Color by number games

What is a color by number game?

A color by number game gives you a picture split into small cells, with a number in each cell. Every number matches one color in the palette. Pick a color, fill its cells, then pick the next, and the picture shows up bit by bit. There's nothing to work out and no way to get it wrong, which is why so many people use it to unwind.

Most color by number games online are pixel art: square cells on a grid. Thimbleberry Stitch dresses that grid as cross-stitch, so every cell you fill becomes a little X of thread on cream linen, and when you finish, the whole picture is stitched again from the first cell to the last.

Why we'd pick Thimbleberry Stitch

• Drag to fill. Start on a cell of your thread and drag. Every matching cell under your finger is stitched in one stroke, and cells with other numbers are simply skipped, so a long sweep never spoils anything.
• Every picture is open. 240 pictures in eight albums, from Garden Gate and Seaside to Night Sky and Quilt Patterns, and none of them are locked.
• A path to follow if you want one. The Pattern Book starts with small pictures like a crescent moon and grows slowly toward big 40 by 40 pieces.
• Find the last cells fast. The magnifier jumps to the nearest cell you still need and rings it. It's always free.
• A picture a day. The Daily Pattern is the same picture for everyone that day, with a leaderboard if you like a little friendly speed.

How to play color by number

1. Pick a thread (a color) from the palette at the bottom. Its cells on the linen get a soft hatch so you can see where they are.
2. Tap a cell to fill it, or put your finger on one and drag across the others.
3. When a thread is done it ticks off and the next one is picked for you.
4. Pinch or use the mouse wheel to zoom. Numbers fade in as you zoom, so they only show when they're big enough to read.
5. Finish every thread and watch the picture stitch itself again from start to end.

Color by number tips

• Zoom out first. With the numbers faded, the hatch shading shows the shape of your color. Then zoom in and sweep it in long strokes.
• Zigzag big backgrounds. Drag in a slow zigzag. Matching cells get filled and everything else is ignored, so you don't have to be careful at the edges.
• Leave the tight corners for last. Where lots of colors meet in a small space, the Snip helper is worth saving.
• On the Daily Pattern, hold before you tap. A wrong tap costs points, and pressing and holding a cell shows its thread without filling it.

If you like quiet picture puzzles

Mosaic Logic is the logic cousin of color by number: number clues tell you which squares to fill, and a pixel picture appears when you solve it. Mossnook Jigsaw is a calm jigsaw table with pictures from 12 to 768 pieces. In Arrowmere you slide arrows off a canvas to uncover the painting underneath, and Pennywort Peek puts two storybook pictures side by side for a gentle spot the difference. For more games like these, see our cozy games and jigsaw puzzles.

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