Your picture appears here with every detected dot and dash outlined.
Keep the camera still and the blinking light in view. Click the preview to choose the light yourself if it is picked wrongly.
A frame of your video appears here with the blinking light circled.
Everything happens in your browser. Your picture or video is not uploaded anywhere.
To translate Morse code from a picture, upload an image of the dots and dashes. The reader finds each mark, tells dots from dashes by their shape, uses the spacing to separate letters and words, and shows the text. For a blinking light, upload a video and it reads the flashes instead. Nothing is uploaded to a server.
Translate Morse code from an image
- Choose Picture at the top of the tool.
- Add the image. Choose a file, drop one onto the box, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V (or Command+V on a Mac).
- Check the outlines. Every mark it found is boxed: amber for a dot, blue for a dash and red for a word-break slash. If a mark is not outlined, the reader has not seen it.
- Read the result. The Morse code and the English text appear below the picture. Open them in the translator if you want to play or save the message.
If marks are missed or extra ones appear, adjust Sensitivity, or change Marks are to tell the reader whether the code is dark on a light background or light on dark. Press Try an example to see what a good picture looks like.
What kinds of picture it can read
The reader works on pictures where each dot and dash is a separate mark:
- Dots and dashes drawn as shapes, such as puzzle sheets, escape-room clues, bracelets laid flat, or code written with a marker.
- Dots and dashes typed as text, such as a screenshot of
... --- ...or a message in a chat. - Marks that are dark on light or light on dark, including screens in dark mode.
- Photos with uneven lighting, shadows, slight tilt, blur or JPEG compression.
It does not read code made from other things, such as the colours of beads or the lengths of ropes, unless each dot and dash shows up as its own distinct mark. It also does not read ordinary text or letters. If a picture contains regular words as well, the reader ignores marks that are much larger than the dots and dashes.
Tested on 16 generated pictures covering graphics, typed text, inverted colours, shading, noise, tilt, small size and JPEG compression, it read all of them exactly. Real photographs are messier, so always compare the outlined marks with your picture.
Translate Morse code from a video of a blinking light
Switch to Blinking light (video) to read a flashing lamp, torch, screen or LED:
- Film the light with the camera held still. Keep the lamp in the frame and avoid other flashing lights.
- Choose the video, up to 90 seconds long.
- The reader plays the clip once at normal speed, finds the spot that changes brightness the most, measures how long it is on and off, and decodes the pattern.
- The preview shows a circle around the light it chose. If it picked the wrong spot, click the light in the preview and it will read that spot instead.
Tips for a good reading:
- Film at normal video settings. Most phones record at 30 frames per second, which can follow any speed a person would blink by hand.
- Keep the speed slow. Hand-signalling is usually 5 to 10 words per minute. At 5 WPM a dot lasts about a quarter of a second.
- Make the light much brighter than its surroundings. A torch in the dark is easy; a lamp in a bright room is harder.
- Leave a longer pause between words than between letters.
To signal the other way round, see how to blink Morse code and the tapper and light flasher.
Is my picture or video uploaded?
No. The picture or video is opened and analysed by your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, and nothing is stored.
Frequently asked questions
How do I translate a picture of Morse code?
Choose the Picture tab, add the image, and check that every dot and dash is outlined. The text appears below. If the picture is not recognised, try the Sensitivity slider.
Can it read a photo of a Morse code bracelet or beads?
Only if each dot and dash appears as its own distinct mark, such as a bracelet laid flat with round beads for dots and long beads for dashes against a plain background. See the bracelet and tattoo guide for how those designs are usually made.
Can it read Morse code from a video?
Yes, if the video shows a blinking light. Choose the Blinking light tab. For Morse code you hear in a video, extract or record the sound and use the audio decoder.
Why did it pick the wrong light?
The reader chooses the place that changes brightness the most. Another flashing source, a moving object or a camera shake can win. Click the right light in the preview to choose it yourself.
What if the result has question marks?
A question mark means the spacing produced a pattern that is not a letter. Compare the outlined marks with your picture, adjust Sensitivity, and see the decoder for help with spacing.
Visual Morse code, scanners and screenshots
A visual Morse code translator reads the marks themselves, so it works as a scanner for a photo of a message, a picture on a page, a screenshot or a frame from a video. Choose the picture and the tool outlines every dot and dash it finds, so you can check that it saw what you see. For a moving image, such as a clip of a blinking lamp, use the video option. This page does not use an online service, so nothing is uploaded: the translator runs in your browser. Long documents with many lines are best done one section at a time.
A "Morse code visualizer" shows the code as shapes. This page does the opposite: it reads shapes from your picture or video and turns them back into text. If you want to see your own message as moving light, use the flasher on the tapper page.