Printing in color

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enxio27
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Printing in color

Post by enxio27 »

I must be the only one around here who does puzzles with pencil and paper, but it seems that nearly all my wishlist items have to do with printing. Here's another one:

I would like to have the option to print puzzle progress in color, as displayed in the Sudocue window. The grey of the solved cells is nearly indistinguishable from the black of the original clues.

I'd also like to have some color for the Windoku, Clover, etc. to show the additional constraints, something like the light blue when they're displayed on the Sudocue Web site.
Para
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Post by Para »

Hi

You're not the only one to do their puzzles with pen(cil) and paper. I actually use a pen and not a pencil, which gets me to not guess or make mistakes as easily; been a while since i used a pencil to solve a puzzle. I especially solve a lot of variants by hand, partly because they don't really suit solver programs well.
I find the clueless puzzles very suited for trainrides. Except i copy down all puzzles on paper myself. This way i can make sure i have the desired layout. Colour in the extra groups as i like.
I tend to use 5 mm graph paper(i think that is what "ruitjespapier" is called in English) make one clueless puzzle and use an extra bigger grid for the clueless puzzle. I find it easier to keep track of locked candidates and naked/hidden pairs in the clueless grid that way instead of writing all candidates down. I never really seem to make the deadline for entering the puzzles (or just forget) but maybe my trainrides aren't long or frequent enough.

greetings

Para
Marlie
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Post by Marlie »

hhhm i made them in excell so i could work on pc and also print them out to work with pencil or pen.
In excel you can use colors too
enxio27
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Post by enxio27 »

I like to let Sudocue work out all of the candidates for me, and then I print the puzzle (with candidates) to work on (usually sitting in my bed for a while before I go to sleep). For multi-grid puzzles, I have one sheet of paper for each grid.

The Clueless puzzles aren't too bad without color, but it's tough to keep track of the extra windows in the Windoku and Clover without the color to remind me where the boundaries are.
Para
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Post by Para »

I just colour them with a marker or a coloured pencil.
I like to keep the multigrid puzzle on one sheet, so i can easily check for interactions between grids. I don't write down all the candidates for multigrid puzzles, as they never tend to use any techniques over x-wing, which i manage to find without writing down the candidates. Also this way my grid looks nicer. Only write down hidden subsets and locked candidates and mark if necessary an x-wing. Only one i ever copied down all the candidates was the Catch-22 puzzle, but i still haven't solved it.

greetings

Para
enxio27
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Post by enxio27 »

Para wrote:I just colour them with a marker or a coloured pencil.
I tried that, but the colored pencil erases whenever I erase a mistake, and marker (even highlighter marker) is too dark or bright. One thing that does seem to work is coloring the border lines of the extra regions with a colored pencil.
I like to keep the multigrid puzzle on one sheet, so i can easily check for interactions between grids.
I have the whole puzzle on one sheet, but I don't work it on that sheet--too small, especially the shaolins and taikens. I put all of my answers on it after I'm finished.
I don't write down all the candidates for multigrid puzzles, as they never tend to use any techniques over x-wing, which i manage to find without writing down the candidates.
Hmmm... I generally can't do any but the easiest puzzles without candidates. I'm not sure I could spot locking candidates or X-Wings without them.

Placing candidates is nothing but sheer tedium to me, and I make too many mistakes at it (which takes all the fun out of Sudoku for me) so I let Sudocue do it.
Glyn
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Post by Glyn »

Hi Enxio

For printing Clueless (Special and Explosion) and Samurai, you could try Richard Broughtons program Sudoku Solver described here. It is highly regarded by those on the Assassin forum and it can solve the puzzles as well.

http://www.sudocue.net/forum/viewtopic. ... a7ecdcbec8

The multigrid puzzles can be imported through File/Import and then pasting Ruuds or your own strings into the window that pops up.

It will print out a global view of the puzzles including pencilmarks though understandably they will be small. To get the initial pencilmarks from the immediate eliminations due to the given values load each grid in turn and ask for one cycle of the solver.

For the bigger grids there is no real solution. I use multiple copies of Sudocue to save paper, but it is a pain having to transfer values between grids and I nearly always mess it up. For the Clueless/Samurai I work on screen with Clueless Helper as switching grids is made very easy.
I have 81 brain cells left, I think.
enxio27
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Post by enxio27 »

Glyn wrote:For printing Clueless (Special and Explosion) and Samurai, you could try Richard Broughtons program Sudoku Solver described here. It is highly regarded by those on the Assassin forum and it can solve the puzzles as well.
Thanks, Glyn! I took a look at this, but it doesn't print individual grids. However, if I can get it to at least save the pencil marks for the 10th grid of a Clueless so that I can print it from Sudocue, it will help. My free trial of Clueless Helper expired (I used it only once and found out it wouldn't print), and it appears that I won't be able to see whether CH has this functionality unless I register it first (which I don't want to do yet).
rcbroughton
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Post by rcbroughton »

enxio27 wrote:Thanks, Glyn! I took a look at this, but it doesn't print individual grids. However, if I can get it to at least save the pencil marks for the 10th grid of a Clueless so that I can print it from Sudocue, it will help. My free trial of Clueless Helper expired (I used it only once and found out it wouldn't print), and it appears that I won't be able to see whether CH has this functionality unless I register it first (which I don't want to do yet).
Check out a latest version of my program. For Clueless and Samurai it now has three options enabled in the printing dialog:
Current Page: prints only the grid currently shown on screen
Selection: prints the combined puzzle on a single page
All: prints an "exploded" view of all 5 (Samurai) or 10 (Clueless) grids on a single page
enxio27
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Post by enxio27 »

rcbroughton wrote: Check out a latest version of my program.
Thanks! I got your email about this, but so far I haven't had time to take a look at it. I'm sure I'll try it out when I start my next Clueless puzzle (or maybe when I try to tackle Clueless 4a again).
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