Morse Code Translator: Text to Morse and Back, With Audio
Translate text to International Morse code and back in your browser, following ITU-R M.1677-1. Choose dot, dash and separator styles, use prosigns, play the code as a tone or flashing light at 5 to 40 WPM, and save a WAV file. Nothing is uploaded.
Write procedural signals in angle brackets, such as <AR> or <SK>. When on, their codes decode as prosigns.
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Sound and light
Send each letter at the character speed but stretch the gaps, a common way to learn.
About the Morse Code Translator
The Morse Code Translator turns text into International Morse code and Morse code back into text. Type a message and the dots and dashes appear as you type; switch the direction and paste code to read it as plain text. The page follows Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, the international standard for Morse code, so it covers the 26 letters, the accented E, the ten digits and the official punctuation marks. It can also play the code as a tone, flash it as a light and save it as a WAV audio file. Everything runs in your browser; your text is never uploaded.
How to use it
Steps
- Choose Text to Morse or Morse to text under Direction.
- Type or paste into the input box. Up to 100,000 characters are accepted.
- When encoding, choose how the code is written:
.and-or the typographic•and−, a space or a pipe between letters, and a slash, three spaces or a line break between words. - Press Copy, or Swap to move the result into the input and reverse the direction.
- Under Sound and light, set the speed and the tone, then press Play to hear the code or Download WAV to save it.
Privacy
The translation, the audio and the WAV file are all made by code on this page. Nothing is sent to our servers, and nothing is kept once you close or reload the tab.
What the code covers
Letters and figures
Each letter A to Z, the accented É and the digits 0 to 9 have their own sequence of short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes). Morse has no upper and lower case, so lower-case letters are sent like capitals and decoded text is shown in capitals. The digits all use five signals: 1 is .----, 5 is ..... and 0 is -----.
Punctuation
The ITU set is the full stop, comma, colon, question mark, apostrophe, hyphen, slash, both brackets, quotation marks, the double hyphen =, the cross + and the commercial at sign @, which the ITU added in 2004. The multiplication sign × is sent as the letter X. Characters outside this set, such as #, &, ! or emoji, have no international code: the page leaves them out and names each of them once in a note under the output, so nothing disappears silently.
Prosigns
Procedural signals are two letters sent as one character with no gap between them. Turn on Prosigns and write them in angle brackets: <AR> for end of message, <SK> for end of work, <AS> for wait, <SN> for understood, <HH> for error, <CT> for the starting signal, <BT> for a break and <KN> for an invitation to one station only. With prosigns on, their codes decode as prosigns, so .-.-. reads as <AR> rather than +.
Decoding pasted code
The decoder accepts code from almost any source. Dots may be ., • or ·, and dashes -, −, –, — or _. Letters are separated by a space or a pipe, and a word ends at a slash, at a line break or at two or more spaces in a row. A group of signals that is not a known code is left out of the text and listed in a note, which helps to spot a typo such as a missing dot.
Timing, speed and Farnsworth spacing
Morse timing is counted in units. A dot is one unit, a dash three, the gap inside a letter one, the gap between letters three and the gap between words seven. Speed is measured in words per minute with the standard word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long, so one dot lasts 1200 divided by the speed in milliseconds:
At 20 WPM a dot lasts 60 ms and PARIS takes three seconds. The character speed can be set from 5 to 40 WPM and the tone from 400 to 1000 Hz. Farnsworth spacing sends each letter at the character speed but stretches the gaps between letters and words until the overall speed matches a slower effective speed. Learners hear the true rhythm of each letter while still having time to recognise it.
Light and audio file
While the code plays, a light next to the buttons switches on and off with the tone, which is useful in a quiet room or to practise reading signal lamps. Stop ends the playback at once. Download WAV saves the same audio as an uncompressed 16-bit mono WAV file at 8,000 samples per second, which plays in every audio app. Audio is limited to 10 minutes; for longer texts, raise the speed or split the message.
Related tools
To see the bytes behind each character instead, use the Text to Binary converter. To change letter case before encoding, use the Text Case Converter.
Open-source credits
The translation, timing and WAV encoder are implemented in-house for this site and use no third-party library. The code table follows Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, International Morse code, and the speed calculation uses the PARIS standard word and the Farnsworth timing published by the ARRL. Sound is produced with the Web Audio API as defined by the W3C, and the WAV file uses the RIFF WAVE PCM format.
Frequently asked questions
Why are some of my characters missing from the Morse code?
International Morse code defines only letters, the accented E, digits and a short list of punctuation marks. Signs such as #, &, ! and emoji have no international code, so the translator leaves them out and names each one in a note under the output instead of guessing.
How long is a dot at a given speed?
Speed is measured with the standard word PARIS, which is 50 units long including the gap after it. One unit, the length of a dot, is therefore 1200 divided by the words per minute in milliseconds: 60 ms at 20 WPM and 240 ms at 5 WPM.
What is Farnsworth spacing and when should I use it?
Farnsworth spacing sends every letter at the full character speed but makes the gaps between letters and words longer, so the overall speed is slower. It helps learners recognise each letter by its rhythm rather than by counting dots and dashes, and the gaps can shrink as they improve.
How should I write a prosign such as SK or AR?
Turn on Prosigns and write the two letters inside angle brackets, for example <SK> or <AR>. They are sent as one character with no letter gap. With the option on, decoding shows these codes as bracketed prosigns, so the code for + reads as <AR>.
Which separators does the decoder accept between letters and words?
Letters may be split by a single space or a pipe, and a word ends at a slash, a line break or two or more spaces. Dots may be full stops, bullets or middle dots, and dashes may be hyphens, minus signs, en or em dashes or underscores.
What format is the downloaded Morse audio file?
It is an uncompressed WAV file holding 16-bit mono PCM samples at 8,000 samples per second, with a short fade at each edge of every tone to avoid clicks. It opens in any media player or audio editor, and up to 10 minutes of audio can be saved.