Puzzle Dotter

Dot-to-dot maker

Turn a picture into a dot-to-dot puzzle

Pick a sample or drop in your own picture. Puzzle Dotter traces the main shape, spreads numbered dots along it and lays out a printable page with an answer key. Your picture is processed on this device and never uploaded.

50 dots · A4 portrait · numbers 4.4 mm

NameJoin the dotsStart at the star and join the dots from 1 to 50, then back to 1.1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950
Puzzle
Answer key

Sample: Otter

Drop a picture here or paste one. JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF or SVG.

Dots

Direction
Finding the shape

Higher picks up paler parts of the picture.

Page

How to make a dot-to-dot that works

  1. Pick one clear subject. A pet against a plain wall, a clip-art animal or a drawing on white paper. Cut-out PNGs with a transparent background work best.
  2. Check the outline. The Outline tab draws the traced shape in red. If it hugs the background, try another Shape is setting or move Sensitivity.
  3. Choose the number of dots. As a rough guide, 15–25 dots suit preschoolers, 30–60 early readers, and 100 or more makes a slow, satisfying puzzle for older children and adults.
  4. Print the puzzle and its answer key, or download either as PNG or SVG.

What the settings do

Follow the shape keeps dots on corners such as ears, fins and points, then spaces the rest evenly; Evenly spaced puts the same distance between every pair. Smoothing rounds off a ragged outline from a photo. With Automatic number size, numbers grow as large as the gaps allow, and each one is placed where it overlaps no dot, number or connecting line.

How the shape is found

The background colour is read from the picture's edges and every pixel is compared with it in CIELAB colour. Otsu's method sets the cut-off, the largest solid piece becomes the shape, its border is traced, and Visvalingam–Whyatt simplification finds the corners. Busy photo? Use Edit dots by hand.

Sources

More printables from your pictures

Three more makers for rainy afternoons, classrooms and art practice.

Questions

Is my picture uploaded anywhere?

No. Your browser reads the file and a background worker on your own device does the tracing. Nothing is sent to a server.

Why are the numbers small?

Automatic picks one size for the whole page from how close the dots are. For bigger numbers, use fewer dots or choose Large.

Can I make a puzzle without a picture?

Yes. Switch on Edit dots by hand, press Clear all and click to place dots in order: a letter, a number, a star or a child's own design. The faint picture behind the dots is only a guide while you edit; it is never printed.

Can I share the puzzles I make?

The pages are yours to print and hand out. If you start from someone else's photo or artwork, their copyright still applies, so use your own pictures or ones you have permission to use.