Understanding Puzzle Materials
If you think all jigsaw puzzles are basically the same, differing only in their images, you’re seriously mistaken. In reality, different brands use different puzzle materials. Some prioritize cost, while others focus on quality. These materials vary significantly in feel, fit, durability, and appearance, which greatly affects the overall puzzle experience. That’s why it’s worth understanding puzzle materials before making a purchase.
The most commonly used material on the market today is cardboard. Cardboard puzzles can be ranked by cost from low to high as follows: gray board < black board < white board < blue board. The most common are the cheapest gray board and standard white board, which are low-end materials with more drawbacks and are used in most puzzles. Black board is typically limited to puzzles with black backgrounds, so its use is quite restricted. The remaining blue board is the top-tier material among cardboard puzzles. Due to its higher cost, it’s far less common than white or gray board.
In the following sections, we’ll explain why blue board is the best choice for paper-based jigsaw puzzles.
Durability and Longevity
For families with children, the durability and lifespan of a puzzle are often the top priorities. Compared to adults, children may like to hold pieces in their hands, play with them, and repeatedly assemble their favorite images. With frequent use, puzzles inevitably suffer from wear, delamination, and other damage. If some pieces get ruined, the entire puzzle can be compromised, which wastes money and is not environmentally friendly.
Different types of cardboard vary in hardness and layering.
The hardness of the cardboard determines how well a puzzle can withstand play. Low hardness makes pieces prone to breaking, chipping, or warping after repeated use, while higher hardness ensures the puzzle can be enjoyed multiple times.
Layering quality is another important factor. Different cardboards are manufactured with slightly different processes.
Cheap gray board often uses a simpler, rougher lamination process to cut costs, resulting in pieces that show obvious layers to the naked eye and are more prone to curling during assembly. Curled pieces clearly affect the flatness and appearance of the finished puzzle. Among these cardboards, gray board has the most noticeable layering and the shortest lifespan.
White board is slightly better—it’s less prone to curling than gray board, but its layering is still very apparent, and repeated assembly can lead to curling, giving an average puzzle experience.
Blue board, on the other hand, is more expensive and of higher quality. Its layering is minimal, almost appearing as a single solid piece from the side. This not only gives it a longer lifespan but also provides the most satisfying feel during assembly.
Piece Fit and Ease of Assembly
Like LEGO, jigsaw puzzles rely on each piece fitting perfectly to provide a satisfying, stress-relieving experience. If the pieces don’t fit well, it can lead to frustration instead. That’s why the smoothness of puzzle edges is so important. Only smooth, well-cut pieces can fit seamlessly, giving a comfortable, precise, and enjoyable assembly experience. Once completed, a perfectly assembled puzzle can also serve as an attractive decorative piece for your home.
The edge smoothness of puzzle cardboard is generally proportional to its price. With gray board puzzles, it’s common to find pieces with rough, uneven edges. These coarse pieces fit poorly, resulting in a completed image that looks uneven, with noticeable gaps, and shaking the puzzle can even produce loose paper scraps—adding unnecessary cleanup and turning what should be a relaxing activity into a source of frustration.
White board and blue board puzzles rarely have this issue. Blue board, in particular, is of high quality and can be manufactured using precise die-cutting techniques, producing pieces with extremely clean, smooth edges. When assembling a blue board puzzle, you won’t see any paper debris on the table, and each piece fits effortlessly without pressing, making the process smoother and far more satisfying.
Visual and Tactile Experience
The puzzle image is a key factor for most people when choosing a puzzle, as everyone prefers colorful, detailed, and visually appealing designs. To faithfully reproduce a puzzle’s original colors and details, the material plays a decisive role.
First is texture, which is influenced by many factors such as edge smoothness, layering, hardness, and surface finish. Blue board clearly outperforms the others in all these aspects. It has a smooth, substantial feel, and with minimal layering and clean, precise edges, its tactile experience is finer and more comfortable compared to other boards. In contrast, standard gray and white boards feel thinner and rougher.
Next is color. Gray board has a darker base, which can significantly reduce color vibrancy, making the image look dull. Black board is too dark and is generally only suitable for printing dark images, so it’s rarely used as a puzzle material. White board offers the best color reproduction, especially for light-colored images, preserving the original tones as much as possible. Blue board, although naturally colored, is often coated with an additional white layer by high-end brands, ensuring that colors remain vivid while maintaining the smooth, premium feel of the puzzle surface.
High-quality blue-core cardboard can reproduce the most vivid colors. | Buy this puzzle in shop>>
Puzzle Sustainability
Environmentally friendly is also something many people care about.
Gray board and white board puzzles mostly made from recycled paper, but that paper is usually low quality. To make it work for puzzles, more chemicals like bleach and glue have to be used, and lots of water gets wasted. The final puzzles can have higher heavy metal content, and when they’re thrown away, they can pollute soil and water, and even produce methane.
Most blue board puzzles, on the other hand, are made from pure wood pulp. Puzzles made from pure pulp are thicker, stronger, and can be used more times. Plus, less chemicals and water are needed during production. That means less waste, and the heavy metal content in the blue board stays below 50mg/kg. All in all, it makes the puzzles much more eco-friendly.
Making the Right Choice
If you’re looking for a higher-end, more durable puzzle with a superior assembly experience, blue board puzzles are clearly worth the investment. Imagine this: choosing a blue board puzzle gives you a beautiful decorative piece for your home, a reusable stress-relief toy, a small source of fun to strengthen bonds with your partner, a keepsake that accompanies your child’s growth, and an opportunity to support environmentally friendly practices.
