Morse Code Translator
Translate text to Morse code and back, then play it as sound or light, or download it as audio.
Morse code
The translation appears here as you type, to play, flash or download.
Morse code chart
Letters, figures and signs from Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1 (ITU), then the signs outside it that operators commonly use.
| Character | Code | Meaning | Standard | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | .- | ITU | ||
| B | -... | ITU | ||
| C | -.-. | ITU | ||
| D | -.. | ITU | ||
| E | . | ITU | ||
| É | ..-.. | Accented e | ITU | |
| F | ..-. | ITU |
Turns text into International Morse code and Morse back into text, then plays it as sound, flashes it on a lamp or vibrates it, and saves it as an audio file. Every character follows the ITU's recommendation for Morse code; the few common signs it leaves out are marked as such in the chart below and can be turned off.
How to use it
- Direction — Auto reads input made only of dots, dashes, slashes and spaces as Morse (also the look-alikes · • − – and _), and anything else as text. The other two settings fix the direction.
- Writing Morse — a space between letters and
/between words. When reading Morse,/,|, two or more spaces or a line break separate words. - Characters — letters in either case, figures, é and the ITU signs. Curly quotes are sent as straight ones; other accented letters are sent as their plain letter (à as A), and the tool lists them. Characters with no code are left out and listed under the input; a code with no character is shown as � and listed.
- Prosigns — letters in angle brackets, such as
<SK>, are sent run together with no gap between them. When reading, a code that is also a character reads as the character, so.-.-.is+; only codes with no character read as a prosign. - Signs outside the ITU standard — on by default: ! & ; $ _, and Ä, Ö, Ü, Ñ and CH. CH is read from
----; typed text sends it as C and H. - Speed — 5 to 40 words per minute, 20 by default. Farnsworth spacing keeps the characters at that speed and stretches the gaps to a slower effective speed. Tone is 400 to 1000 Hz, 600 by default.
Play sound highlights each letter as it plays. Flash light shows a lamp no larger than 120 by 120 pixels in a pale yellow-white, small enough to stay within the WCAG limit for flashing content at any speed. Vibrate appears on devices that can vibrate; on Android it needs Touch feedback turned on in the phone's sound and vibration settings. Download WAV saves 16-bit mono audio at 22,050 Hz. Each tone rises and falls over 5 ms so it starts and stops without a click. Playback is limited to 10 minutes, worked out before anything plays.
How it works
Morse timing counts in units, the length of a dot. A dash is three units; one unit separates the dots and dashes of a character, three separate characters and seven separate words.
Speed is measured with the word PARIS, which with the gap after it is exactly 50 units, so at 20 WPM a unit lasts 0.06 s. Farnsworth timing keeps the 31 units of characters at the character speed c and spreads what is left of a minute ÷ the effective speed s over the 19 units of gaps: at 20 WPM with an effective 10 WPM, a dot is 0.06 s and each gap unit 0.218 s.
unit = 60 ÷ (50 × c) = 1.2 ÷ c seconds
gap unit = (60 ÷ s − 31 × unit) ÷ 19 seconds
letter gap = 3 gap units word gap = 7 gap units
Examples
SOS
- Text
- SOS
- Morse code
- ... --- ...
At 20 WPM it plays in 1.62 s.
A sentence both ways
- Text
- Meet at 7.
- Morse code
- -- . . - / .- - / --... .-.-.-
- Read back
- MEET AT 7.
Morse has no case, so it reads back in capitals. The full stop has its own six-element code.
A prosign
- Text
- 73 <SK>
- Morse code
- --... ...-- / ...-.-
S and K are sent with no gap, as one signal: the ITU's “end of work”.
Morse code chart
| Character | Code | Meaning | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
A | .- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
B | -... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
C | -.-. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
D | -.. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
E | . | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
É | ..-.. | Accented e | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
F | ..-. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
G | --. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
H | .... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
I | .. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
J | .--- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
K | -.- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
L | .-.. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
M | -- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
N | -. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
O | --- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
P | .--. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Q | --.- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
R | .-. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
S | ... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
T | - | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
U | ..- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
V | ...- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
W | .-- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
X | -..- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Y | -.-- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Z | --.. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
1 | .---- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
2 | ..--- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
3 | ...-- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
4 | ....- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
5 | ..... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
6 | -.... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
7 | --... | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
8 | ---.. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
9 | ----. | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
0 | ----- | ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
. | .-.-.- | Full stop | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
, | --..-- | Comma | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
: | ---... | Colon or division sign | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
? | ..--.. | Question mark | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
' | .----. | Apostrophe | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
- | -....- | Hyphen, dash or subtraction sign | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
/ | -..-. | Fraction bar or division sign | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
( | -.--. | Left-hand bracket | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
) | -.--.- | Right-hand bracket | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
" | .-..-. | Inverted commas | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
= | -...- | Double hyphen | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
+ | .-.-. | Cross or addition sign | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
× | -..- | Multiplication sign | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
@ | .--.-. | Commercial at | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<SN> | ...-. | Understood | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<HH> | ........ | Error | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<K> | -.- | Invitation to transmit | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<AS> | .-... | Wait | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<SK> | ...-.- | End of work | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
<KA> | -.-.- | Starting signal | ITU-R M.1677-1 |
! | -.-.-- | Exclamation mark | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
& | .-... | Ampersand | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
; | -.-.-. | Semicolon | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
$ | ...-..- | Dollar sign | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
_ | ..--.- | Underscore | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
Ä | .-.- | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Ö | ---. | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Ü | ..-- | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
Ñ | --.-- | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
CH | ---- | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 | |
<SOS> | ...---... | Distress signal | Not in ITU-R M.1677-1 |
The standard
Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1 (October 2009) defines the International Morse code: the letters, figures, punctuation and procedure signals, and the spacing of one, three and seven units. The chart was checked against it character by character.
Sources
- Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1: International Morse code — International Telecommunication Union
- A Standard for Morse Timing Using the Farnsworth Technique — ARRL (QEX)
Reviewed
Frequently asked questions
/ marks the gap between words, which on air is a silence of seven units. It is not sent as a signal. The fraction bar, also /, has its own code, -..-..See also
- Caesar Cipher — to encipher a message before sending it.
- Text to Binary Converter — for another way of writing text as two symbols.