The one nobody's table survives long enough to finish
A 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, online.
Printed out, a puzzle that size runs to something like two metres by a metre and a half, and finishing one is ordinarily weeks of work, most of that time spent just keeping a table clear for it. This is the same idea without the table problem. Pick a painting, or bring your own photo, and build it at whatever pace real life gives you. The project remembers where you left it, checks in with the server as you go, and when the last piece lands you can claim a certificate for it.
free · no sign-up · a painting or your own photo · saves your place · a certificate at the end
What changes above 2,000
A project, not a session.
Below 2,001 pieces this is the same classic table the rest of the site plays, finished in a sitting or two. Above it, the table treats what you are building as a project rather than a game. It registers itself with the site once, at the start, so it has something permanent to check your work against later. From then on every fifty pieces you drop, it sends what happened to the server, which repeats those same moves on its own copy of the board and confirms the two still agree. That is what makes a finished project provable later, not just claimed.
None of that asks anything of you while you play. If a connection drops partway through a checkpoint, the board keeps going. It may not be able to vouch for that one stretch later, but it never stops you to explain that.
Ten thousand loose pieces on one screen would be nothing but noise, so the view never shows more than about a thousand at once, however far you zoom out. As pieces find each other and join into groups the count of loose ones drops, and the view can pull back further, the same way a smaller board would. The picture opens up as you earn it rather than all at once.
Close the tab whenever you like. The project waits exactly where you left it, on this device, for as long as it takes to come back to it.
When it is finished
Something to show for it.
A puzzle that took weeks deserves more than the picture settling back together and a chime. Finish a project and you can put a name on it and claim a certificate: a public page of its own, at a link you can send to anyone, showing the piece count, when the project started and when it finished, how many checkpoints it passed along the way, and whether the pace looked like an ordinary game of chipping away at something. It is a record of the puzzle, built from what the server actually watched happen. It does not check that the name on it is yours. Nobody has to prove who they are to build a jigsaw here, and a certificate does not change that.
Questions
Before you start.
Are there 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzles?
Yes, though not many, because a board that size is a rare thing to actually finish and puzzle makers cut fewer of them for exactly that reason. This is a digital one: the same idea, cut the same way, without needing a table big enough to hold a finished 10,000-piece picture or a room where that table can sit untouched for weeks.
How long does a 10,000 piece puzzle take?
A printed one is ordinarily a matter of weeks rather than evenings, and the harder part is usually not the solving, it is keeping a table clear for that whole stretch. This one has no clock and no table to give up. It saves your place as you go, so a session can be ten minutes or an afternoon, and the project waits exactly where you left it until the next one.
How large is a 10,000 piece puzzle?
Printed out, a board that size usually works out to something like two metres by a metre and a half, most of a dining table on its own. Online there is nothing to measure like that. The view has its own limit instead, covered above: it never shows more than about a thousand loose pieces at once, however far you zoom out.
What changes at 2,001 pieces?
The table becomes a project rather than a game you finish in a sitting. Pick a painting or upload a photo of your own the same way you would for a smaller table, and once you start, this one registers itself with the site, quietly, so it has something permanent to check your work against. Every fifty pieces you drop, it sends what you did to the server, which repeats the same moves on its own copy of the board and confirms the two still agree. If a connection drops mid-checkpoint the board keeps playing regardless, it just may not be able to vouch for that stretch later.
Can I leave and come back later?
Yes. That is the whole point of a project rather than a puzzle. Close the tab and the table remembers your place on this device, so you can pick it back up the next evening, or the next month, for as long as it takes.
Does the certificate check who I am?
No. The name on it is whatever you type in when you claim it, and nothing checks that it is yours. What the certificate above does record, from what the server actually watched happen, is the puzzle: the piece count, the dates, the checkpoints, and the pace.
Can two people build one of these together?
No. This is the one mode on the site built for exactly one player. A table for two still runs from twenty-five up to two thousand pieces, the same as it always has, and that is a real jigsaw with a real second person in it. A project above that is yours alone to finish.
If you wanted a shorter evening
The plain table stays put.
Most nights the right puzzle is smaller than this. The classic table cuts a jigsaw from a painting or a photo of your own at anywhere from twenty-five to two thousand pieces, and it seats two if you want the company. A project is what happens once you push the slider past that, on your own, for as long as it takes.