes. The cells covered both times must be filled no matter where the run actually sits — here that is six cells in the middle. You have just filled six squares without guessing anything.

This works whenever a clue is longer than half the line, and it is how nearly every puzzle opens. Look for the biggest numbers first and apply it there.

Mark what is empty, not just what is full

The X mark is not decoration. When a row is clued 3 and you have found all three cells, every remaining cell in that row is provably empty — marking them turns a vague grid into hard constraints for the crossing columns, and that is usually what unlocks the next step.

Use the X button (or right-click on desktop) as soon as you are sure. Players who skip this stall on medium boards.

Where to start

Open an easy 10x10 from the list below. Small grids give you the full deduction loop in a few minutes, which is the fastest way to make the rules stick. Two or three of them and 15x15 stops feeling intimidating.

If you get stuck, Check marks whichever cells are wrong without revealing the answer.

FAQ

FAQ

How long does it take to learn nonograms?

Most people have the rules after one 10x10 board, which takes about five minutes. Getting comfortable with 20x20 grids usually takes a handful of puzzles.

Do I ever have to guess?

No. Every puzzle on this site is generated with a solver that confirms a single solution reachable by logic alone, so a guess is never required.

What size should a beginner start with?

10x10. It is small enough to hold in your head, large enough for the overlap trick to matter, and it fits on a phone screen without panning.