Hazel Jigsaw Puzzles

Hazel makes jigsaw puzzles out of your own photos, or out of fifty paintings that come with the app. Up to 300 pieces, on iPhone and iPad. Free, with no ads, no account, and nothing to buy.

EVERY CUT IS NEW Most puzzle apps cut on a rigid grid and stamp the same few tab shapes across it, so after twenty pieces they all start to look alike. Hazel generates every cut from scratch. The grid wanders before anything is drawn, each knob gets its own width, neck and lean, and where two cuts meet they arrive a little apart, the way a blade does. The pieces look like someone cut them by hand, and no two puzzles come out the same.

WATCH IT GET CUT Making the puzzle happens in front of you. A plain grid appears, the lines drift off true, knobs push out one at a time, and the picture falls into pieces. It isn't a loading screen. It's the actual geometry you're about to solve, drawn stage by stage.

FIFTY PAINTINGS The gallery runs from the Impressionists into the early twentieth century: Monet, Homer and Van Gogh, Klimt, Sargent and Kirchner, and a few painters you may not have met yet. All public domain, from six museums: the National Gallery of Art, the Met, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Belvedere in Vienna. The scans hold up close, down to the weave of the canvas and the ridges in the paint, and every painting comes with its title, artist, date and a few words about it.

PIECES THAT LOOK THE PART Every piece is shaded with the pressed-in rim of a well-made cardboard piece, so the board reads as things lying on a table rather than a picture with lines drawn on it. Pieces click softly when they join, and a big section lands heavier than a single piece. On iPhone you feel each join under your finger. The sound sits under your music or podcast instead of pausing it, and the silent switch mutes it.

WORK HOWEVER YOU LIKE Pieces stay wherever you put them. Sort by color, build the border first, or start with the part you like best. Joined sections move as one. The picture is a tap away, like the lid of the box. There's no score and no clock, and a puzzle you leave half-done comes back exactly as you left it, loose pieces and all.

EASY, MEDIUM, HARD, OR EXACTLY RIGHT Presets from 24 to 96 pieces cover most people. Or set the three dials yourself: up to 300 pieces, whether pieces can be turned, and how close one has to land before it snaps.

WHAT'S NOT IN IT No ads. No timers, coins or streaks. No account and no internet connection needed. Your photos never leave your device.

I made Hazel the way a good puzzle should be made: carefully, and with nothing else in the box. I hope you like it.

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