Baudot Code - Decoder and Encoder

The original Baudot code was invented by Émelie Baudot in 1870. It was a 5-bit code that became known as the International Telegraph Alphabet No 1 (ITA1). In 1901, the code was improved by Donald Murray. Murray designed the code to minimize the wear on the machinery. He assigned the most frequently used symbols and letters to the codes with fewest punched holes. This led to the International Telegraph Alphabet No 2 (ITA2) standard, which was widely used until 7-bit ASCII codes appeared in 1963.

Convert Baudot Code

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Original Baudot code (ITA1)

Dec Hex Bin Letter Figure Comment
0 00 00000 NUL NUL Nothing (blank tape)
1 01 00001 A 1
2 02 00010 E 2
3 03 00011 Carriage return (CR) Carriage return (CR)
4 04 00100 Y 3
5 05 00101 U 4
6 06 00110 I Reserved
7 07 00111 O 5
8 08 01000 Figures Space Switch to figures
9 09 01001 J 6
10 0A 01010 G 7
11 0B 01011 H +
12 0C 01100 B 8
13 0D 01101 C 9
14 0E 01110 F Reserved
15 0F 01111 D 0
16 10 10000 Space Letters Switch to letters
17 11 10001 Linefeed (LF) Linefeed (LF) New line
18 12 10010 X ,
19 13 10011 Z :
20 14 10100 S .
21 15 10101 T Reserved
22 16 10110 W ?
23 17 10111 V '
24 18 11000 Del Del
25 19 11001 K (
26 1A 11010 M )
27 1B 11011 L =
28 1C 11100 R -
29 1D 11101 Q /
30 1E 11110 N Reserved
31 1F 11111 P %

Baudot-Murray code (ITA2)

Dec Hex Bin Letter Figure Comment
0 00 00000 NUL NUL Nothing (blank tape)
1 01 00001 E 3
2 02 00010 Line Feed (LF) Line Feed (LF) New line
3 03 00011 A -
4 04 00100 Space Space
5 05 00101 S '
6 06 00110 I 8
7 07 00111 U 7
8 08 01000 Carriage return (CR) Carriage return (CR)
9 09 01001 D Enquiry
10 0A 01010 R 4
11 0B 01011 J Bell Ring bell at other end
12 0C 01100 N ,
13 0D 01101 F !
14 0E 01110 C :
15 0F 01111 K (
16 10 10000 T 5
17 11 10001 Z +
18 12 10010 L )
19 13 10011 W 2
20 14 10100 H $ Can also be £
21 15 10101 Y 6
22 16 10110 P 0
23 17 10111 Q 1
24 18 11000 O 9
25 19 11001 B ?
26 1A 11010 G & Can also be @
27 1B 11011 Figures Figures Switch to figures
28 1C 11100 M .
29 1D 11101 X /
30 1E 11110 V ;
31 1F 11111 Letters Letters Switch to letters

Features

  • The original inventor of the code was Émile Baudot, although the character set was adjusted later.
  • The term "baud", still used for measuring communications speed, is named after Émile Baudot.
  • The code allows switching between two modes; letters and figures, at any time. It also contains a few control characters such as Line Feed and Carriage Return.
  • Baudot-Murray code (ITA2) was used frequently until the introduction of ASCII code.
  • Trivia: The music band Coldplay used Baudot code on the cover image of their album X&Y.

Baudot codes are used occasionally in geocaching mystery caches (puzzle caches), CTFs and logic puzzles.

See also: Code-Breaking overview | A1z26 | Ascii table | Barcode | Base64 decoder | Base64 encoder | Book cipher | Geek code | Letters to numbers | Numbers to letters | Pixel values extractor | Qr codes | Tap code | Unicode | Utf-8 decoder | Utf-8 encoder