Wxv.Nonograms

Version 1.0.0

Nonograms are picture logic puzzles which when solved reveal a hidden picture. See also Wikipedia. This is a little windows application to play them.

I built this because I was a little frustrated with the limitations of the otherwise excellent existing online web interfaces for this game. It is heavily inspired by www.nonograms.org, but also has my own original contributions. It's main extra features include:

• Lightweight UX, no web page or other extras to get in the way.
• Provides the dimension of the cells your drawing.
• Allows you to measure a dimension without drawing any cells.
• When you start drawing or measuring a row or column of cells, it won't draw outside that range (unless you press shift). This prevents simple mistakes caused by clumsy hands.
• Unlimited hints ( but i don't need that 😊 ).
• Undo and Redo.
• Remembers the puzzle you've worked on when you previously ran the application.

Instructions

• Left mouse button click marks or un-marks cells as being set.
• Right mouse button click marks or un-marks cells as being unset.
• Middle mouse button click measures the dimensions of a set of cells.
• Keep pressing the mouse button and move the mouse pointer to draw or measure a range of cells.
• Hold Shift while pressing the mouse button if you want to draw or measure a block (not a column or row) of cells.
• The Del key clears the drawing.
• Control+Z undoes an operation.
• Control+Y redoes an operation.
• Space checks the picture for correctness or completeness. Incorrect cells show as red.
• The H key provides a hint. Hints show as green. Press space to complete the hint. Note: A nonogram puzzle must have a specific determinable possible solution in at least one row or column for hints to work.
• Control+V will import a puzzle from the clipboard. It can be one of the following formats:
  • A URL to a www.nonograms.org black and white puzzle online e.g. https://www.nonograms.org/nonograms/i/1348 .
  • A URL to a www.nonograms.org answer image online e.g. https://static.nonograms.org/files/nonograms/large/kotyonok3_12_1_1p.png .
  • A solution image. This must be a simple two color image. This allows you to make and test your own nonogram puzzles in an application like paintbrush and play or test them in this windows application.
  • Note: Puzzles should be no smaller the 5 cells and no larger then 50 cells in width and height.

Installation

• Prerequisites:
  • Windows 11 (10 should probably work too, as long as it supports .NET 7)
  • .NET 7 SDK ( or later versions ) https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/7.0
• Download the source and run the Wxv.Nonograms.UX project from the IDE or command line. It needs .NET 7 SDK and/or an IDE that supports it.
• Note: The application saves the puzzle you last worked on to the ~user\AppData\Local\Wxv.Nonograms.UX folder. Delete this folder manually if don't want it.

Notes

• This is just a personal hobby project. No warranty provided. There are probably lots of things to fix or improve. Feel free to fork.

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to www.nonograms.org which provide a really excellent web interface to play this game.