Instant to start
Open the page and a puzzle is already dealt. No account wall, no download, no splash video — the grid is waiting before you finish reading this sentence.
About Us
About playnonogram.app
We publish a free, modern browser version of the nonogram — the picture-logic puzzle also called Picross, Griddlers, and Hanjie — with fair, guess-free grids at 5×5, 10×10, and 15×15, and a layout that works on any screen.
Our craft
Numbers in. Picture out.
Read the clues, fill what is forced, cross out the rest. That loop is everything we design around.
- Grid sizes
- 3
- Solution each
- 1
- Guesses needed
- 0
Grid sizes
Solution each
Guesses needed
What we make
A free nonogram that stays in the browser
playnonogram.app is the site behind our version of the nonogram picture-logic puzzle. The product is a single-player game: read the run-length clues on each row and column, deduce which squares are filled, and a small picture appears.
We are not an app-store publisher and there is nothing to download. The game is the website. That keeps load times short, works on phones and desktops alike, and avoids an account wall. Best times, puzzle counts, and streaks per grid size live in local browser storage on your device.
If you are comparing this to another puzzle site, this page only speaks for playnonogram.app. The notation, rules, and grid sizes described in our how-to-play guide and FAQ match this exact build.
Our story
From lit skyscraper windows to your browser tab
The nonogram is younger than most classic puzzles — barely forty years old — but it spread fast and under a remarkable number of names. We treat that history as a reason to get the notation exactly right and the friction as close to zero as we can.
- 01
Two inventors, one puzzle
The modern nonogram was devised independently around 1987 by Non Ishida, a Japanese graphics editor who built pictures from lit windows on a skyscraper, and by James Dalgety in the UK, who named the puzzle after Ishida. Newspapers in Tokyo and London began running them within a year of each other.
- 02
Magazines and Nintendo
Through the 1990s the puzzle spread under a dozen names — Griddlers, Hanjie, Pic-a-Pix, Paint by Numbers — in dedicated puzzle magazines. Nintendo licensed it as "Picross" and shipped it on the Game Boy in 1995, then on nearly every console since, which is how most players first met it.
- 03
This build
playnonogram.app is an independent, modern implementation of the standard ruleset. What is new is a renderer that is smooth on a phone, drag-to-fill that locks to a straight run, clue labels that dim when satisfied, synthesized sound with a real mute, and a generator that only serves puzzles a logic solver can complete.
What we stand for
Principles behind every puzzle
Fair by construction
Every puzzle is generated and then checked by a logic solver. If the solver cannot finish it by deduction alone, it is thrown away. You will never be asked to guess.
Yours to keep
Fastest solve, puzzles completed, and streak per grid size live on your device. There is no login holding your record, because there is no login.
Free, for real
The whole game is free forever. No energy meters, no interstitial video ads between puzzles, no surprise paywall on a bigger grid.
Who it is for
Players who want a clean logic puzzle
playnonogram.app is a family-friendly, single-player game with no chat and no store. A poor fit if you want multiplayer or live events; a good fit if you want a fair nonogram, on whatever screen is nearby, that you can trust never to need a guess.
Short sessions
A Mini grid is a minute; a Classic grid is five to fifteen. Nonograms suit a phone on the couch or a browser tab between tasks, not a long campaign.
Logic, not reflexes
There is no clock forcing a move and nothing to react to. The entire challenge is spotting the next forced square.
Play without an account
Your record stays on the device you played on. That is a deliberate trade: instant play and real privacy, with no cloud restore.
Why this site
How playnonogram.app is different
There are many nonogram sites. This one exists to ship a single honest, fast version — verified-solvable grids, three sizes, and no clutter.
Verified solvable
Many random nonogram generators produce grids that need trial and error. Ours runs each candidate through a line-logic solver and discards any it cannot finish, so every puzzle has one solution you can reason your way to.
Controls that respect your hands
Click or drag to fill a run, right-click or a mark toggle to cross out blanks, full keyboard control with a moving cursor, and a satisfied clue that dims so you stop re-reading a finished line.
No clutter
No auto-playing video, no fake "install our app" banners, no dark patterns around the settings. The how-to-play guide and FAQ describe this exact engine, not a generic write-up.
Contact
Stay in the loop
Feedback on a grid size, a bug report, partnership ideas, or a simple hello — we read every message. Hit the button and we will get back to you.
Stay in TouchPrefer the fine print first? Our legal pages cover how the site works and how we handle analytics.