How to play Nonograms

What you need

• A pencil and an eraser
• The printed puzzle sheet, or squared paper
• One player, or two racing on copies

How to set up

Numbers sit beside every row and above every column. Each number is a run of filled squares in that line, in order, with at least one empty square between runs.

1. 1. To make your own, draw a square grid, ten squares a side, with a wide margin above and to the left.

2. 2. Shade a simple picture lightly, then write each row's runs to its left and each column's runs above it.

3. 3. On a fresh grid with only the numbers, a solver fills the squares they are sure of first.

4. 4. A small cross marks a square that must stay empty. Every clue matched: the picture appears.

How to play

• Pick a row or column and work out which squares must be filled whatever happens.
• Fill the squares you are sure of and mark sure-empty ones with a cross.
• Use what you found to unlock the lines that cross it.

How to win

Fill in the squares of the grid to reveal the hidden picture. The puzzle is solved when every row and column matches its numbers.

Tip Start with big numbers: a run longer than half its line always covers its middle squares.

Variants

5 × 5

A quick warm-up: five squares a side.

8 × 8

Eight squares a side: a few minutes of logic.

10 × 10

Ten squares a side: the full newspaper puzzle.