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Baudot code translator

Encode text to 5-bit Baudot / ITA2 telegraph code and decode it back.

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Baudot code translator
Baudot code — standardized as ITA2, the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 — represents every character with just 5 bits, half the width of ASCII. That's only 32 possible codes for an alphabet with 26 letters, 10 digits and a dozen punctuation marks, so telegraph equipment reused the same codes twice: a LETTERS shift code (11111) switches the receiver into alphabet mode and a FIGURES shift code (11011) switches it into digits-and-punctuation mode. This tool encodes plain text into that 5-bit stream and decodes it back, tracking the shift state exactly the way a real teleprinter did.
Two variants are available. ITA2 is the international table; US TTY is the variant American teleprinters used, differing only in a few FIGURES-shift punctuation marks. Pick whichever matches the equipment or historical text you're working from, then choose how each group is displayed — raw binary like "11000", its decimal value from 0 to 31, or dot notation (●○) mirroring the punched holes on paper tape — and set the separator between groups.
Baudot has no lowercase, so input is uppercase-folded before encoding (café becomes CAFE), and a character with no equivalent in the selected variant is either dropped silently or replaced with "?", your choice. Decoding is strict: a group that isn't exactly 5 bits is reported as an error naming the offending group rather than silently misread.
Everything runs locally in your browser. The text and codes you work with are never uploaded anywhere, whether you're decoding a historical telegram, building a teleprinter simulator, or exploring how pre-ASCII text encoding worked.
FAQ
What is Baudot code?
A 5-bit character encoding from 19th-century telegraphy, standardized internationally as ITA2. It only has 32 codes, so two of them are reserved as shift codes that switch the receiver between a LETTERS alphabet and a FIGURES set of digits and punctuation.
What's the difference between ITA2 and US TTY?
They share the same 26 letters and the same shift codes. They differ only in a handful of the FIGURES-shift punctuation marks — for example, the position that has no printable character in ITA2 (a historical "who are you" signal) is a dollar sign in US TTY.
Why does the output only use uppercase letters?
Baudot code has no lowercase — real teleprinters only ever printed capitals. Input is uppercase-folded before encoding, so "hello" and "HELLO" produce the same result.
What happens to characters Baudot can't represent?
Set the "unsupported characters" option to drop them silently or replace them with the figures "?" so their position stays visible in the output.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Encoding and decoding both run entirely in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.