How to play nonograms
A nonogram is a picture-cross puzzle. Numbers on the top and side of a grid tell you how to fill it. When every line matches its numbers, a picture appears. Plates is the nonogram on this hub: fifteen plates from 5×5 to 10×10, played in the tab, saved on this device under plates:v1.
The numbers are block sizes
A 3 means three filled squares stuck together. Two numbers on one line are two separate blocks, with at least one empty square between them. A 5 on a 5-wide row means the whole row is ink. That first deduction is how Plate 1, the plus, opens.
Ink and X
- Ink paints a square you know is part of a block.
- Mark stamps an X on a square you know stays empty.
- Tap the same square again to undo that mark.
Guessing works on tiny grids and falls apart on 8×8 and 10×10. Mark the empties as soon as a line cannot use them. Gold numbers on Plates mean that line already matches its clue. Leave it.
Plates is fifteen authored pictures from 5×5 to 10×10. For the tab-versus-app argument see a puzzle with no download. For the cash-out question see house rules.