Stencil: the daily picture puzzle
Number clues tell you which squares to fill; a hidden picture appears when you get them all. One new picture a day, no ads, no account.
The board is wider than this screen. Swipe sideways on the clue numbers to see the rest.
Picture found
The first copy shows your stars, time, checks, hints and a trace of how fast the picture came together, never the picture itself, so nobody gets spoiled. The second adds the finished picture as black and white squares, and says so. Both are plain text.
Supporter Pass: $4, once
Today's puzzle is always free. The pass unlocks the archive of every past puzzle, 20 practice pictures, your full stats, and three extra themes, including a high-contrast mono theme with bigger crosses. It also helps keep this game ad-free.
Stats
Theme
How to play
The numbers beside each row and above each column list, in order, the length of every run of filled squares in that line. A clue of 3 1 means one run of three filled squares, then at least one empty square, then a single filled square. A 0 means the whole line is empty. Fill the squares you know are filled and, if it helps, put a cross on squares you know are empty. When the filled squares match the hidden picture the puzzle is done, the crosses disappear, and the picture's name is revealed.
Tap or click a square to fill it. Press and drag across a row or column to fill several at once. Switch Tap or drag to Cross to mark empty squares the same way, or right-click for a cross. On a keyboard, move with the arrow keys, press Space or Enter to fill, X for a cross and Backspace to clear. A clue fades when its line matches and gets a wavy underline when the line has too many filled squares. When a line matches its clue, its other squares are crossed for you. That can happen with a run in the wrong place, so treat the crosses as a convenience, not a confirmation. If you then change the line so it no longer matches, the crosses the game added come off again, and Undo reverses them along with your last tap or drag. Check circles every wrong mark and adds a check to your result. Hint fixes one square for you and adds a hint to your result.
Stuck? The guide to solving nonograms teaches the line techniques every Stencil picture can be solved with, and the Stencil solver will solve and explain any puzzle you type in, one step at a time.
How scoring and sharing work
Every picture has exactly one answer, found by two independent programs, and each one can be solved by looking at one line at a time, with no guessing. You earn three stars for no checks and no hints, two stars for up to two checks and hints together, and one star for any other finish. The grid grows through the week: 5 by 5 on Mondays, 6 by 6 on Tuesdays, 8 by 8 on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 by 10 on Fridays and Saturdays and 12 by 12 on Sundays. The new picture arrives at midnight on your own clock.