Morse Code Translator
In 1844, Samuel Morse and his colleagues invented a system to transmit letters and numbers using binary communication (on/off), in a way simple enough for people to send and receive these codes by hand, without computer technology.
Every symbol is encoded as a sequence of short or long beeps. Short beeps are called dots ("dits"), and long beeps are called dashes ("dahs"). The most common letters in English, like E, are given shorter codes to make messages smaller to send.
Morse code has been used in nearly every form of communication, from telegraph lines, to radio, and even smoke signals. In modern times, Morse code is useful for debugging small electronics with only one LED and one button. It's such an efficient minimal system, that you can use it to secretly talk to someone across a room merely by blinking your eyes for dots and dashes!
| A .- B -... C -.-. D -.. E . F ..-. G --. H .... I .. J .--- K -.- L .-.. M -- N -. O --- P .--. Q --.- R .-. S ... T - U ..- V ...- W .-- X -..- Y -.-- Z --.. | 1 .---- 2 ..--- 3 ...-- 4 ....- 5 ..... 6 -.... 7 --... 8 ---.. 9 ----. 0 ----- |
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Type in one of the boxes below, and it will be translated into the language of the other box. (Use a period for dots and a hyphen for dashes.)
Tap the circle to beep, and it will process the dots and dashes as Morse code. It takes practice! You need to send each letter rapidly, with almost no gaps between its dots and dashes, otherwise it sounds like two or more wrong letters.
- The gaps within a letter are 1 dot long.
- The gaps between letters are 3 dots long.
- The gaps between words are 7 dots long.
The interpreter will adjust to your sending speed, but your rhythm must be correctly proportional to the length of your dots. To hear an example, type some text and click the play button to hear it as a sequence of beeps.
English:
Morse Code:
Speed:
Morse Font
The dots and dashes on this page are displayed using a custom font containing only the period and hyphen characters, stylized and aligned as Morse code. This font is free under the MIT license:
Note that the font does not contain any letters. It's just the two symbols: the dot and dash. This enables you to define any font as a fallback for other characters, to conveniently mix that font with Morse code. The code card at the top of the page is an example of this.