Question 1

How Can I Change the Styling for Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw puzzles?

Accepted Answer

Welcome to the tutorial for styling your Jigsaw puzzles made with Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw. The techniques shown in this tutorial apply to all versions of Jigsaw.

For Jigsaw puzzles, the following styling options are available:

Font Styling for Coordinates
Line Width and Color
Help Lines in the puzzle pieces.

Font Styling

You can choose any (TrueType) font on your computer for the printed coordinates. Just click the white area that has the font name (by default "Arial", in this screenshot "Artless") and the Font Setup window will be shown, where you can configure and preview the font settings.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1PQPuu1YAz/Jigsaw%20015%20-%20Font%20Styling.png (Jigsaw 015 - Font Styling.png)

Remember that not all fonts are free to use in commercial works. We have a separate tutorial to find out if you can legally use your font.

Line Width and Color

You can set the Line Width and Color for the puzzle and solution, and separately for the puzzle pieces. That way you can choose for thicker lines if the puzzle pieces are intended to be cut out.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/zGokAZ8tVW/Jigsaw%20016%20-%20Line%20Styling.png (Jigsaw 016 - Line Styling.png)

Help Lines

In addition to the puzzle piece border lines, you can also add Help Lines. These will help children (or adults) to draw parts of the puzzle piece in the right location. This can be especially helpful if you have puzzle pieces with lots of details. The next screenshot shows an example. The purple color for the Help Lines was chosen to contrast with the bright colors.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/XFp9E9y0aY/Jigsaw%20017%20-%20Help%20Lines.png (Jigsaw 017 - Help Lines.png)

Connector Types

No Connectors

Puzzles no connectors are easiest to cut out. You won't be distracted by the connectors, but the image has to be clear enough to solve a puzzle without additional clues. You also won't get any clues as to which pieces are sides or corners. If you or your customers are people who tend to start with the edges of a puzzle, this may not be the best connector type for you.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/FD92o6fKDW/Jigsaw%20007%20-%20Square%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 007 - Square Connectors.png)

Additionally you can display the coordinates and/or a number of clues for the puzzle, as shown in this screenshot:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/nqigYYDS5D/Jigsaw%20008%20-%20Square%20Connectors%20and%20Coordinates.png (Jigsaw 008 - Square Connectors and Coordinates.png)

Note: You can see difference in sizing for the puzzle grid and the puzzle pieces in these screenshots, because the coordinates require space as well.

Square Connectors

The standard setting when you open the program. Because of this, most examples and tutorials use Square Connectors:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/M456z7oFcV/Jigsaw%20002%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 002 - First Preview - Solution.png)

These are easy to cut out, and add the much-needed help for difficult puzzles. You can also see what pieces go near the edges.

Triangle Connectors

The following screenshot shows what Triangle Connectors look like:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/ZWC6eu9y6j/Jigsaw%20009%20-%20Triangle%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 009 - Triangle Connectors (1).png)

Much like square connectors, these are easier to cut out than the jigsaw connectors.

JigSaw Connectors

JigSaw Connectors are curved connectors that make your puzzle look like real jigsaw puzzles.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/WKMQgbx0MG/Jigsaw%20010%20-%20JigSaw%20Connectors.png (Jigsaw 010 - JigSaw Connectors.png)

As you can see, these would be hard to cut out, but for copy / draw puzzles they look quite nice. Or if you have a cricut or similar, you could even cut these out properly to create a real jigsaw.

Other Connector Options

Connector Length

The Connector Length determines how much the connector sticks out from the edge of the puzzle piece. This is a percentage of the puzzle piece size: 0.25% is 1/4 of the size of the puzzle piece. Horizontal connector length is derived from the puzzle width, vertical connector length is derived from the puzzle height. The following screenshot illustrates this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/0k1yXbN2bp/Jigsaw%20011%20-%20Connector%20Length.png (Jigsaw 011 - Connector Length.png)

In the example we used a fixed size for the length. You can also choose to use a randomly varied length. To do this, you can set the minimum and maximum length for the connector.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/CyHZijeErN/Jigsaw%20012%20-%20Connector%20Length%20Random.png (Jigsaw 012 - Connector Length Random.png)

You can see in this screenshot that the lengths of the connectors vary greatly. You may notice that the smaller lengths also have smaller widths...

Connector Width

By default the Connector Width is equal to the Connector Length. In some cases you may want to use a fixed width - in that case you can set it to "Max". That will use the maximum width for all connectors, regardless of the length.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/LgkwjsvaZV/Jigsaw%20013%20-%20Connector%20Width%20Max.png (Jigsaw 013 - Connector Width Max.png)

Connector Position

The final option for the connectors is the Connector Position. By default the connectors are placed exactly in the middle of the side. The amount you enter here (up to 25%) defines the maximum random adjustment away from the center. This creates a more organic look, and extra hints for where the pieces go. Just like real puzzles, you can now also tell from the location and shape of the connector where a piece goes.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/1MEmNJMUju/Jigsaw%20014%20-%20Connector%20Position.png (Jigsaw 014 - Connector Position.png)

Perfect Squares / Triangles

Depending on your taste or your customer's preferences, you may want to create puzzles with squares (where each side has the same length) or rectangles.

The default setting is to use a square, an equilateral triangle, or a circle. The total height of the image will be divided by the number of rows, and this will determine the number of columns. This may cut off the sides of the image. It may also cause white bars on the sides of the image, depending on the puzzle shape you use.

Imperfect Squares / Triangles

When you uncheck the "Perfect" option, you can set both the number of rows and the number of columns.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/s6YLNqwZVb/Jigsaw%20004%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 004 - Rows and Columns - Solution.png)

Setting the number of rows to 5 and the number of columns to 8 results in rectangular puzzle pieces, as you can see in the image.

The image below shows what this would look like on the page:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/JEOLW67NyA/Jigsaw%20005%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Puzzle.png (Jigsaw 005 - Rows and Columns - Puzzle.png)

In this image, the puzzle pieces are also printed in a 8 by 5 grid. This is a coincidence, and depends on the puzzle size and format. Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw will always try to print all the parts as large as possible.

Another example:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/NGdBlN0au5/Jigsaw%20006%20-%20Rows%20and%20Columns%20-%20Alternative.png (Jigsaw 006 - Rows and Columns - Alternative.png)

Here the difference is less extreme, but they still are not perfectly square.

Opening Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw

When you switch to Puzzle Maker Pro - Jigsaw, you'll see this view. (Details may be different in future updates of the software)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/i6SyZtuvMp/Jigsaw%20001%20-%20Initial%20View.png (Jigsaw 001 - Initial View.png)

Click on the white area just below "Select Image", or drag and drop an image file on it. You can use JPG or PNG files that you have on your computer.

After setting the file, click "Next Preview" at the bottom left, and you'll see a jigsaw puzzle, which can look a bit like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/M456z7oFcV/Jigsaw%20002%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Solution.png (Jigsaw 002 - First Preview - Solution.png)

This will usually be the solution of the puzzle, because that makes the most sense for many puzzle types. To view the actual jigsaw puzzle and the jigsaw puzzle pieces, click the checkbox "Preview Solution" at the bottom right of the window. The view will change into something like this:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/wuGqS3zSeN/resources/lmbu7bT83K/Jigsaw%20003%20-%20First%20Preview%20-%20Puzzle%20and%20Pieces.png (Jigsaw 003 - First Preview - Puzzle and Pieces.png)

If you want to save one or more puzzles with these settings, just click "Create". To generate several different puzzles at once, you can change the Quantity (which is by default set to 1).

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