5×5 nonograms

Five squares a side is the warm-up: the simplest way to learn the rules, and the size to hand a kid who has never seen a nonogram. Pick a difficulty and start.

What makes 5×5 different

On a line only five squares long, almost every clue is big compared with the line. Overlap and lines that fill exactly do most of the work, so you can see the two core techniques pay off within seconds.

Hard and expert 5×5 boards still exist: they hide the picture behind short, scattered clues, which makes them good practice for reading rows and columns together.

Techniques that matter. Overlap, exact fits and the zero-clue clear carry most of a 5×5. Out of reach and gaps too small have little room to act, because a run in five squares can hardly move. On expert, lookahead appears even at this size, which makes it the gentlest place to try the idea: with only 25 squares you can follow a test fill to its contradiction in your head.

Tips for 5×5

1. Look for 5s, 4s and "3 1"s first. Each one fills or almost fills its line on its own.
2. A 0 clears a whole line. Cross it out straight away; every cross helps the columns.
3. Say the clue out loud. "Two, gap, two" is easier to hold in your head than the squares.

Expert boards can't be finished with line-by-line reasoning alone. You'll need lookahead (see How to play).