Play Picross Puzzles Online

What Is Picross?

Picross is Nintendo's trademarked name for nonogram puzzles — picture logic games where you fill cells on a grid using numeric clues to reveal a hidden image. The name is a portmanteau of "picture" and "cross."

Nintendo introduced the Picross brand with Mario's Picross for the Game Boy in 1995. The series has since expanded to the DS, 3DS, and Switch with titles like Picross DS, Picross 3D, and Picross S. While "Picross" is a Nintendo trademark, the underlying puzzle format was invented independently by Non Ishida and Tetsuya Nishio in 1987.

Picross vs. Nonograms

There is no difference between Picross and nonograms — they are exactly the same puzzle type. Different names arose in different contexts:

• Nonogram — the original, generic name
• Picross — Nintendo's trademarked brand name
• Griddlers — popular in online puzzle communities
• Hanjie — a name common in the UK and puzzle magazines

Regardless of the name, the rules are identical: use the numeric clues along each row and column to determine which cells are filled and which are empty, ultimately revealing a hidden pattern.

Play Free Picross Puzzles

Our collection includes 180 free Picross puzzles across four difficulty levels. Every puzzle is uniquely solvable through logic alone — no guessing required.

History of Picross

The puzzle format that Nintendo branded as Picross originated in Japan in the late 1980s. Non Ishida won a competition in Tokyo in 1987 by designing grid pictures using the logic system that would become nonograms. Around the same time, Tetsuya Nishio independently created similar puzzles.

The puzzles first appeared in Japanese magazines and quickly spread to the UK through The Sunday Telegraph in 1990. Nintendo's involvement beginning in 1995 brought the format to a global audience through dedicated handheld titles, cementing "Picross" as one of the most recognized names for the puzzle type.