The "Nonogram" is the name of a kind of artwork created by renowned Japanese artist Non Ishida in 1987. These artworks, which she generally calls "Window Art Puzzles", are grid-based puzzles that use numbers at the top (columns) and left side (rows) of the grid to determine which squares to be blacked (shaded), and which to leave blank.

By assigning and designing the given numbers in such a way, Ishida was able to create pixelated art and images, which the player is able to bring out by simply following the assigned numbers for the rows and columns, which together, facilitate the creation of the pixelated image, block-per-block.

These numbers indicate how many blocks or squares in both the row and column to paint or shade, and which ones to leave blank or place an X or Circle on. As the player, you will need to figure out the numbers and logically find the locations on the grid.

Ishida is well known (in Japan and internationally) for her artistic uniqueness and flair, particularly in creating light displays on skyscrapers that stun the entire cityscape. Aside from Ishida, puzzle designer and game creator Tetsuya Nishio is also well known and credited for creating his own brand of grid-based image puzzles, which he called "Oekaki Logic" or "Paint Logic".

Nonograms Goes Global

The word Nonograms, however, was coined by James Dalgety, a British puzzle collector who helped Ishida introduce her puzzle art outside Japan. Nonograms come from Ishida's first name, "Non", and "diagarams", thus "Nonograms". Ishida's puzzles were published in the UK by The Sunday Telegraph in 1993.

In 1998, The Sunday Telegraph held a contest to rename the puzzle genre, as "Nonograms" exclusively referred to Ishida's artwork-puzzle trademark in Japan. The name "Griddlers" was chosen, or the more generelized old Japanese word "Hanjie", meaning "judge picture".

Also, Nonograms are often referred to as Japanese crossword puzzles as they use logic-puzzle solving to fill up the squares in a grid. It is best to note that not all images that result from filling up the grid are actual pixelized images of things, places, and other pictures, but it is safe to say that there will always be an image that will appear when solving the game.

Picross, The Port To Digital

It was the 1990s, and Nintendo was practically king of home and handheld console gaming, and Nonograms was a game to be ported to the electronic medium. Puzzle-solving games were already popular as video games, and Nintendo jumped on the opportunity, implementing Nonograms into their puzzle games in 1995. The company also implemented a trademark name for this kind of puzzle game, which they called "Picross", for "picture crossword", where solving the puzzles presented pixelized picture images to the gamer.

Nintendo then released "Mario's Picross" for the Game Boy outside of Japan. Over time, the company continued to release versions for each of their other consoles, like the DS in 2007, and all the way to the more recent Nintendo Switch. What's more, the increasing popularity of the puzzle genre had prompted other game publishers to release versions of their own, like the Nonogram puzzle that was released as part of the Halloween event for the MMORPG game "Runescape" in the UK in 2011.

By today, Nonogram game puzzles have already been proliferating worldwide whether through various publications like newspapers and magazines, or as video games. From North America, the EU, to Asia, and other parts of the world, Nonogram puzzles in various names and forms, yet with the same core game principles are readily available for download, or to be played online, and can be found on sites like games for grandma where one can get to experience and enjoy a deep meditative puzzle solver unique from Japan to the world.

For those who are still uninitiated with the game and how to play it, there are a lot of tutorials and tips online that can get one started on Nonogram Gaming.

Image Info:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2622750/Nonograms/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/house-japanese-building-8692522/
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-hokusai-moutains-japan-8185502/