🖼 A hidden picture is waiting inside the grid. Use the numbers above each column and beside each row to work out which squares to fill in — the answer key sits at the bottom, fold it backward along the dotted line before you start.
Each number tells you how many squares in a row to fill in that line, in order. A clue of 2 2 means: fill 2 squares, leave at least one blank, then fill 2 more.
| 3 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 6 2 | 6 2 | 5 2 | 6 2 | 6 2 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 3 | |
| 3 | |||||||||||||||
| 5 | |||||||||||||||
| 7 | |||||||||||||||
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| 9 | |||||||||||||||
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| 4 4 | |||||||||||||||
| 13 | |||||||||||||||
| 13 | |||||||||||||||
| 3 3 | |||||||||||||||
| 3 3 | |||||||||||||||
| 3 3 | |||||||||||||||
| 3 3 |
Nonograms (also called picross, griddlers, or hanjie) are logic puzzles that hide a picture inside a grid of numbers:
This puzzle is a 15×15 grid. For the full method, edge logic, and tougher techniques once you're ready to level up, read our complete guide to nonograms and advanced nonogram techniques.
Not sure where to begin? Here's exactly how Mr. Puzzle opens this grid. Rows are numbered top to bottom and columns left to right.
This grid is a perfect mirror image. Column 1's clue matches column 15, column 2 matches column 14, and so on. Every square you solve on the left side tells you the matching square on the right. When the bottom rows (3 3) feel tricky, work them from the outside edges inward.
Every square can be found one line at a time. You never have to guess or hold two possibilities in your head. The big clues (13, 10 and 9) hand you a quick start, and the mirror symmetry means you only really solve half the puzzle. If this is your first 15×15, this is a great one to cut your teeth on. Once it feels comfortable, the rest of the alphabet series uses the same tricks with a little less help.
This is the first puzzle in our Phonetic Alphabet series, named after the spelling alphabet pilots, ships and radio operators use to spell words over a crackly radio. Officially, the first word isn't spelled "Alpha" at all. It's Alfa. The international version, which came into use in the 1950s, swapped the "ph" for an "f" so speakers of other languages wouldn't misread it. (Juliett gets an extra "t" for the same kind of reason.) Before that, Allied forces in World War II used a different list where A was Able and B was Baker.
Beginning of Apple hides a bold capital letter A — the pointed peak at the top, the crossbar through the middle, and two legs splayed out to the feet. It's the first in a series of block-letter nonograms on The Puzzle Solver.
Puzzle Pack: Symbols & Icons