Paint by numbers
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Paint_by_Number_Example.PNG
Paint by numbers, also known as Japanese puzzles, nonograms, pic-a-pix, picross puzzles, pikurosu or griddlers, are logic puzzles in which cells in a grid have to be coloured (or left blank) according to numbers given at the side of the grid to reveal a hidden picture. The numbers measure how many unbroken lines of filled-in squares there are in any given row or column. For example, a clue of "4 8 3" would mean there are sets of four, eight, and three filled squares, in that order, with at least one blank square between successive groups.
These puzzles are often black and white but can also have some colors. If they are colored, the number clues will also be colored in order to indicate the color of the squares. Two differently-colored numbers may or may not have a space in between them. For example, a black four followed by a red two could mean four black spaces, some empty spaces, and two red spaces, or it could simply mean four black spaces followed immediately by two red ones.
Nintendo picked up on this puzzle fad awhile back and released two Picross titles for the Game Boy and nine for the Super Famicom (eight of which were released in two-month intervals for the Nintendo Power Super Famicom Cartridge Writer as the "NP Picross" series) in Japan. Only one of these, Mario's Picross for the Game Boy, was ever released in the United States.
Variations of the puzzles have appeared in recent years.
Paint by pairs or link-a-pix consists of a grid, with numbers filling some squares; pairs of numbers must be located correctly and connected with a line filling a total of squares equal to that number. When completed, the squares that have lines are filled; the contrast with the blank squares reveals the picture. (As above, coloured versions exist with matching numbers of the same colour.)
Fill-a-pix also uses a grid with numbers within; in this format, each number indicates how many of the sqares immediately surrounding it, and itself, wil be filled. A square marked '9', for example, will have all 8 surrounding squares, and itself, filled; if it is marked '0', those squares are all blank.
Paint by numbers is also a method of simple painting, often for children. A black on white line drawing contains several fully enclosed areas, each marked with a number. Each number corresponds to a certain color of paint, often provided in a set along with multiple drawings. By following the number schema, the drawing is appropriately colored.
External links
- Griddlers.net - The largest online puzzles database (http://www.griddlers.net/default.jsp)
- Conceptis Puzzles (http://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.htm)
- Nonograms category at Dmoz (http://dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Brain_Teasers/Nonograms/)
- Nonogram introduction with examples (http://havard.no-ip.info/nonogram)de:Nonogramm ja:お絵かきロジック