Colors, Detail and Smoothing: The Photo Puzzle Settings Explained

When you turn a photo into a puzzle on the My photo page, three settings decide what you end up coloring: Colors, Detail and Smoothing. Each one changes a different step of the process, and they affect each other, so it helps to know what each one really does before you start adjusting.

What each setting changes

Colors

Colors sets how many colors the finished puzzle may use, from 6 to 28. The default is 16. The app groups every pixel of your shrunken photo into that many color groups, choosing the groups so that each one stays close to the real colors it replaces.

Fewer colors means each group has to cover a wider range of shades. A sky that slowly fades from pale to deep blue might become a single blue with 6 colors, but three or four bands with 24. More colors keeps those soft steps and makes the result look closer to the photo, but it also adds more edges, and every edge creates more areas.

Colors is not a direct area count. A photo with large flat regions can use 24 colors and still have few areas, while a textured photo can have many areas even at 8.

Detail

Detail chooses the size of the grid your photo is shrunk to before anything else happens: 90 cells on the long side for Easy, 130 for Medium and 170 for Detailed. A finer grid keeps smaller features, such as an eye, a window or a petal, because they cover enough cells to survive.

Detail also changes how small specks are handled. After colors are grouped, tiny scraps are merged into a neighboring area, and Easy merges more aggressively than the other levels. So Easy gives you both fewer cells and bigger, simpler areas, while Detailed keeps more of the small pieces.

Smoothing

Smoothing has four levels: None, A little, More and Most. The default is A little. It softly blurs the photo before colors are grouped, so fine noise and texture blend into their surroundings instead of turning into specks.

Raise it when grain, fur, foliage or fabric creates clusters of tiny areas. Lower it when the photo is already clean and you want crisp edges, for example a graphic image or a sharp close-up with clear outlines. Too much Smoothing can round off corners and melt thin features into the background.

How the settings work together

The three settings meet at the same place: the number and size of areas. A few patterns are worth knowing:

• Detail and Smoothing pull in opposite directions. Detailed keeps small features, and heavy Smoothing removes them. If you choose Detailed for a portrait, keep Smoothing low so the face does not soften away.
• Colors and Smoothing work together on gradients. Many colors on a noisy photo produces lots of thin bands and specks. Adding Smoothing first lets those extra colors show up as clean steps instead.
• Easy forgives a lot. Its coarse grid and stronger speck merging hide many problems, which makes it a good choice for phones and for a first try with an unfamiliar photo.

Reading the live preview

Next to your original photo, the preview shows the puzzle's numbered outline and a line such as "16 colors · 140 areas". Read it as two separate signals.

The color count can come out lower than the number you chose, because only colors that actually remain in the picture are kept. The area count tells you how much tapping is ahead and how small the pieces are. For a sense of scale, the gallery calls a picture Easy when it has fewer than 30 areas and Medium when it has fewer than 60, so a photo puzzle with several hundred areas will be a long, detailed session.

Look at the outline too, not only the numbers. Clusters of tiny shapes in one region, like a bush or a patterned shirt, are a sign to raise Smoothing or crop that region out. If the subject has lost its eyes or edges, raise Detail or lower Smoothing.

Starting combinations to try

These are starting points, not rules. Adjust one setting at a time and watch the preview.

• Pet close-up: Colors 16, Detail Medium, Smoothing More, to calm the fur.
• Portrait: Colors 16 to 20, Detail Detailed, Smoothing A little.
• Landscape or sunset: Colors 20 to 24, Detail Medium, Smoothing A little, so sky gradients get several bands.
• Food from above: Colors 12 to 16, Detail Medium, Smoothing More.
• Quick relaxing puzzle on a phone: Colors 8 to 10, Detail Easy, Smoothing More.
• Logo, drawing or flat graphic: Colors set close to the number of colors the image really has, Detail Medium, Smoothing None.

As a general rule, lower Colors or raise Smoothing when the puzzle feels too busy, and raise Colors or Detail when it looks too flat or loses important features. If small areas are what slow you down, the small areas guide has tips for coloring them, and choosing a good photo often matters more than any setting.