Play Nonogram — Free

What is Nonogram?

Nonogram is a picture-logic puzzle played on a blank grid. Every row and every column carries a small list of numbers, and those numbers are the whole puzzle: each one tells you the length of a run of consecutive filled squares in that line, given in the order the runs appear. When you use the row clues and the column clues together and shade in exactly the squares they demand, a hidden picture — a heart, a key, an animal, a simple icon — emerges from the grid. There is no arithmetic involved; the numbers are only measurements, and the solving is pure deduction.

The puzzle goes by many names. It was popularised in Japan in the late 1980s and spread worldwide as newspapers and puzzle books picked it up, which is why you may know it as Picross, Griddlers, Hanjie, Paint by Numbers or simply a "nonogram". Whatever the label, the rules are the same, and the appeal is the same too: a Nonogram rewards patient, careful reasoning rather than luck, and finishing one delivers the small, satisfying click of a picture snapping into place. Every puzzle on vygam is generated fresh, plays instantly in your browser, and needs no download or account — pick a size and start reasoning.

How to Play

The clues follow a few firm rules, and reading them precisely is what makes a Nonogram solvable by logic alone:

• a clue of 5 on a row means five filled squares in a row with no gap;
• a clue of 2 1 means a run of two, then at least one empty square, then a run of one — always in that left-to-right or top-to-bottom order;
• a clue of 0 (or a blank line) means the whole row or column stays empty;
• the picture is complete only when your filled squares match the clues on every single row and column at once.

Nonogram Tips & Strategy

Nonograms look intimidating at first, but almost every puzzle can be unravelled with a handful of reliable techniques. These beginner-friendly methods will get you filling squares with confidence.

1. Start with the biggest clues

   Find the lines whose numbers add up to nearly the full width or height of the grid. A clue of 8 on a 10-wide row, for example, can only sit in a couple of positions, and the squares that overlap in every possible position must be filled. These "forced overlaps" give you guaranteed filled squares to build out from before you have touched anything uncertain.

2. Mark the empty squares

   Solving a Nonogram is as much about ruling squares out as filling them in. Whenever a clue is satisfied or a square cannot possibly belong to any run, place an ✕ on it. Those marks shrink the space the remaining runs can occupy, and a row that looked ambiguous often becomes obvious once the dead squares are crossed off.

3. Cross-reference rows and columns

   The real power of a Nonogram is that every square answers to two clues at once — its row and its column. Fill what a row tells you, then jump to the columns those squares sit in and see what new certainty appears. Bouncing between the two directions is how a chain of small deductions cascades across the whole grid.

4. Never guess — deduce

   Every puzzle on vygam is built from a real target picture, so there is always a logical next move waiting to be found. If you feel the urge to guess, step back and scan for the most constrained line instead — the row or column with the least free space. The forced square is almost always hiding there, and finding it by reason keeps the picture clean.

Nonogram Difficulty Levels

vygam offers three grid sizes so the challenge can grow with you. Easy is a 5×5 grid — small enough to solve in a minute or two, and perfect for learning how the clues work or for a quick brain-warmer. With only five squares per line, the overlaps and forced moves are easy to spot, so you build the habit of reading clues without feeling overwhelmed.

Medium steps up to a 10×10 grid, where clues can list several runs per line and you will lean on cross-referencing between rows and columns far more often. Hard is a full 15×15 grid — a proper picture with long clue lists, plenty of empty space to mark out, and deductions that ripple across the board. Each size keeps its own best time in your browser, so you can chase a personal record on Easy while slowly working your way up to a confident, guess-free Hard solve.

Fill Mode, Marks, Timer & Best Times

The board has two ways to touch a square. In Fill mode a tap or left-click shades a square as part of the picture, and tapping again clears it. Switch to Mark mode — or simply right-click on a desktop — to drop an ✕ on a square you have worked out must stay empty. Marks are pure notes: they help you keep track of dead space and never count toward whether the picture is correct, so you can mark as freely as you like.

A timer starts the moment you make your first move and stops the instant the picture is complete, so you always know how a solve is going. Your fastest time is stored separately for each grid size using your browser's localStorage, which means your Easy, Medium and Hard records live side by side and survive a page refresh — no account, no cloud, nothing to sign into. The Filled counter shows how many squares you have shaded so far, a handy at-a-glance read of your progress, and the Reset button clears the grid back to blank if you want a fresh run at the same picture. When your filled squares finally match the clues on every row and column, the puzzle celebrates and shows your time.

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