Morse Code Image Decoder
Read Morse code from a picture: dots and dashes written on paper, printed on a sign or chalked on a board. Drop, paste or choose the picture, and the decoder finds each dot and dash and reads the message. A picture of ordinary text is read too, and turned into Morse. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a picture here, paste one, or choose one from your device.
Dots and dashes drawn or printed, or ordinary text. The picture stays on your device.
How it works
The picture is split into ink and paper with Otsu's method, which picks the threshold that best separates the two. The ink is cut into shapes, and each is read by its form: a solid round shape is a dot, a solid shape two or more times wider than tall is a dash, and a slash or upright bar marks the end of a word. The gaps along each line are grouped into gaps inside a letter, between letters and between words.
If the shapes are letters rather than dots and dashes, the text is read with Tesseract, an open-source text recognition engine that runs right in your browser from this site. Written-out dots and dashes are decoded; words are turned into Morse.
Tips for a clean read
- Photograph the page straight on, evenly lit, with the Morse filling most of the picture.
- Leave clear space between letters, and more between words, or draw a slash between words.
- Check what was found: the dots and dashes are outlined on the picture, and you can edit the Morse or text before copying or playing it.