Turning a photo into a jigsaw puzzle: image choice, piece count and the box
A custom jigsaw is one of the few photo gifts that gets used rather than displayed. A family spends an evening assembling their own holiday, a couple pieces together their wedding, a child finds the dog's face one piece at a time. It is also one of the easiest photo products to get wrong, because a picture that looks lovely on a phone can be nearly impossible to assemble, or the pieces can turn out so thin that they will not stay together on the table. This guide covers what makes a photo work as a puzzle, how many pieces to choose for the people who will do it, and what to check in the printing and cutting so the result is a real puzzle and not a printed sheet of cardboard.
Choosing a photo that works as a puzzle
A good puzzle image has variety across the whole picture. Assemblers work by matching colour and detail; a photo with a large area of plain sky, white wall or dark shadow produces a hundred near-identical pieces, and that is where puzzles get abandoned. The ideal image has different colours and textures in every region, sharp focus throughout, and enough small detail to give clues.
- Works well: a group photo with lots of faces and clothing, a busy street or market, a garden, a table full of food, a collage of several smaller photos.
- Works badly: a portrait against a plain background, a beach with a big sky, a night shot, a black-and-white photo with soft tones, anything with motion blur.
- Fix for a plain background: crop tighter so the subject fills more of the frame, or build a collage of six to nine photos in a grid so every piece has something on it.
Resolution matters more than for a normal print, because the image is printed at a fairly large size and then examined at very close range. For an A3 puzzle (about 420 x 297 mm) the file should be at least 3500 x 2500 pixels. A recent phone photo taken in good light is fine; a photo saved from a messaging app, which compresses images to about 1600 pixels, will print soft and the pieces lose the fine detail that makes them distinguishable.
Piece count: matching the puzzle to the people
Piece count sets both the difficulty and the piece size, and the two work against each other. More pieces on the same board means smaller pieces; small pieces are harder to handle for young children and older adults.
| Pieces | Typical size | Piece size | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 to 48 | A4 | About 40 mm | Children under 6, a first puzzle |
| 100 to 120 | A4 to A3 | About 30 mm | Children 6 to 10, a quick family evening |
| 300 | A3 | About 20 mm | Adults, one or two sittings |
| 500 | A2 or 500 x 350 mm | About 20 mm | Keen adults, a weekend |
| 1000 | A1 or 700 x 500 mm | About 20 mm | Serious puzzlers; needs a very detailed image |
For a gift where you do not know how keen the recipient is, 300 pieces at A3 is the safe middle: it fills a table, takes an evening or two, and the pieces are big enough for anyone. Only go to 1000 if the photo is a genuinely busy scene and the person already does puzzles.
What separates a proper puzzle from a printed board
The cutting is what people notice. Three things to look for in how the puzzle is made:
- Board thickness. Around 1.5 to 2 mm of dense greyboard. Thinner board bends, the pieces will not hold together when the finished puzzle is moved, and the tabs tear off. Ask what board is used; a good answer is a number in millimetres.
- Die-cut, not laser-cut. A steel-rule die pressed through the board gives a clean edge with no scorching. Laser cutting is common for one-off puzzles and leaves a brown edge and a burnt smell; if that bothers you, ask before ordering. Die-cut puzzles use a stock cut pattern, so the piece shapes are standard and interlock well.
- Print surface. The photo is printed on paper and laminated to the board. A matte or linen-texture finish reduces glare under a lamp, which matters more than it sounds during a long evening. Gloss looks brighter in the box and worse on the table.
A puzzle is a photo print first, and the same rules apply to colour and sharpness as to any large print. Our guide to printing photos at home or at a print shop covers where the difference shows.
The box and the picture on it
The box is half the gift. A puzzle usually ships in a rigid two-piece box or a tuck-flap card box with the image printed on the lid, which is also the reference the assembler works from. If the lid photo is small, the puzzle is harder; a lid that shows the full image at a third of the puzzle size is about right. Some families ask for the lid to show a different photo, or a message, so the puzzle itself is a surprise. It makes a lovely reveal and a much harder puzzle; do this only for a keen assembler, and consider slipping a printed reference image inside the box.
A printed card inside with the story of the photo, the date and who is in it turns the puzzle into a keepsake and is a nice place to put the message that would otherwise go on a gift tag. Our article on coordinated wrapping, tags and cards shows how to match it to the rest of the gift.
Preparing the file
Send the largest original you have, uncropped; the printer will crop to the puzzle proportions and can show you the crop on a proof. If you are making a collage, build it at the final size with a 5 mm gap between photos and no text smaller than 14 pt, since text on a puzzle is cut through the middle and needs to be big enough to reassemble. Keep important faces at least 15 mm from the edge; the outer row of pieces is where a small amount of image is lost to the border cut.
Custom puzzles from our print shop
We make photo puzzles through our custom and online printing service in A4, A3 and larger sizes, from 30 to 1000 pieces, on 1.8 mm board with a matte laminate and a stock die-cut pattern so the pieces lock properly. Each puzzle comes in a printed lid box, with the option of a different lid image or a message card inside. Before we make it, we send a proof showing the crop and a warning if the image has large plain areas that will make the puzzle unusually hard. If a photo is too small for the size you want, we will say so and suggest a smaller puzzle or a collage rather than print it soft.
Turnaround is three to five working days for a single puzzle, and we can do a batch of identical puzzles for a wedding favour or a company event at a lower per-unit price. The rest of our photo products are on the general printing page; to check whether a particular photo will work, send it through the contact page and we will tell you honestly before you order.
