Taking a screenshot that imports cleanly

A screenshot is the most reliable way to get a board into the solver. It is flat, sharp and has the game's exact colors, so the import usually finds the grid by itself and reads every dot correctly.

Start from an unplayed board

Take the screenshot before you draw anything, or restart the level first. This matters more than anything else on this page.

The importer records a dot wherever the middle of a cell is mostly bright color. A drawn path runs through the middle of every cell it covers, so a half-played board can come back with a "dot" in each of those cells. A few give you extra dots to delete. Many can stop the import with Too many candidate colors. Adjust the corners or use an unplayed board.

Also close anything covering the board, such as hint markers, a notification banner or the volume indicator.

Taking the screenshot

iPhone and iPad

iPhone with Face ID: press the side button and volume up together, then let go.
iPhone with a Home button: press the side (or top) button and the Home button together.
iPad without a Home button: press the top button and either volume button together.
iPad with a Home button: press the top button and the Home button together.

The screenshot is saved to Photos. Open the solver in Safari, tap Choose image and pick it from your library. Take photo, also on the start screen, opens the camera and is meant for a board on another device (see Photographing another screen).

Android

On most phones, press the power button and volume down together and hold for a moment. Many also offer a screenshot tile in Quick Settings. In the solver, tap Choose image and pick the screenshot from your gallery or photos app.

On a computer

You don't need to save a file. Copy a screenshot to the clipboard and press Ctrl+V on the solver page (Cmd+V on a Mac), as the start screen suggests with Drop a screenshot here, paste one with Ctrl+V, or choose a file.

Windows: Windows+Shift+S lets you select an area and copies it to the clipboard.
macOS: Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+4 lets you select an area and copies it instead of saving a file.

Pasting works anywhere on the page while no dialog is open. A pasted image replaces the board you're working on, so save that board first if you want it. You can also drag an image file onto the page.

What to include

Include the whole playing grid, with all four outer corners and a little background around it. A full-screen screenshot is fine, because the import searches the image for the grid. Never crop into the grid, since a missing row or column can't be recovered.

Cropping close to the board helps on large boards. The solver scales every image to 1,600 pixels on its long side before reading it, which leaves the board of a tall phone screenshot about 700 pixels wide. That is plenty for 10 × 10, but cropping gives each cell of a 20 × 20 board more pixels.

The automatic outline expects the usual look of these games, a dark background with thin, lighter grid lines between square cells. With a light theme or no grid lines, you place the corners by hand. A light background can also be mistaken for dots, so choose a dark theme if the game offers one.

Accepted files

The solver opens JPEG and PNG images up to 20 MB and 40 megapixels. Phone and tablet screenshots are already PNG or JPEG. WebP, GIF and HEIC files aren't accepted. Dropping one shows Drop a PNG or JPEG image.

iPhone camera photos are often HEIC, but Safari normally hands the page a JPEG copy when you pick one with Choose image. If a HEIC file gets through, you'll see Choose a valid JPEG or PNG with a readable image header. Export HEIC photos as JPEG first.

What the import does with your image

It looks for the grid. The solver searches for evenly spaced lines across and down the image. If it finds a regular run in both directions, with cells close to square, the outermost lines become the board's edges and the gaps give the row and column counts. You go straight to Check the dots.
If it can't find the grid, it asks you. You'll see Line up the board and Drag the yellow corners onto the board's outer corners, then set the grid size. Do that, set Rows and Columns, and tap Find dots. The faint yellow lines inside the outline should sit on the game's grid lines.
It straightens the board. The solver stretches the four-cornered outline into a flat, square-on grid, which also corrects a slight tilt.
It reads each cell. It records a dot where the middle of a cell is bright and colored, and groups dots of the same hue into one color with its own letter. It never marks holes, so mark any gaps yourself as described in Fixing detection mistakes.

After the import, the Board and Original buttons above the board switch between the editable board and the straightened crop of your image. If the crop looks skewed or cuts off an edge, tap Adjust outline, move the corners and tap Find dots again. Do this before you edit any dots, because Find dots reads the image again and replaces your changes.