Blank grids for sudoku and logic puzzles
Guide · Updated 2026-08-23 · 3 min read
Half the appeal of pencil puzzles is doing them on paper, and each puzzle wants a slightly different grid. Sudoku needs its bold three-by-three boxes; nonograms need clue margins; Battleship needs named coordinates; Go is played on the lines, not in the squares. This guide covers the common puzzle grids and when to print each.
Sudoku: the 9×9 with bold boxes
A sudoku board is a nine-by-nine grid, but the feature that makes it playable is the heavier line every three cells, dividing the board into nine 3×3 boxes. Those boxes are the third constraint of the puzzle — each digit once per row, once per column, once per box — so a grid without them is unusable. A blank board is useful two ways: for solving printed puzzles on a bigger, clearer grid than a newspaper gives you, and for setting your own. Solvers often want cells large enough for pencil marks — the little candidate digits penciled in a corner — which is exactly what a full-page printout provides. The blank sudoku generator draws a crisp 9×9 with bold 3×3 boxes, as large as the page allows.
Nonograms (Picross): clue margins matter
Nonograms — also called Picross or griddlers — are picture logic puzzles: numbers along the top and left edges tell you the runs of filled cells in each column and row, and solving them reveals a pixel picture. The grid therefore needs two things a plain square grid lacks: margins along the top and left for the clues, and bold lines every five cells so you can count long runs without losing your place. Printing blanks is the easiest way to design your own — sketch the picture, count the runs, write the clues — or to solve at a comfortable size. The nonogram generator gives you the play grid plus clue margins, with the grid size adjustable from small to large.
Battleship: named coordinates
Battleship is played on a grid whose columns are lettered and rows numbered, so every square has a name like B7 to call out a shot. A proper sheet gives you two grids — one to hide your fleet, one to track your guesses — already labeled. Beyond the game itself, the lettered-and-numbered layout is a friendly way to teach coordinate reading and grid references, which is why it turns up in classrooms. The Battleship grid generator prints one grid or a stacked pair at the size you choose.
Go and Gomoku: play on the lines
Go breaks the pattern: stones sit on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares, so a Go board is a lattice of crossing lines rather than a grid of cells. Boards come in three standard sizes — 9×9 for quick games and learning, 13×13 as a middle ground, and the full 19×19 — each with marked star points (hoshi) to guide the opening. The same board suits Gomoku (five-in-a-row). The Go board generator draws any of the three sizes with the usual star points.
Why print your own
- Setting puzzles: a stack of blanks is the raw material for designing sudoku, nonograms or your own grid games.
- Comfortable solving: a full-page grid beats a cramped newspaper corner, with room for pencil marks.
- Classroom use: logic puzzles double as painless practice in counting, deduction and coordinates.
- No screen: paper puzzles are a deliberate break from one.
Print puzzle grids at true size so the boxes are big enough to write in comfortably — see how to print at the exact size. If you want a plain grid to invent something new on, start from a square grid.