Online Jigsaw Puzzle Tips: Edges, Colors and Piece Counts
Updated
Online jigsaw puzzles work like the cardboard kind: you drag pieces into place, and they join when they fit. The habits that save the most time are the same as on a table: build the border first, sort the rest by color, and pick a piece count that matches the time you have.
How online jigsaw puzzles work
- You choose a picture, then a difficulty. In the games below, difficulty means a number of pieces, a named level, or both.
- You drag each piece to its spot. In JiggleSaw, pieces snap together when you release them near a matching edge.
- Pieces either keep their orientation or need turning. JiggleSaw has a separate Rotation Mode for that.
- Several games add help: hints that place a piece, a shuffle, or zoom buttons.
Tip 1: Build the edges first
In most puzzles, edge pieces have one straight side, corner pieces have two, and there are exactly four corners. Find the corners, then join the straight-edged pieces into a frame.
The frame fixes the size of the picture and gives every other piece a reference point. The puzzle maker Galison's tips for solving jigsaw puzzles call building the edge first a common and effective strategy.
Tip 2: Sort by color and pattern
Group the remaining pieces by color and pattern: sky, water, a red roof, a striped awning. If the game lets you park pieces around the board, drag each group into its own area of the screen.
Start with the most distinctive parts of the picture: faces, text, strong colors and sharp lines. Leave large plain areas, such as sky or water, for last.
Tip 3: Then sort by shape
Inside a plain area, color stops helping. Look at the shape instead.
Most pieces join through rounded tabs that stick out and matching holes, called blanks. Count the tabs and blanks on each piece, and only try pieces with the right pattern in each gap.
Tip 4: Work in small sections
Finish one small area at a time instead of the whole picture at once. When a section stalls, move to another and come back later. A few pieces placed elsewhere often show you where the stuck ones belong.
Pick a piece count
More pieces mean a longer puzzle, so the count is the first setting to get right. Here is what the games below offer:
| Game | Pieces or difficulty |
|---|---|
| Lion Safari: Jigsaw Puzzles | 6, 12 or 24 pieces |
| Aberiel Church Jigsaws | 12, 20 or 42 pieces |
| African Animals: Jigsaw Puzzles | From 16 pieces on easy to 100 on expert |
| PieceAlive | Easy, Moderate or Hard |
| JiggleSaw | Easy, Hard, Expert or Rotation Mode |
For comparison, cardboard puzzles for adults run from a few hundred pieces to several thousand, and 1,000 is a common size.
Pick by the time you have: the smallest count for a short break, the largest for a long session. Move up one step once you can finish without hints. On a small phone screen, a lower count keeps the pieces big enough to see; PieceAlive also has zoom buttons for the board.
Rotation: on or off?
With rotation off, every piece already faces the right way, so its shape alone tells you where it can go. With rotation on, as in JiggleSaw's Rotation Mode, pieces can start turned the wrong way, and you hold and twist the mouse to turn them.
If you turn rotation on, set each piece upright as you pick it up, using its straight edges and the picture as a guide. Try a few puzzles without rotation first; the extra step is easier once the rest feels routine.
Hints, shuffle and zoom
- PieceAlive: the hint button highlights and places a piece, and the H key does the same.
- Torn Pieces: a hint places one random piece in its correct spot.
- JiggleSaw: hints and a shuffle.
Save hints for the end, when only the plainest pieces are left. That is where they save the most time.
Common mistakes
- Starting in the middle. Without a frame, nothing has a fixed place yet.
- Testing every piece in every gap. Sorting first cuts the number of tries.
- Jumping to the largest count. Build up one step at a time.
- Turning rotation on too early. It adds a step to every piece until you are used to it.
- Spending hints at the start. Early on, the picture itself is the most useful hint.
Jigsaw puzzles to play
There is nothing to install and no registration: each puzzle opens free in the browser. PieceAlive adds a Daily Challenge and 50 scenes of landmarks, wildlife and nature. African Animals: Jigsaw Puzzles has six pictures with the widest range of piece counts.
The jigsaw collection has many more pictures to assemble. More picture and logic games are in puzzles, brain games and hidden object games, and for tile matching instead of piece fitting, see how to play mahjong solitaire.
FAQ
How many pieces should I choose?
Choose by the time you have. In the games here, the counts run from 6 pieces in Lion Safari: Jigsaw Puzzles to 100 in African Animals: Jigsaw Puzzles, so start small and move up once you finish without hints.
How do you do a jigsaw puzzle step by step?
- Find the four corners.
- Build the straight-edged frame.
- Sort the rest by color and pattern.
- Fill the most distinctive areas first.
- Finish the plain areas by shape.
How do you do a jigsaw puzzle fast?
Sort before you place. Edges first, then color groups, then shapes within each group: testing pieces at random is what takes the time.
Do pieces rotate in online jigsaw puzzles?
Only when the game has rotation turned on. In JiggleSaw it is a separate mode; the instructions of the other games here do not mention rotation.
Corners, frame, colors, shapes: in that order, even a plain sky comes together.
