A TATAMI puzzle consists of a square grid which has been covered with rectangular tiles which are either 3, 4 or 5 cells in area. Any given puzzle will be fully covered using tiles of only one of these sizes. To solve such a puzzle, the solver must place numbers from 1 up to the numerical size of the tile into the puzzle cells so that the following three rules are met:-
  • The numbers within a tile must all be different.
  • Horizontally or Vertically adjacent puzzle cells must not contain the same number.
  • Each row and column of the puzzle must contain the same number of appearances of each number.
Some of the puzzle cells will have a number already inserted to get you started.

The following graphics show a Tatami puzzle in the Crossword Express Solve screen and a PNG graphic file produced by the program's print function, showing the complete puzzle solution. See also a  full size version of a PDF file. 

FEATURES
The key features of the Crossword Express Tatami Construction function are as follows:-
  • Fully automatic construction of puzzles.

  • A multi-build function allows the construction of many puzzles (thousands if necessary) in a single operation.

  • Puzzles can be printed in an unprecedented range of user controlled colors and formats. Output can be sent direct to the printer or, if you install the appropriate software, it can be sent to a PDF file. The recommended software for this purpose is  Primo PDF which you can download free from their website,  although you might consider sending them a small donation if you find their program useful. Mac users will be able to create a PDF file directly from the screen provided by the printer driver.

  • Formatted output can also be exported from the Print screen to graphic files which conform to the BMP, GIF, JPG or PNG formats.

  • A fully interactive Solve function is available to allow you to solve the puzzles "on screen" without needing to print them.