Hints for “Color Grid”

Having trouble finding the secret word within the color grid?

See the description for basic information about this puzzle. Below, you will find several hints, which you can make visible by using your mouse to highlight the invisible text in each box (or triple-click within a box to highlight it all). Start with #1 and work your way down, but don’t read too many of them all at once.

If you’ve already started the puzzle, you can use your browser’s “back” button to pick up where you left off.

Hint #1:

You will not need to guess once you find the solution, you will know that you’ve got the right answer.

Hint #2:

It might be a good idea to create a map.

Hint #3:

It might actually be a better idea to make nine maps.

Hint #4:

There are exactly nine colors. The white squares can be ignored.

Hint #5:

The black lines are actually the important divisions.

Hint #6:

There is at most one of each colored square within each black-lined square.

Hint #7:

The position of the colored squares within each black-lined square is unimportant.

Hint #8:

The black squares make a grid that is seven cells wide by nine cells high.

Hint #9:

The answer has nine letters.

Hint #10:

So make nine maps, each seven-by-nine, one for each color, and map each color separately.

Hint #11:

The order in which you should read the colors is: light red, yellow, light green, cyan, blue, magenta, dark red, dark green and then purple.

Answer: (Don’t look unless you really know already.)

The secret word is SKEPTICAL.