What makes the perfect Jigsaw Puzzle Image?

There is more to the perfect puzzle image then just finding a pretty picture. We are about to reveal to you our secrets for selecting the absolutely perfect jigsaw puzzle image.

Listen carefully everyone, because this information is going to be extremely important if you plan on entering our puzzle design competition COMING SOON.

What we don’t want.

We dont want images that make extremely difficult jigsaw puzzles. 

At Journey of Something, we do not like our jigsaw puzzles to be too hard. Very difficult puzzle rely largely on a trial and error approach of placing pieces and we don’t think that is very fun.

• Images with hardly any variations of colour, or similar shades of the same colour make for extremely hard jigsaw puzzles. Here's an example: 

• Some images have lots of different colours but they are still too hard because the colours are all consistently throughout the image. For example, there isn’t red in the bottom left had corner only, there is red throughout the entire jigsaw puzzle. So when you pick up a piece with red on it, it could go anywhere. So patterns or repetitive images make very hard jigsaw puzzles too. Here's an example of an image that would get a big NO from us:

What we do want 

What kinds of images are perfect for puzzling?

• Images with lots of different colours, but each colour is restricted to a particular area of the jigsaw puzzle. Or images with lots of details and the details are not repetitive. 

• Lots of little details. Puzzles are an adventure and you should be able to discover lots of interesting little details along the way, details you don't notice when you are looking at the image as a whole. We love finding little surprises in an image. 

To help you along we have made up this example image of what would be an easy puzzle to complete (we know it's a daggy image, but it would make a very user friendly jigsaw puzzle). 

Here are more examples of puzzles we love which have a good level of difficulty and are made by yours truly of course.

This is a custom puzzle we made for a customer that is a great example of lots of details and distinct areas of particular colours.

Here is another example of an image that makes a perfect puzzle:

When you pick up a puzzle piece with light blue on it, you know it is part of the train and therefore most likely goes in the bottom right-hand side of the puzzle.

Can you use abstract images? Yes, abstract images are just as good for jigsaw puzzles as the images above. But the same principles apply, the abstract image should have as many unique colours as possible and those colours should be confined to particular areas.

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to take this principle and make it into something exciting. And then you could see your image on a Journey of Something jigsaw puzzle!

If you are interested in participating in our puzzle design competition and want more information, please join our mailing list here and we will let you know once the competition is live.