Convert Text Examples

The Gold-Bug Cipher

The example below is from Edgar Allan Poe's novel The Gold-Bug and shows the result of converting the ciphertext to A-Z along with the character mapping.

53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡.)4‡);80

6*;48†8¶60))85;1‡(;:‡*8†83(88)

5*†;46(;88*96*?;8)*‡(;485);5*†

2:*‡(;4956*2(5*-4)8¶8*;40692

85);)6†8)4‡‡;1(‡9;48081;8:8‡1

;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48

;(88;4(‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188;‡?;

Open the Convert Text window and paste the cipher text into the Source text field. Leave the Enter divider char. field blank and click Convert. This will convert the cipher symbols into alphabetic characters. The mapping of each character can be seen by clicking the Show mapping button.

The Cyrillic Projector Cipher

The following example is from a sculpture called the Cyrillic Projector created by American artist Jim Sanborn in the early 1990s which was installed at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte in 1997. Although the plaintext of this cipher is in Russian, which isn't supported by CryptoCrack, the cipher can be used to demonstrate the conversion to a usable form.

Л T Ф E Ю T Ф Я Й Я M П X Ц Ф A Ч H Щ П B Б Г Ж Ч C К Ь Г Г Л З Д Э Й П

Ъ К X C Й P Э A Ф H Ф П Щ B П E Ц P Д Ф A Щ Ш T К C X C Ч Ы У X X E Ю

К У M Л E Ч Л Ы T O Б H E Я Ж Ж И Ь H Э З Щ Ц P Л Ы Б П H Ф O И И A Б Ь

П И К Л E У P Ы C M Ъ Ш Л Л Б X M X Л Ж Ш P A Щ P Й Л П E O O Й Й B Ц

И Ъ Л Б X Ц P Ы Ч C К A P C P B Я Э Ф К Ю Ф P Ю M O Я З O Л O Д Э Ш P З У

Д X M A Э X O Й Г Й Ю Ф M Щ X X C B И И З X A Г Й Я Ь П C И Б P P Ш O M

К T C У Я Г X У Ь Л E У P Ы C M Ъ Ш C П П Я Я Ц Ш У Ш A Ц Ч П И M Ш H

P Б Ч P Я Ы M И У P A Д Ф A И Ю Й Ы Ц Я Л O H У Ф Ж O Ф Ш X Ф Ж C Б

B Ъ Ч Д Ц C Ф Б M Д Э Ш P З У Д X У P Б Ш T O К Щ Ъ M X П O T O X O Щ Ч

Ж A Ц Д Щ P A Ю Г O Й B P Б Г Ю Б З Г E Ж P Й Л П E O O Й Й B Ц H З П Г Ф

Ц З A И B Я Ю Ф Л Ъ Ц X C Ч Ы Ш Ь Б E O M Щ Ш Ж T Э Д Й O T T Ф X П P

П Л O Д Э Щ P З У Д X К П Г Ф O Ц Б Щ Ъ M M Э К Ч E P Л M К Ъ Ц Ц З Щ Л

Ф Ц Ч Ъ Щ К B H Ф A E C Д П T Д Ф П P Я Й К Ю H X B Ц Б Ю E И C Ч Я Ч Ц

X M Ж Л C П P Ч У Л Э Ш Ж Ы И И M E D U S A И H X E З Л Ч З P З Й К Л

П П E B Л Ч C X Ц Ы O Й B P Б У Д X C B Ъ Г Ж Ч C К A P C P B Я Э Ф P Щ Ф

Я Ц Щ П Ъ З Ы T Ф O Й Й У C Д T Ю T B C Б P X C П Б Щ Л Ш К У B Й Й Г З

Open the Convert Text window and paste the cipher text into the Source text field. If you try to convert this text without changing the options you'll end up with ABCBDBEBFBCBDBGBHBGBIBJBKBLBDBMBNBOBPBJB... which contains many Bs. The reason for this is that spaces are converted to ciphertext characters which, in this case, are represented by B. To prevent this enter a space character as the divider and select Change Newlines to Space. If the Change Newlines to Space option is left unselected newlines will be ignored resulting in the last character of each line being paired with the first character of the following line. Click Convert to convert the cipher symbols into alphabetic characters.

The mapping of each character can be seen by clicking the Show mapping button. As there are more than 26 different characters in the source text the converted text includes lowercase letters. Alternatively they could be converted to numbers by changing the Output style.

In the screenshot below the vertical splitter between the two fields has been moved to improve the text display.

Hornsey Postcard Cipher

This example was written on the back of a postcard held by the Hornsey Historical Society and dated 1906. It is also shown on Klaus Schmeh's Cipherbrain blog site (German).

13.25-15.23.14-4.5.1.18 – 1.4.1 – 20.8.5-12.1.19.20-P.P.C-6.15.18-25.15.21-1.20-W.St.-20.8.1.14.11.19-6.15.18-13.9.14.5-4.5.1.18-8.1.22.5-7.15.20-13.25-13.15.14.5.25-4.5.1.18.5.19.20-1.12.12-9.14-7.15.12.4-9-6.5.5.12-18.9.3.8-10.21.19.20-6.15.18-1-2.9.20-4.5.1.18-8.1.22.5-2.5.5.4-4.15.23.14-20.15-19.5.5-Cot-ton-20.15.14.9.7.8.20-4.5.1.18-8.5-8.1.19-7.15.20-8,9.19-6.15.18.5.13.1.14.’19-10.15.2-4.5.1.18-7.12.1.4-23.5.-1.18.5-7.15.9.14.7-20.15-W-15.14-19.21.14.4.1.25-4.5.1.18-23.9.12.12-2.5-1.19-19.15.15.14-1.19-9-3.1.14-20.15.13.15.8.18.15.23-4.5.1.18.5.19.20-7.15.15.4-14.9.7.8.20-4.5.1.18-15.14.5-13.21.38-12.15.22.5-&-12.15.20.19-15.6-11.9.19.19.5.19-6.15.18-13.25-15.23.14-4.5.1.18.5.19.20-1.4.1-6.18.15.13-Yr-15.23.14-23.1.12.20

Open the Convert Text window and paste the cipher text into the Source text field. Click Convert to change the cipher symbols into alphabetic characters. The mapping of each character can be seen by clicking the Show mapping button.

If you convert the cipher without any divider characters the program will convert each character including spaces, hyphens, periods and each individual number as shown below.

To prevent all individual characters being converted enter the characters between the numbers and split the source into number groups you need to enter the group separators into the Enter divider char. field. Enter .-[space] into the divider and click Convert. This still shows 31 different character groups including a number of non-numeric characters such as PPC, W, St, Cot and so on. These can be removed by either deleting them from the source text manually or adding the characters to the divider i.e. [.- –PCWStCon’,&Yr] without the square brackets.

It is important to note that when copying source text some punctuation characters may appear the same but are different. As an example the equivalent of F and J in the character mapping above may appear as the same hyphen character but are in fact different.

Clicking Convert again will convert the number groups into alphabetic characters producing the result shown below. The mapping of each character can be seen by clicking the Show mapping button.

Click on the Copy result to copy the converted text to the clipboard. It can now be copied to the main window and solved as a Patristocrat cipher. Some of the punctuation and removed plaintext letters may need to added back in to complete the solution.