Square grid or classic tabs: 3.5 metres against 4.9
Both sheets hold 48 pieces on A4. One takes 3.48 metres of cutting, the other 4.90. That difference is measured from the printed path, not estimated, and it is the whole practical argument between the two cut styles.
The two cut styles are not decoration. A square grid produces pieces that slide together from any angle and fall apart when you nudge the table. Classic tabs produce pieces that lock and cannot be assembled in the wrong order without noticing. One of those is a puzzle and the other is a picture cut into squares, and both are correct depending on what you want.
How the number was measured
The generator emits the entire cut as a single SVG path — every shared edge drawn once, every tab as a cubic curve. To get a length rather than an impression, that path was parsed, each curve sampled at 24 points, and the segments summed. The straight-grid numbers come from the same code path with the tabs switched off, so the two columns differ by the shape of the line and nothing else.
This matters because “tabs are slower” is obvious and useless. 41% longer is a number you can plan an evening around.
Cut length, both styles
| Sheet and grid | Pieces | Classic tabs | Square grid | Extra | Edges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A4 · 6 × 8 | 48 | 4.90 m | 3.48 m | +41% | 110 |
| A4 · 8 × 11 | 88 | 6.62 m | 4.59 m | +44% | 195 |
| A4 · 10 × 14 | 140 | 8.21 m | 5.62 m | +46% | 304 |
| A3 · 10 × 14 | 140 | 12.11 m | 8.29 m | +46% | 304 |
| A2 · 16 × 23 | 368 | 27.96 m | 18.73 m | +49% | 775 |
| A1 · 24 × 34 | 816 | 60.26 m | 39.91 m | +51% | 1690 |
Read the two 140-piece rows together: the same count on a bigger sheet is nearly half again as much cutting, because the pieces are bigger and there is more edge per piece. Cutting effort tracks the sheet, not the count.
Where the extra metre comes from
At 48 pieces on A4 every edge is about 31.7 mm long. Straight, those 110 edges come to 3.49 m — the measured 3.48 m is rounding. The tabbed version adds 1.42 m, spread over the 82 interior edges, which is 17.3 mm each. A tab makes an edge 55% longer than the line it replaces.
Two details fall out of that. First, only interior edges are tabbed: at every grid tested, all 82 interior edges carry exactly one tab and the 28 outer edges carry none. The border stays clean so the sheet has a straight edge to measure and cut against. Second, the 55% is constant because the tab size is a fixed fraction of the cell — so a 140-piece sheet at 18.5 mm cells gets 10.1 mm added per edge, the same 55%, and the total keeps growing with the square root of the count.
What it does at the table
| Classic tabs | Square grid | |
|---|---|---|
| Assembly | Pieces lock; a wrong piece physically will not seat | Pieces slide; a wrong arrangement looks plausible |
| Difficulty | Higher — position and orientation both matter | Lower — look at the photo, line up the edges |
| On a tablecloth | Holds together; you can slide a finished section | Shears apart if the table is bumped |
| Cutting | Curves every 20–30 mm; scissors | Long straight runs; knife or rotary cutter |
| Best for | Anything that will be solved more than once | Fast builds, small children, large sheets |
The square grid is not a lesser puzzle, it is a different object: a picture cut into squares that can be rebuilt in five minutes. If the point is the time spent, tabs are the only one of the two that provides it.
The tool decides, more than the style
Cutting 4.90 m of tabs with kitchen scissors is an hour of your evening. Cutting 3.48 m of straight lines with a rotary cutter and a steel rule is fifteen minutes, because a straight cut is one pass and a tab is six small turns. The gap between the two methods is bigger than the gap between the two styles, so choose the tool first.
Where the styles genuinely differ is error tolerance. A wandering straight cut is invisible once the pieces are assembled — the edges meet and the line disappears into the picture. A wandering tab cut leaves a piece that does not seat, and you will find it at the end, with the whole puzzle built around a gap.
Which one to choose
Choose tabs if the puzzle is a gift, if it will be done more than once, if it needs to survive being moved half-finished, or if the person solving it wants to be occupied for an evening. Pick small sharp scissors and accept the extra metre.
Choose the square grid for young children, for a large sheet where tabs at 12 mm would be impossible to cut, for a quick activity, or when you have a rotary cutter and a mat and want the job over with. On A1 the square grid is the only realistic option at high counts — 60 metres of tab cutting by hand is a weekend.
Same photo, both styles, one click apart
The generator switches the cut style without touching your grid or your photo. Print one of each and see which your table prefers.