OLL stands for "Orientating the last layer". Essentially, OLL means to solve the opposite color from the cross. This does not mean solving the edges and cortners correctly, this just means that it looks solved from directly above that color. Because the Cross/F2L can be solved on any color, OLL can also be done any color as long as it is opposite of the Cross color. Such as, if white cross is solved, then yellow is the OLL color, red if orange cross is solved, and green if blue cross is solved.
How is OLL solved?
OLL is solved using a set of algorithms, there are actually many differnet sets of algorithms that feel or work a bit differntly, but they all solve OLL. There are 57 different cases for OLL, not including solved OLL, and each case requires it's own algorithm, but some are very similar to each other and algorithms can be put in their own categories to be remembered easier. Another way that OLL is solved is called 2-look OLL, this is where instead of using 57 different algorithms for each case, only a few are used, but they are used twice to solve OLL, they work by orientating the edges first, then solving the corners. Another way is called VLS, or Valk last slot. This was developed in part by Mats Valk, this is when solving the last F2L pair, a set of algorithms is done to solve the last F2L pair and OLL at the same time.
This is a helpful table of 3 basic OLL cases
Picture of OLL case
Solution in Cube notation
Algorithm name
Sune
R U R' U R U2 R'
Sune
Anti Sune
R U2 R' U' R U' R'
Anti-sune
Case 22
R U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2 U2 R'
22, Cross
List of all 57 OLL cases
If you're wondering what all the algorithms to solve the 57 OLL cases are, you can find a pdf of them here. In this pdf developed by in part by Feliks Zemdegs, you will find multiple algorithms for each of the 57 cases. Another source for all of the OLL algorithms can be found here. The advantage with this list is it has a lot more algorithms for each OLL case, but it's not a pdf so internet access is required to see it and it can't be printed out either. Here is a video of all 57 cases by the YouTuber JPerm, it shows the turning along with the written moves.
Other Pages
The rest of the website will go over the parts of the CFOP method. The CFOP method stands for : Cross, F2L, OLL, and PLL. The home page can be found here.
