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A computer jigsaw puzzle is a popular PC game which involves connecting various irregularly cut ('jig sawed') and interlocking pieces to recreate a complete picture with programs.
Computer jigsaws can be an educational pastime, excellent for killing time or relieving stress, and a great fun game for family and children to share.
Most programs come with a set of pictures in various numbers of pieces. What"s more? Some good free programs have a cool feature to allow you to create a jigsaw puzzle from your own pictures to give it a personal touch. This makes the puzzle even more fun and interesting.
Discussion
Jigs@w Puzzle Free is our Top Pick, has a good 3D design and is pre-installed with 10 pictures ranging from 12 to 126 pieces in the free version.
Among the puzzles available from the program, the first one in 74 pieces will give you a surprise. Solving the puzzle is like assembling a car, because the picture is cut into the shapes of its parts and accessories.
Want to create a puzzle of your own? Try its free wizard, Jigs@w Puzzle Promo Creator, which is a separate program. It makes a puzzle from your preferred pictures - up to 40 pieces in the free version. Just 'build a puzzle' and skip the other steps (like 'defining a banner' and 'alternative text'). Your created puzzle will have a small advertisement line at the bottom of the screen, but I don't find it intrusive.
Dinosaur Jigsaw Puzzle comes pre-installed with 12 dino pictures for kids. Choose one to start a game, then adjust to any of the 4 levels of difficulty (from under 25 pieces to over 100). Each piece successfully fitted is greeted each time by a pleasant sound.
Really can't fix a piece at a certain stage? Then let the program solve a piece one at a time, or even the whole puzzle. The program reveals time spent on each game.
Dinosaur Jigsaw Puzzle is more than a puzzle of dinosaur pictures. It allows you to make your own jigsaw puzzle from your lovely photo collection or favorite pictures in jpg, gif or bmp formats. A standalone executable file will be generated by the program for running or sharing the puzzle of your choice with friends and relatives.
BigJig is a nice jigsaw puzzle full of features. Number of pieces can be set from a few 10's to over 1,000 pieces depending on each jigsaw, cut in one edgeless shape or in 8 curl shapes, with optional rotation. A puzzle can be solved in a plain or shaped frame, or even without a frame to increase the difficulty level.
Other features include pieces embossing types, thumbnail, fit to screen, 4 pockets and 2 windows, auto saving games and saving solved puzzles into bmp files, etc.
This program is pre-installed with 8 jigsaws. Players can download a free jigsaw, replaced with a new one every week, from here. Sadly more jigsaw sets are available only to paid users. This program does not have a built-in jigsaw creator using your own pictures. A separate creator is for paid users only.
Picpuz, a free Linux jigsaw puzzle program, stands out on its own by adopting a new idea. All puzzle pieces are presented right in front on the board and not scattering around. To solve a puzzle, just click any two pieces, each at a time, to swap them.
You can open an image file you like, set tile size, click "randomize tiles" and you are ready with a puzzle to solve. You can also save a puzzle at any time to a file, and open it again to solve the puzzle when you're free.
Too difficult to solve a puzzle? click "move one tile home" or even "move ten tiles home" to make life easier.
More jigsaw puzzle games
Check out these jigsaw puzzle games too:
Jigzo, a simple yet well-designed open source program, contains 12 photo puzzles ranging from 4 to 15 puzzle pieces, supports rotating pieces and sound effects. This game is easy to play and suitable for children, runs in Windows and Linux (also downloadable from Ubuntu Software Center).
Play jigsaw puzzle online
Enjoy these educational, refreshing or interesting jigsaw puzzles:
Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery at JigZone, choose a puzzle from a gallery of beautiful pictures of animals, art, flowers, scenes and other categories, change cuts into 6 to 247 pieces in different shapes. Too difficult to solve? Click 'Auto Solve'.
USA Map Jigsaw Games, drag the states to their correct places on the map in 5 levels of difficulty.
Solar System Jigsaw, drag and drop each orbiting body into its right place (in 'planet', 'moon' or 'hardware' satellite levels) and then see their relative speeds as they move around the sun.
National Geographic lets you time yourself as you solve jigsaw puzzles of selected nice photos featuring the Daily Dozen from Your Shot, with user settings for backdrop, piece size, rotation and showing assembly rectangle.
JSPuzzles offers tons of jigsaw puzzles in various sizes. You can easily select one to play from the gallery or try the daily puzzle with a different theme and get your best time recorded in the Hall of Fame.
Flash Puzzle Zone gives you top ten jigsaws and a refreshing daily puzzle to solve with a list of high scores. The image of the puzzle changes everyday.
Just Jigsaw Puzzles, more than 1,800 jigsaw puzzles you can play online, plus a new jigsaw puzzle featured every day. Adjust the level of difficulty, cutting types, enlarge the picture, click 'start' and play.
Create and play your own jigsaw puzzles online
Jigsaw Planet, create your own puzzles with difficulty levels, shapes and rotations, play your own or common puzzles or even send puzzles to friends.
Jigidi lets you play puzzles created by other members with filters by category and size, or sign in to create your own in three easy steps—select a picture from your computer, adjust for pieces, give a title and your puzzle is jigged for play.
Jigsaw Break, press a button to generate a random jigsaw, or create one using an image of your own choice from the internet, in any level of difficulty starting from 4 pieces up to 256 pieces.
Jigsaw-Puzzles, select one from thousands of puzzles, give a nickname and click 'play', with adjustable number of pieces, right click to rotate, optional background image, grid and sound effect. Or create own puzzle with a file size up to 1 MB.
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There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows 95 to Vista
Warning: Downloads from Cnet (Download.com) now require the use of a proprietary installer.
BigJig
8
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Full of features, cut into a few 10s to over 1,000 pieces depending on each jigsaw, edgeless or 8 curl shapes, rotation, embossing types, plain or shaped frames or without a frame, auto saving games, saving solved jigsaws into bmp files, etc.
A separate jigsaw creator is available to paid users only.
There is no portable version of this product available.
Linux
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My Favorite is BigJig by LenaGames. http://www.lenagames.com/bigjig.htm
You get several jigsaws plus one new one every week. Has all the features of the above mentioned games.
I've tried a few programs, and I really love jigs@wpuzzle2 from Tibosoft. I think I paid $12 for the program a couple of years ago- I usually go for freebies but this was a bargain! Tibosoft has some free versions of the program available, e.g Jigs@w Puzzle Free (above) but with fewer features.
I have made hundreds of jigsaws from very easy to difficult. There are heaps of options/features and you can even make your own templates for fun shapes.
I've put some jigsaws on my website, www.epuzzled.net with information about different programs on my epuzzleinfo page - including a chart of their features.
Hope this is helpful- jigsaws are so much fun, as well as being educational!
Cathy (PuzzlEd)
Thanks for the tips ... I was looking for a free jigsaw game for when I'm on the train and my 3G connection goes down.
I would also like to recommend my favorite site that offers free jigsaws ... its Daily Jigsaw Puzzle - http://www.dailyjigsawpuzzles.net/ - I like it because it's updated daily and I can save and load games from any computer(it saves them on the site not in your computers cache).
Kraisoft is one of the better ones i think . It is a mixture of free and paid jigsaws, I have never used the paid ones as there are plenty of free ones available, it also enables you to make your own . When doing so you choose how many pieces you want and the shape of the pieces .
The downside is that it downloads a lot of jigsaws many which you wont use but if you like ding jigsaws then that wouldn't be a major problem . Well worth a look at .
Sorry, the link has been removed. The article is about jigsaw playing online, or by software, that are free. The website you posted is commercial, and it is concerned with sending out jigsaw puzzles. This is not what this article is about. Please post about free software only.
by Wayneq (not verified) on 19. December 2011 - 20:39(85321)
Don't forget about www.JigsawADay.com
There is a new free daily jigsaw puzzle every day, plus links to more free puzzles on the site. JigsawADay.com has the web's largest collection of animated jigsaw puzzles, all free.
You just run the app (can be portable-ised very easily), choose a pic from your hard drive, select a few parameters such as shape of pieces (six choices), number of pieces (12 to 600+), and then the app exports the puzzle as a stand-alone/non-install executable.
My only two gripes are firstly that I can't find a way to disable the annoying fanfare when you finish a puzzle (no big deal though, I have a volume mute!), and the fact that when you open a puzzle, none of the pieces are rotated which of course removes much of the challenge. This seems to be par for the course though with all the jigsaw freewares I've tried.
All in all a very nice little program, and great for people like me who don't want to always fire up the internet just to play a quick game.
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Comments
I enjoy some of the online jigsaw puzzle stuff. Like this unusual take from the BBC. A virtual astronomy lesson with great flash movie s at the end:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/playspace/games/jigsaw/jigsaw.shtml
Thanks for the link. A very good example for educational jigsaw puzzles!
Free jigsaw puzzles online:
http://justjigsawpuzzles.com/
My Favorite is BigJig by LenaGames.
http://www.lenagames.com/bigjig.htm
You get several jigsaws plus one new one every week. Has all the features of the above mentioned games.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll give it a try.
I'll second your recommendation. I've tried several, and hers is by far the best. Easy to use, customizable, and a great variety of puzzles.
It's a good one but the jigsaw maker is not free.
I've added the game in the review and appreciate your recommendation for the game.
I've tried a few programs, and I really love jigs@wpuzzle2 from Tibosoft. I think I paid $12 for the program a couple of years ago- I usually go for freebies but this was a bargain! Tibosoft has some free versions of the program available, e.g Jigs@w Puzzle Free (above) but with fewer features.
I have made hundreds of jigsaws from very easy to difficult. There are heaps of options/features and you can even make your own templates for fun shapes.
I've put some jigsaws on my website, www.epuzzled.net with information about different programs on my epuzzleinfo page - including a chart of their features.
Hope this is helpful- jigsaws are so much fun, as well as being educational!
Cathy (PuzzlEd)
Thanks for sharing the info.
Yay!!! I know what to do. Hooray!!!
The best online jigsaw puzzles:
http://thejigsawpuzzles.com/
http://www.voknel.com - free online jigsaw puzzles
Thanks for the tips ... I was looking for a free jigsaw game for when I'm on the train and my 3G connection goes down.
I would also like to recommend my favorite site that offers free jigsaws ... its Daily Jigsaw Puzzle - http://www.dailyjigsawpuzzles.net/ - I like it because it's updated daily and I can save and load games from any computer(it saves them on the site not in your computers cache).
See also: http://www.voknel.com
Kraisoft is one of the better ones i think . It is a mixture of free and paid jigsaws, I have never used the paid ones as there are plenty of free ones available, it also enables you to make your own . When doing so you choose how many pieces you want and the shape of the pieces .
The downside is that it downloads a lot of jigsaws many which you wont use but if you like ding jigsaws then that wouldn't be a major problem . Well worth a look at .
My favorite website to get jigsaw puzzles is [edited out]
Sorry, the link has been removed. The article is about jigsaw playing online, or by software, that are free. The website you posted is commercial, and it is concerned with sending out jigsaw puzzles. This is not what this article is about. Please post about free software only.
Another fun and free online jigsaw site is http://www.puzzleattic.com. A huge offering of original photographs and puzzle sizes from 6 - 384 pieces.
This is well startling narration did by the author. Good justice has been done with the topic.
Don't forget about www.JigsawADay.com
There is a new free daily jigsaw puzzle every day, plus links to more free puzzles on the site. JigsawADay.com has the web's largest collection of animated jigsaw puzzles, all free.
I've been playing with this for the last few days ...
http://www.lenagames.com/astra-gift.htm
... and must say I quite like it.
You just run the app (can be portable-ised very easily), choose a pic from your hard drive, select a few parameters such as shape of pieces (six choices), number of pieces (12 to 600+), and then the app exports the puzzle as a stand-alone/non-install executable.
My only two gripes are firstly that I can't find a way to disable the annoying fanfare when you finish a puzzle (no big deal though, I have a volume mute!), and the fact that when you open a puzzle, none of the pieces are rotated which of course removes much of the challenge. This seems to be par for the course though with all the jigsaw freewares I've tried.
All in all a very nice little program, and great for people like me who don't want to always fire up the internet just to play a quick game.