Morse Code Translator

How the Morse Code Translator Works

Morse code represents each letter, number and punctuation mark as a short sequence of dots (·, a short signal) and dashes (–, a long signal). It was developed in the 1830s and 1840s for the electrical telegraph and is still used today in aviation, amateur radio, and as an accessible way to send messages by sound, light or touch. This tool uses International Morse Code (ITU-R M.1677), the worldwide standard that covers A–Z, 0–9 and the common punctuation marks.

Because every character maps to its own unique dot-and-dash pattern, the translation works cleanly in both directions. Type text to get Morse, or paste Morse to get the text back. Morse is case-insensitive, so decoded text comes back in capitals.

Timing: dots, dashes and spaces

Real Morse is defined by timing, measured in a single base unit — the length of one dot. Everything else is a multiple of it:

• A dot is 1 unit of sound.
• A dash is 3 units of sound.
• The gap between dots and dashes inside one character is 1 unit of silence.
• The gap between letters is 3 units.
• The gap between words is 7 units.

Speed is measured in words per minute (WPM) using the standard word "PARIS", which is exactly 50 units long. At 20 WPM one unit is 60 ms; the Play button uses this exact model, so what you hear is properly-timed Morse.

Farnsworth timing for learning

When you are learning to copy Morse by ear, it helps to hear each character at full speed while getting extra thinking time between them. That is Farnsworth timing: the dots and dashes are sent at the faster "character speed" you set with the Speed slider, but the gaps between letters and words are stretched so the overall pace matches the slower Farnsworth speed. Set the two sliders to the same value for standard timing, or lower the Farnsworth value to add spacing.

Full International Morse Code Chart — Letters

Numbers 0–9

Punctuation & Symbols

Prosigns & the famous SOS

Prosigns (procedural signals) are special sequences sent as one run of dots and dashes with no gap between the letters. The best known is the distress call SOS — ... --- ... — sent as one continuous symbol. Others include AR (.-.-., end of message), SK (...-.-, end of contact) and BT (-...-, new paragraph). Type "SOS" here and you will see and hear each letter clearly spaced; run them together to send the true prosign.

More than a converter

• Real audio — hear correctly-timed tones generated with the Web Audio API. Adjust speed, Farnsworth spacing, tone pitch and volume live.
• Light signalling — the on-screen lamp flashes in perfect sync with the beeps, so you can practise reading Morse by light.
• Visual patterns — every character is drawn as its dots and dashes and highlighted as it plays, which makes learning the code far easier.
• Export — download the dots and dashes as a .txt file, or render the sound to a shareable .wav audio file.

Privacy

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