Yin Yang Puzzle Generator: Publish the Logic Puzzle Everyone Recognises by Name
You can scan a hundred puzzle books before you find one built on the most recognisable symbol on earth. Everyone knows the yin and yang. Almost nobody is publishing it as a puzzle.
That gap is yours to take. This module generates print-ready Yin Yang puzzles inside Puzzle Maker Pro, up to 999 in a single run, every board with exactly one solution and its answer key finished in the same pass, ready for a book, a worksheet, or your website.
The puzzle itself is quick to learn and quietly addictive. Fill a grid with light and dark circles so each colour forms one connected whole and no 2×2 block ends up a single colour. Two rules, and out of them comes real deduction.
Why Yin Yang Earns a Place in Your Catalog
This is not an invented puzzle hoping to find an audience. It is an established Japanese puzzle type, published under the name Shirokuro. It is simply rarely published in English, which is the kind of gap a one-person publisher can take before the big catalogues notice.
It also sells itself on a thumbnail. Your buyer recognises the cover before they read the title, and there are no numbers to explain on the back. Meanwhile the puzzle plays nothing like sudoku or word logic, so it earns its pages in a mixed collection instead of padding them.
The low-risk way in: drop twenty or thirty Yin Yang pages into a mixed logic book you are already publishing, see how it reviews, then commit to a standalone title. Same setup either way, so testing it costs you one generation run.
Same Puzzle. Your Look.
Yin Yang is almost always printed as plain black-and-white circles. Yours does not have to be.
Underneath the drawing, a Yin Yang board is just two states. So Puzzle Maker Pro lets you print those two states as whatever you like. Keep the classic open rings and filled discs, or switch the set to two letters, two numbers, two coloured shapes (circle by default, or square, triangle, bar, star, cross, diamond), or two images of your own.
Pumpkins and bats for an October title. Your two brand colours for a branded pack. A and B for a classroom worksheet. Snowflakes and stars for a holiday book. The rules never change and neither does the solving, so a themed book is exactly as fair as a plain one.
Now the part that saves your week. Load a pool of up to twenty-five colours or images, set it to draw at random, and every puzzle in the run draws its own pair. One setup, and a hundred pages that stop looking like copies of each other. A themed collection in the time it takes to build one puzzle. That is Creative Edition, not an upgrade.
Prints Clean at Any Print Size, Styled Once for the Whole Book
Solve one and you get a pattern, not a scoresheet. Light and dark curl around each other in a shape no template could have drawn, so your answer section stops being the part readers skip. Run the solved grids as a bonus pattern section instead of burying them at the back.
Clues stay readable at any print size: light cells are clean open rings, dark cells filled discs, and a blank stays obviously blank. Set your page colour, cell fill, grid lines, and outer border once on the Style tab. Every puzzle after that inherits it. Crop tight if you want the board running edge to edge. Export as vector SVG or PDF for print, or PNG and JPG when you need a raster.
Every Board Fair, Every Answer Key Done
Solvability complaints are the fastest route to a bad review and a refund. Yin Yang removes that risk at the source.
Every board has exactly one solution. Not usually. Every board. Every difficulty is solvable by logic alone, with no guessing anywhere in the range, and every puzzle arrives with its matching answer key already made. You never hand-check a grid.
Difficulty is real, not just fewer hints. Easy fills about half the grid with clues, so the forced moves sit next to each other. Medium reveals a bit over a third and starts asking you to chain deductions. Hard strips the clues back as far as the connectivity rule allows, so those chains run long. Expert is barely sparser than Hard, because Hard is already at that floor. What changes is the thinking: Expert is the only level that asks for a new technique, a short look ahead. That is why it belongs at the end of the book.
From One Puzzle to a Whole Book
Making one Yin Yang puzzle is useful. Making a hundred consistent ones is a product.
Set the quantity and Puzzle Maker Pro generates the whole run in one go, up to 999 boards, each one freshly generated with its answer key paired. That is included in Creative Edition.
Productivity adds Time Saver, which is also unlocked by the Time Saver bundle if you already own it. Save one row per difficulty band, and the whole book regenerates on a single click. Puzzle Book Studio then lays out the puzzle and answer pages and assembles the finished book, your other puzzle types included.
You make the decisions once. The software does the hundred pages of typing.
What You Can Publish
- A 60 puzzle beginner-to-expert book: fifteen each at 6×6 Easy, 8×8 Medium, 10×10 Hard, and 12×12 Expert, every one with its answer key.
- A seasonal title that looks nothing like your last one: load ten festive images, set the pool to draw at random, and each page draws its own pair.
- A branded activity pack: your two brand colours in place of the circles, your page palette on the Style tab, consistent across the set.
- Twenty pages of variety inside a mixed logic book you are already selling, assembled alongside your other Puzzle Maker Pro puzzle types.
Choose Your Edition
Both editions create and export real Yin Yang puzzles at every supported size, 4×4 up to 12×12 including rectangular shapes in between, at all four difficulties, with your choice of cell content and a matching answer key on every board. The difference is how far you scale and whether your puzzles also move on screen.
Creative
Choose Creative if you make and sell finished puzzle pages. Everything you need to design a Yin Yang book and print it: the full creator, the cell-content options, page styling, and vector SVG and PDF output alongside PNG and JPG. Licensed to sell what you make to readers and end customers, including on KDP, Etsy, and Teachers Pay Teachers.
Productivity
Choose Productivity if you assemble whole books, publish more than one title a month, or sell digital and interactive versions. You get everything in Creative, plus Time Saver, Puzzle Book Studio, and four digital output formats. The licence also adds B2B rights, so you can sell or supply puzzles to other publishers and sellers.
| What you want to do | Creative | Productivity |
|---|---|---|
| Create Yin Yang puzzles and matching answer keys | Yes | Yes |
| Every grid from 4×4 to 12×12 and all four difficulties | Yes | Yes |
| Print letters, numbers, coloured shapes, or your own images instead of circles | Yes | Yes |
| Draw from a pool of up to 25 so pages vary across the book | Yes | Yes |
| Customise page colours, borders, and layout | Yes | Yes |
| Generate up to 999 puzzles in one run | Yes | Yes |
| Export PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF | Yes | Yes |
| Sell what you make to readers and end customers | Yes | Yes |
| Time Saver saved multi-row runs* | No | Yes |
| Puzzle Book Studio and mixed-book assembly | No | Yes |
| JSON output | No | Yes |
| HTML output for web play | No | Yes |
| Interactive PDF | No | Yes |
| Puzzle Slides interactive PowerPoint | No | Yes |
| Sell or supply to other publishers and sellers | No | Yes |
* Time Saver and Puzzle Book Studio page layout also unlock with the Time Saver bundle, so if you already own that they work with Yin Yang on Creative too.
Not sure which? Try the free demo first to judge the puzzles and the print quality, then pick your edition at the top of this page.
Productivity’s four digital formats give you three ways to put the same puzzle on a screen, and one to move it between tools:
- HTML output, for your own site. Playable HTML you host yourself, plus a ZIP you upload to the BookPublisherTools WordPress plugin. A visitor solves in the browser by clicking each cell from blank to light to dark, with a live warning the moment they make a solid 2×2. (Browser play goes live with the next hosted engine update; the export itself is ready now.)
- Interactive PDF, for on-screen solving. A fillable text field in every blank cell, with the printed clues locked. Tell your reader the convention on the instructions page, for example type L for light and D for dark. If you want a true click-to-toggle cell, that is what HTML output and Puzzle Slides give you.
Try the Yin Yang Online Demo. - Puzzle Slides, for a class or a stream. An interactive PowerPoint with a bank of light and dark tiles to drag onto the board.
- JSON, for catalog and automation workflows.
Whatever cell content you chose carries through to all of them.
Who This Is For
Puzzle book publishers and POD sellers. Your shelf is full of sudoku. This is the one puzzle on it your buyers already recognise and almost nobody is printing. One setup turns into a full book of always-solvable puzzles, ready for KDP or print-on-demand.
Sellers who live on seasonal and themed titles. Swap the circles for your own images and the same engine produces a Halloween book, a Christmas book, and a branded pack, each visually distinct, none of them a rebuild.
Existing Puzzle Maker Pro customers. Same window you already know: presets toolbar, quantity, Settings / Style / Titles. The only new control is the Cell Content panel on the Settings tab. Your saved styles and title mappings carry over, and if you own Productivity, Yin Yang slots straight into your existing Time Saver rows and Puzzle Book Studio books.
Educators and classroom creators. Size the reasoning to the class, from a gentle 5×5 up to a 12×12 Expert. Print it, or with Productivity put it on the board as a drag-the-tiles round the whole room can solve together.
Try It Free First
You do not have to take any of this on faith. Download the free demo, generate a board, and judge the puzzle and the print quality yourself. Demo output is watermarked and one puzzle at a time.
Yin Yang is a module for Puzzle Maker Pro on Windows, so your key unlocks it inside the app you already run. You get it in your member area the moment you buy. Your first book can start tonight.
Questions Before You Buy
What is a Yin Yang puzzle?
A two-colour logic puzzle, also called Shirokuro. You fill every cell with a light or dark circle so that all the light circles connect into one group, all the dark circles connect into one group, and no 2×2 block is a single colour.
Which edition do I need?
Choose Creative to create, theme, and export puzzles for pages, worksheets, and collections. Choose Productivity if you assemble whole books or sell digital versions: it adds Time Saver, Puzzle Book Studio, JSON, HTML, Interactive PDF, and Puzzle Slides.
What do I need to run it?
Puzzle Maker Pro on Windows. Yin Yang is a module that unlocks inside the app, so your key activates it in the version you already have. [Confirm Mac guidance and whether the base app is bundled or assumed.]
Do I need Productivity Edition to make a lot of puzzles at once?
No. Setting the quantity and generating up to 999 puzzles in one run is included in Creative. Productivity adds Time Saver, which saves a multi-row setup so a whole book regenerates in one click, plus Puzzle Book Studio and the digital output formats. If you already own the Time Saver bundle, Time Saver works with Yin Yang on Creative too.
Can I start on Creative and upgrade later?
[Confirm upgrade path and whether the difference is credited.]
Can I use something other than light and dark circles?
Yes, from Creative Edition. Print the two states as two letters, two numbers, two coloured shapes, or two images of your own. The rules and the solving are identical, so a themed book is exactly as fair as a plain one.
How do I make every page in a book look different?
Load a pool of up to twenty-five colours or images and set it to draw at random. Each puzzle then draws its own pair from the pool, so one setup produces a book whose pages stop looking like copies of each other.
Can I use the built-in image sets in books I sell?
[Confirm licensing of the bundled image sets for commercial use.] Your own artwork is always yours to use.
Are the puzzles really solvable and fair?
Yes. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, every difficulty is solvable by pure logic with no guessing, and each one ships with its matching answer key. You never have to hand-check a board.
Can I adjust the difficulty?
Yes. Grids run from 4×4 up to 12×12, including non-square sizes, across four levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Easy prints about half the grid as clues and each level reveals fewer, with Expert the only one that asks for a short look ahead.
Does it support interactive or web output?
Yes, with Productivity Edition. Export Interactive PDF and Puzzle Slides for on-screen solving today, and HTML plus a WordPress-plugin ZIP for browser play, which goes live with the next hosted engine update.
Can I use the puzzles in books I sell?
Yes. Creative Edition licenses you to sell finished puzzles to end customers and readers, including on KDP, Etsy, and Teachers Pay Teachers. Productivity adds B2B rights, so you can also sell or supply puzzles to other publishers and sellers.
Is there a free demo?
Yes. The free demo covers every module. It makes one watermarked puzzle at a time, so you can try Yin Yang and judge the output before buying.
Add the Puzzle Your Catalog Is Missing
Everyone knows the name. Almost nobody is printing the puzzle. Try the free demo, generate a few boards, and see how quickly a puzzle everyone knows by name becomes a book no one else is selling.
