Baudot Code Translator
Encode text into 5-bit Baudot or ITA2 teleprinter code and decode binary groups back into readable text.
Useful for telegraph history, early computing lessons, and understanding how shift-based character sets worked before ASCII became dominant.
Baudot-style teleprinter code uses 5-bit groups, which means there are only 32 possible values. That is enough for uppercase letters and a few control symbols, but not enough for full punctuation and digits at the same time.
To solve that limitation, teleprinters introduced shift characters. One shift switches the machine into a letters table and another switches it into a figures table. The same 5-bit code can therefore mean different symbols depending on the active state.
This tool follows that workflow directly. When you encode text, it inserts letters or figures shifts as needed. When you decode binary groups, it tracks the current shift so each code is interpreted against the correct table.
- Studying how early teleprinters handled letters, digits, and punctuation with only 5 bits.
- Converting sample text into ITA2-style groups for history, radio, or communications projects.
- Decoding archived Baudot-like binary sequences when you need a quick browser-based reference.
Emile Baudot introduced one of the earliest practical fixed-length telegraph codes in the late 19th century. Later teleprinter systems refined the idea into forms often associated with Donald Murray and the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2.
Compared with Morse code, Baudot-style systems were better suited to keyboards and automated printers because every transmitted symbol had a uniform width. That design choice made them an important step on the path from telegraphy to modern digital text encoding.