Paint by Numbers

What is paint by numbers?

Paint by numbers turns a picture into a map of small regions, each marked with the number of the paint it takes. Fill every region with its colour and the painting appears, one patch at a time. The idea became a craze in the early 1950s, when the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit sold kits designed by the artist Dan Robbins under the name Craft Master, and it has stayed a favourite way to relax ever since.

Here every picture is an original flat-colour painting made for this game: thirty-eight of them, from a fox in an autumn meadow, koi, toucans and a peacock to fishing harbours, Tuscan hills, canal houses and an alpine village in winter. A program cut each one into regions by its colours, so the outlines follow the shapes of the painting itself, and the Daily is the same picture for everyone.

How to play

Paint every region with the colour of its number to finish the picture.

• Pick a colour from the numbered swatches. On a phone held upright they sit in a strip under the picture; swipe it to see them all. Held sideways, they sit in the column beside the picture.
• Tap a region that carries the number of your colour and it fills. A tap with the wrong colour is refused: the region stays blank, the status line tells you which number it needs, and no time is added. A tap just beside a small region of your colour still finds it.
• Zoom with two fingers, or with the + and − buttons, and drag with one finger to move around. Numbers too small to read appear as you zoom in. On a computer the mouse wheel zooms too.
• Swatches keep count. A ring round each swatch fills as its regions are painted, and a tick shows when a colour is finished; the next unfinished colour is then picked for you.
• Hint tints every blank region of the picked colour for the rest of the picture and brings the nearest one into view. Each hint adds 30 seconds to your score.
• On a keyboard, the number keys pick a colour, the arrow keys move a ring over the picture and Enter paints the region under it.
• Score. Your time from the first touch to the last region painted, plus 30 seconds for every hint. Lower is better.

The levels are easy (around 60 regions), medium (around 120) and hard (around 200). A picture in progress is kept on your device, so a reload carries on where you left off.

Strategy tips

1. One colour at a time. Sweeping the whole picture for a single number is faster than hopping between swatches, and a finished colour picks the next one for you.
2. Start with the big shapes. Sky, water and fields hold the largest regions and the clearest numbers; once they are painted, the small details stand out against them.
3. Zoom in for the details. On a hard picture, zoom into one corner and clear every colour there before moving on. Small regions show their numbers only up close.
4. Watch the rings. A swatch whose ring is almost full has only a few regions left, usually small ones. That is where a hint pays for itself.
5. Take your time. Wrong colours cost nothing but a moment, so there is no need to rush a tap you are unsure of.

FAQ

Is Paint by Numbers free to play?

Yes. Like every game on Play, it runs free in your browser, with no download and no account needed.

Where do the pictures come from?

They are original flat-colour paintings made for this game, thirty-eight in all: animals, flowers, still lifes, landscapes, harbours and villages. None of them shows text, logos or real people.

Why do some pictures appear only on some levels?

Each level is a size of cut. A simple picture with a few large shapes makes a lovely easy puzzle but cannot honestly be cut into 200 regions, so the hard level uses only the richer pictures.

What is the daily picture?

Every day everyone gets the same medium picture, around 120 regions, so times compare directly on the daily leaderboard.