Easy or hard color by number: grid sizes and colors explained

Every color by number puzzle comes down to two numbers: how many cells you fill and how many colors you tell apart. Together they decide whether a picture is a two minute warm-up or a whole evening. GRIDANGO has 142 free puzzles in 14 collections, from a 2x2 swatch to 128x200 boards.

Grid size: how many cells you fill

A board is written width by height. A 16x16 board has 256 cells, a 32x32 has 1,024, and 128x128 is 16,384; the 128x200 boards reach 25,600. Some pictures leave part of the grid as background that never needs paint (24 of the 142 puzzles do), and the progress counter above the board counts only the cells that need paint.

Size also changes how you play. From about 20x20 up you zoom in, pan, and work one area at a time. Boards with 33 or more cells on the long edge can be colored in patches of roughly 24 cells a side, never more than six across or down. On a phone this switches on by itself from 40 cells on the long edge; on a desktop it is a Settings switch called "Color in patches".

Color count: how much looking you do

The palette sits under the board, and every color has a code: numbers first, then letters, then symbols. Each cell that needs paint shows its code until you fill it with the right color. With five colors you see shapes, not codes. With 35 colors, several of them shades a few steps apart, you read every cell.

GRIDANGO palettes run from 1 color to 37. Two things keep the big ones manageable: a finished color dims and moves to the end of the palette, and on a desktop, hovering a swatch shows how many of its cells are done. After eight finished puzzles you unlock palette sort and filter: default order, sort by hue, sort by frequency, and a "Hide completed colors" switch.

The ladder, collection by collection

Roughly easiest first. Every set is free.

Wrong colors, locked cells and stars

A wrong color does not go on the board: the cell fizzes, a sound plays if sound is on, and nothing is painted. And a correctly filled cell locks, so you cannot paint over it or erase it by accident. Short of the Reset button, the board only moves forward.

Wrong attempts still count. Each cell where you tried a wrong color at least once lowers your accuracy, and the stars at the end come from accuracy: three for 100 percent, two for 90 or more, one below that. On a 128x128 board with 37 colors, a clean run is the real challenge.

Tools that unlock as you play

Finishing puzzles unlocks helpers: a bigger brush after 2 (three sizes, a single cell, a 13 cell diamond and a 25 cell diamond, and the wide ones only spread to neighbouring cells that take the same color), Peek after 3 (hold it to see the finished picture over the board), the Prism Brush after 5 (whatever you touch gets its right color; one stroke spends one charge, topped up to three a day), and palette sort and filter after 8.

Progress saves in your browser as you go, so a 128x200 board can span several sittings, and the home screen's Continue card brings it back.

How long does each size take?

Rough figures, not a rule. A 5x5 or 10x10 with a handful of colors: one to three minutes. A 16x16 constellation with seven colors: five to ten. A 32x32 pet or a 40x40 pool toy: a relaxed quarter of an hour to half an hour. The Summer Snacks, 64 cells wide: an hour or so. The 128x128 and 128x200 sets: an evening, or several short sessions with patches on.

Where to start

If you have never played, open the Starters collection and color the checkerboard, five cells across with two colors. Then the constellation sets are the sweet spot: 88 puzzles at 16x16 to 24x24 with seven colors each, and the zodiac set is the usual first stop. After that, Mini pet at 32x32, Pool Toys and Frozen Treats at 40x40, and the high-res sets for a weekend.

The full gallery lists every set, and how to play covers the controls. On a laptop? Read color by number on a Chromebook, PC or Mac.

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