Choosing between them
Four of these five hand you an empty grid
The most useful thing to know before printing a logic sheet is not how hard it is. It is how much of the grid arrives already filled in, because that decides whether the page looks like an invitation or a wall.
Why these four, and not every puzzle that needs thinking
A logic puzzle here means one where the answer follows from the clues by deduction and can be checked against a single correct grid. That is why Sudoku, KenKen, Kakuro, and Futoshiki are on this page and a word search is not: a word search is a search, and finding a word is not a deduction. Cryptograms sit under word puzzles for the same reason, even though solving one is genuine reasoning. The dividing line is whether the grid can be proved right, because that is what makes a printed answer key worth anything.
| Puzzle | Sheet measured | Squares you fill in | Numbers printed | Other clues printed | Filled before you start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sudoku | 9x9, Medium | 81 | 23.8 | None. The grid is the whole clue. | 29% |
| KenKen | 5x5, Medium | 25 | 2.4 as one-cell cages | 11.6 cage totals | 10% |
| Kakuro | 9x9, Medium | 37.6 white of 81 | 0 | 21.5 clue squares, 24.9 run totals | 0% |
| Killer Sudoku | 9x9, Medium | 81 | 0 | 33.7 cage totals | 0% |
| Futoshiki | 5x5, Medium | 25 | 0.5 | 9.8 inequality signs | 2% |
Sudoku, KenKen, and Futoshiki figures are the mean of 8 sheets generated at build time by the same engines the builders use. Kakuro is not generated in the browser, so its row is the mean of all 152 nine-by-nine medium puzzles in the shipped bank. The last column is numbers printed divided by squares to fill.
Sudoku is the outlier, and it is the reason Sudoku is the one everybody starts with. It is the only puzzle of them that begins by giving you answers: two fifths of a Medium grid is already correct before you pick up a pencil, and your job is to extend a pattern that is visibly there. The other three tell you nothing about any individual square. They describe relationships, and the numbers are what you get for working the relationships out.
KenKen looks like an exception because a few numbers do appear, but they are given numbers in disguise: a one-cell cage is a square with its own answer written above it. A Medium 5x5 averages 2.4 of them out of 11.6 cages, and they are the cheapest way a generator has of making a grid solvable. Futoshiki sits at the other extreme with 0.5 numbers on a Medium 5x5, which usually means none at all. That looks like a printing fault the first time you see it and it is not: an empty grid with the right signs on it still has exactly one answer. Easy keeps 4.1 numbers on purpose, because a beginner needs somewhere obvious to start.
The same four sheets, drawn at the same size
Real sheets, generated at build time by the live engines. Nothing here is a mock-up of a grid.
Difficulty means a different thing on each of these pages
Four builders, four difficulty controls, and no shared meaning between them. A Hard Kakuro and a Hard Futoshiki are not graded on the same scale and never were, so the honest thing is to say what each control actually moves.
| Builder | What the difficulty setting changes | What it does not promise |
|---|---|---|
| Printable Sudoku | The hardest move the sheet needs: Easy and Medium are solved by scanning alone (Easy keeps extra numbers), Hard needs pencil marks for a pointing pair or a pair, and Expert needs a digit tested. | It does not promise how long a sheet takes. Medium, Hard and Expert print about the same number of clues, so the clue count tells you little and the level tells you the move. |
| Printable KenKen | The shape of the cages: how large they get, how many one-cell freebies are allowed, how bent the cages are, and which operators appear. | It does not promise a named solving technique either, though cage size is a closer proxy than clue count because a four-cell cage genuinely has more combinations to sift. |
| Printable Kakuro | What the puzzle asks of you: Easy finishes with three basic moves, Medium needs pencil marks, Hard needs a digit tested. Every puzzle in the bank is graded by a solver limited to those moves, and regraded each time the site is built. | The bank is finite, so some size and level pairs hold only a few puzzles. Grid size is a separate control, and a large Easy Kakuro is a long puzzle, not a hard one. |
| Printable Killer Sudoku | The hardest deduction the sheet forces you to find, from a ladder of five: cage combinations, the rule of 45 on one house, naked and hidden subsets, innies and outies across a band, and following a candidate to a contradiction. | It does not promise how many cages you will have to read. Harder levels have fewer and larger cages, which is less to look at and more to work out. |
| Printable Futoshiki | The hardest deduction the sheet forces you to find, from a ladder of five: scanning a line, reading one sign against a filled cell, following bounds along a run of signs, naked and hidden subsets, and following a candidate to a contradiction. | It does not promise how long a sheet takes. An Expert 5x5 that needs one contradiction test can fall faster than a Medium 7x7 that needs thirty patient rounds. |
Ranked by how much the label tells you, KenKen is now last. Futoshiki, Killer Sudoku, Sudoku and Kakuro all name the hardest move a sheet needs, measured by a solver limited to paper moves. Sudoku used to be the loosest: its levels were clue counts, and two sheets with the same number of clues could want quite different work. It was rebuilt in October 2026, and a Hard Sudoku now prints about as many numbers as a Medium one; what differs is that it needs pencil marks. KenKen still sets the shape of its cages, which is a closer proxy than clue count but not a promise about moves.
Two of them need arithmetic. Two need none at all
This is the question that decides most classroom and family choices, and it splits them cleanly down the middle.
- No arithmetic: Sudoku and Futoshiki. The digits are distinct symbols and nothing is ever added to anything. You could print either with animals in place of the numbers and the puzzle would be unchanged, which is exactly what a Picture Sudoku is.
- Real arithmetic: KenKen and Kakuro. KenKen asks for the four operations inside a cage, and the grid size changes the sum: a two-square cage marked 12x has one answer on a 5x5, where only 3 and 4 reach it, and two answers to weigh on a 6x6, where 2 and 6 do as well. Kakuro asks for addition plus a feel for combinations: a three-square run totaling 6 can only be 1, 2, and 3 in some order, and that single fact opens more Kakuro grids than any other.
What that means when you are printing for someone else
- A child who is still shaky on adding will stall on Kakuro for reasons that have nothing to do with logic. Give them Sudoku or a small Futoshiki and the deduction is the only obstacle left.
- KenKen is the one to reach for when you want arithmetic practice that does not look like a drill sheet. The math is real and it is in service of the puzzle.
- Kakuro is the most demanding of them to start and the most rewarding to keep. It is a poor first sheet and an excellent tenth.
- Futoshiki teaches one specific thing better than any other sheet here: that the greater-than sign is information, not notation.
One answer and no guessing are two different promises
Most printable puzzle sites, when they say anything at all, say their puzzles have a unique solution. That is worth having and it is not the promise a person solving in pen cares about. A grid can have exactly one answer that is only reachable by writing a number in, following it for ten minutes, and finding it breaks. On screen that is an undo. On paper it is a ruined sheet.
| Puzzle | Exactly one answer? | Reachable without guessing? | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sudoku | Yes, and like Futoshiki it falls out of the solve rather than being a separate check. | Guaranteed. | Since October 2026 every sheet is solved by paper moves before it is shown. Before that, clue count was the only control and nothing proved the route. |
| KenKen | Yes. Cages are strengthened until the solution count is exactly one. | Not proved. | In practice 4x4 and 5x5 sheets are comfortable; a Hard 6x6 can ask for a long combination sift. |
| Kakuro | Yes. Every one of the 152 nine-by-nine medium records in the bank carries a passed solver gate with exactly one answer. | Guaranteed. | Proved after the fact rather than by a generator: every puzzle in the bank is solved by paper moves alone, and the few that could not be were taken out. |
| Killer Sudoku | Yes, and like Futoshiki it falls out of the solve rather than being a separate check. | Guaranteed. | Cages are split until a solver restricted to the level’s own techniques can finish, then merged back while it still can, so every cage boundary that survives is one the solve needs. |
| Futoshiki | Yes, and it is a consequence rather than a separate check. | Guaranteed. | The generator keeps a sheet only if a solver limited to the level’s own techniques finishes it, and a solve that never discards a possible value proves the answer unique on the way past. |
Four of the five make the second promise. Futoshiki, Killer Sudoku and Sudoku make it the same way: a generator that has to run a deduction solver anyway, in order to decide what level a sheet is, gets uniqueness for nothing, because that solver never discards a value appearing in some answer, so a solve that fills the grid has also proved the answer unique on the way past. Kakuro, which draws from a bank, makes it after the fact: every puzzle in the bank is solved by a program limited to paper moves, and the few it could not finish were taken out. KenKen proves uniqueness by counting solutions, which is a different question and cannot tell you anything about the route.
This section used to say only Futoshiki managed it. Killer Sudoku was built on the same principle from the start. Kakuro and Sudoku joined in October 2026: Kakuro when its bank was regraded by what each puzzle needs, and Sudoku when its generator was rebuilt around the same kind of solver. KenKen still counts solutions, and bringing it across is the work worth doing next.
Which one to print, by the reason you are printing it
| If you are | Settings | Why that one | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A first logic sheet for a seven-year-old | Printable KenKen | 4x4, Easy, + only operators, 2 puzzles | Sixteen squares, small sums, and a finished grid inside ten minutes. |
| A sheet with no arithmetic in it at all | Printable Sudoku or Futoshiki | Sudoku Easy, or Futoshiki 4x4 Easy | Neither puzzle adds anything. Swap the digits for shapes and both still work. |
| Times tables practice that does not look like practice | Printable KenKen | 5x5, Medium, mixed operators, name and date on | Every multiplication cage is a factoring problem in disguise, and one sheet asks for a dozen of them. |
| A math lesson on the greater-than sign | Printable Futoshiki | 5x5, Easy, 4 puzzles, 2 per page, rules page on | The sign stops being notation to memorize and becomes the thing that solves the problem. |
| Large print for a senior center or an activity group | Printable Sudoku | Easy, large print, 1 per page | The most familiar of them all, so nobody needs the rules explained before they can start. |
| A long evening solve for an experienced solver | Printable Kakuro | 11x11, Hard, 1 per page, answers on | The one that most reliably runs past an hour on a single sheet. |
| A puzzle club sheet that is provably fair | Printable Futoshiki | 7x7, Expert, 1 per page | Hard enough to need a contradiction test, and still finishable without a single guess. |
| A cover lesson pack that fills a period | Printable Sudoku | Medium, 6 puzzles, 2 per page, rules page on, answers on | Three sheets of work, the rules on the front, and a key the cover teacher can mark from. |
What is missing from this hub, and why
Four builders is not a complete logic section, and the gaps are specific rather than a general promise of more to come. The largest is the clue-list deduction puzzle, the one with five suspects and a grid of crosses, which is what a lot of people mean when they type "printable logic puzzles" into a search box. It is missing because it is hard to do honestly: it needs a scenario generator, a clue generator, and a solver that proves the answer is reachable by pure deduction, and the version of that page which is quick to build is the version that prints unsolvable sheets.
Printable Hitori
Shade the duplicates until no number repeats in a row or column, without isolating any square you keep.
Not built yetPrintable Slitherlink
Draw a single closed loop around numbered clues. Prints beautifully; proving a unique loop is the hard part.
Not built yetPrintable Binary Puzzles
Only noughts and ones, with three short rules. The natural entry point for anyone who finds Sudoku heavy going.
Not built yetPrintable Bridges (Hashi)
Connect numbered islands with the exact number of bridges each one asks for, without crossing any of them.
Not built yetPrintable Nonograms
Picture logic puzzles driven by row and column number clues, where the finished picture is the answer key.
Not built yetThese are plans, not pages. None of them exists yet, so none of them is a link, and this list will shrink as they are built rather than growing to look impressive.
How these pages are made and checked
Print Puzzles is part of the Hamilton Digital Media Limited puzzle network, and these pages are written and reviewed by Brian Hamilton and Karan Hamilton. Every figure on this page is measured at build time from the same engines and the same puzzle bank the builders use, so none of it can drift away from what the tools produce. Each engine was checked with a temporary harness before its page went live, and what those harnesses assert is set out on how we make puzzle packs. If a printed sheet or an answer key does not behave, the contact page is the fastest way to tell us.
There is no account, no email step, and no software to install. Sudoku, KenKen, and Futoshiki puzzles are generated in your own browser; Kakuro sheets are chosen from a bank of pre-checked puzzles this site sends you. Either way the PDF is written on your machine rather than on a server, which is why a pack appears in a second or two and why nothing you type into a worksheet title ever leaves the page. The terms of use give broad permission to print, copy, and hand these out for family, classroom, tutoring, library, club, senior center, and community use. What they do not cover is bulk republication or selling the sheets as a product of your own.