How Pixel Painter turns pictures into numbers (and back again)

What Pixel Painter is for

Tomorrow Kid’s Pixel Painter world is Logic Lab’s “Number pictures” puzzle (pixel_painter). Kids learn that a picture is just numbers—and back again. In decode (“Paint by numbers”) they read each row’s run-length code and paint the grid; in encode (“Write the code!”) they see the picture and write the row codes themselves.

Parent tip: say “pictures ↔ numbers” once before they play. The habit parents recognize from CS Unplugged image representation shows up as calm paint-and-code turns—no typed programming language.

Where it lives

1. Confirm the child’s age band reaches 7+ so Logic Lab worlds are available on Home
2. Open Logic Lab and tap the Pixel Painter world (kid chip: Number pictures)
3. Decode a board by reading row codes and painting cells—or encode by writing codes from a finished picture
4. Stars come from mistake count; after three misses a practice bridge may appear

Pixel Painter is also one of the two date-seeded Today’s puzzle types (alongside Robot Walk). For the Home daily card, see the Today’s puzzle guide. For the broader Logic Lab overview, see the Logic Lab ages 7+ guide. This article owns the Pixel Painter world deep-dive only.

Decode vs encode

Play runs in PixelPainterGameView:

| Mode | What kids do | | --- | --- | | Decode — Paint by numbers | Read each row’s run-length code and tap palette colours to fill the grid | | Encode — Write the code! | Look at the finished picture and write the row codes that describe it | | Stars | Scored from mistake count (LogicStars.forMistakes) | | Struggle bridge | After three mistakes, a calmer practice path may open |

An intro demo shows one paint-by-code pass so kids see a row become a picture. Stars still feed the familiar Sticker Book economy.

Why pictures ↔ numbers matter (no typed code)

Run-length codes are a gentle encoding habit: a picture is data, and data can become a picture again. Parents can name that without saying “compression” or “bitmap”—kids discover it by painting a row from numbers, then writing numbers from a row.

That is distinct from:

• Picture Sudoku — row/column uniqueness with emoji friends (placement deduction, not encode–decode); see the Picture Sudoku guide
• Robot Walk — plan blocks → ▶ run (sequencing, not pictures ↔ numbers); see the Robot Path guide
• Today’s puzzle — one shared Home board per day that sometimes is Pixel Painter; see the Today’s puzzle guide
• Secret Codes — picture↔letter cipher wheel (decode → encode); see the Secret Codes guide
• Guess My Number — Higher / Lower binary search on a number grid; see the Guess My Number guide
• Which Is Heaviest? — Balance Scale weighings; see the Balance Scale guide
• Pass & Play Bug Hunt — two-player plan fixing; see the Pass & Play guide

A calm way to introduce it at home

1. Confirm age band 7+ and open Logic Lab together.
2. Clear one simpler world first (Robot Walk or Bug Hunt) so the list feels familiar.
3. Open Pixel Painter, let the intro paint-by-code demo run, and narrate “this row is just numbers.”
4. Let them finish one decode board—celebrate the stars even if there were a few mistakes.
5. On a later session, try an encode board (“write the code”) and stop after one picture.

What to try next

Keep Pixel Painter as the “pictures ↔ numbers” stretch after simpler Logic worlds. Use Picture Sudoku when you want placement deduction instead of encode–decode, Today’s puzzle when you want the same board as a shared Home ritual, Guess My Number for Higher / Lower search, and Pass & Play for a Bug Hunt handoff. Ready to try it? Open Tomorrow Kid → Logic Lab → Pixel Painter.