The Pigpen cipher has been hiding messages in plain sight since at least the 18th century — not through mathematical complexity, but by swapping letters for geometric shapes that look meaningless until you know the underlying grid.
What Is the Pigpen Cipher Tool?
A tool that encodes typed text into the traditional Pigpen (also called the Freemason’s) cipher, rendering each letter as the SVG grid-line symbol it corresponds to — two tic-tac-toe grids and two X-shaped grids, each covering part of the alphabet.
How to Use It
- Open the tool at /tools/pigpen-cipher.
- Type your message into the input box.
- View the rendered symbols instantly below.
- Expand “Show full alphabet key” to see every letter’s symbol for reference.
Key Features
- Historically accurate symbol rendering, using the four traditional Pigpen grids — two tic-tac-toe patterns (plain and dotted) and two X-patterns (plain and dotted).
- Full alphabet key, letting you look up or verify any letter’s symbol directly.
- Live encoding as you type, no submit button needed.
- Fully client-side SVG generation, no images to download or external references needed.
When to Use This Tool
- Puzzle and escape room design, creating a classic, recognizable cipher for players to decode.
- History and cryptography education, demonstrating one of the earliest simple substitution ciphers.
- Novelty messages and codes, writing something visually distinctive for notes, art, or games.
Try It Now
Open Pigpen Cipher Tool directly, or press ⌘K and type the tool name from anywhere on the site.
Part of the Security & Crypto collection on WebdevToolbox — free, browser-based developer tools with no login required.