Printable Easy Nonogram Puzzles (Free PDF)

These printable easy nonogram puzzles are six 10 x 10 grids, each with one hidden picture, ready to print on a standard US Letter page. The PDF has two puzzles per page and a final page with all six solutions. Below you can see the six grids, how hard they are, a worked start on the last one, and how to turn the same idea into a full book.

The six easy nonograms

Five of the grids hide a silhouette and one hides a symmetric pattern. We do not name the pictures: finding them is the point. If you only want to look at the puzzles before you print, they are all below. The numbers on the left give the runs in each row, and the numbers above give the runs in each column.

Download the printable PDF (puzzles and solutions)

How hard they are

All six are Easy: a 10 x 10 grid with a solution that can be found line by line. We counted the clues of each grid for this page. "Numbers to read" is the total count of numbers around the grid, and "Most runs in one line" is the highest count in a single row or column.

Puzzles 2 and 4 have a single run in every line, so they are the gentlest start. Puzzle 6, the pattern, has the most numbers and is the best test once you are comfortable.

Printing the PDF

• Print at 100 %, on US Letter paper (8.5 x 11 inches). If your printer offers "fit to page", turn it off so that the squares keep their size.
• Pages 1 to 3 hold two puzzles each. Page 4 holds the six solutions.
• Use a pencil. Mark squares you know are empty with a small dot, and shade the squares you know are full.
• If you print on both sides, keep the solutions page apart, so you do not see the pictures by accident.

First moves on puzzle 6

Puzzle 6 is the pattern grid. Its rows read 4 4, 4 4, 1 4 1, 6, 6, 4, 2, 0, 0 and 0 from the top, and its columns read 2, 3, 2 2, 6, 5, 5, 6, 2 2, 3 and 2. Here are the first moves, each of which can be checked on the grid.

Step by step

1. Zeros first. Rows 8, 9 and 10 say 0. Put dots in all thirty of their squares.
2. Runs that nearly fill the line. Rows 1 and 2 say 4 4. Together with the gap, that is 4 + 1 + 4 = 9 squares in a line of 10, so each run can move by one square. Squares 2, 3 and 4, and squares 7, 8 and 9, are shaded in both rows.
3. Overlap of one long run. Rows 4 and 5 say 6. A run of 6 in a line of 10 can move by 4 squares, so squares 5 and 6 are always inside it. Row 3 says 1 4 1: the three runs and two gaps take 8 squares, so the 4 can move by 2, and squares 5 and 6 are shaded there too.
4. Use the empty rows. Rows 8 to 10 are empty, so column 4 (6) and column 7 (6) have rooms for their run only in rows 1 to 7. Rows 1 and 2 are already shaded in those columns, so the run starts in row 1 and covers rows 1 to 6.

From there, a second pass over the rows finishes row 3 (1 4 1) and row 4 (6). In this grid, going across all the rows and then all the columns twice is enough to fill every square.

How the grids are made

The generator builds a picture first, computes the numbers from it, and keeps the grid only if a solver that works one line at a time can finish it. That is the same reasoning as in the steps above, so there is exactly one solution and you never need to guess. If a puzzle seems to need a guess, check a number you copied or a dot you placed: one wrong square leads to others.

From a printable to a book

The PDF is a small sample. To make a whole book, create a free account and open the Nonogram assistant: choose Easy, pick Shapes, Patterns or a mix, set how many grids you want and add a "How to play" page. Our suggestion, not a rule: for a first book, mix 10 x 10 grids with a few 15 x 15 grids so that the book gets slowly harder. Read the nonogram rules if you are new, and how to solve a nonogram for the method.

Questions