Beale Cipher

What is a Beale Cipher?

A Beale cipher (more precisely a book cipher) uses a shared text as a codebook. Each word in the text is assigned a sequential number starting at 1. To represent a letter, the sender picks any word whose first letter matches and writes down that word's number. Because many words can start with the same letter, the same plaintext letter can produce different cipher numbers each time — making frequency analysis much harder.

Three Key Texts

🌿 A Sound of Thunder (Ray Bradbury)

Bradbury's classic time-travel short story provides a rich vocabulary of vivid, descriptive words. The canvas renders in a cool teal / green palette. Default word: TIME MACHINE. Read text & view key index →

🔥 We Didn't Start the Fire (Billy Joel)

Billy Joel's rapid-fire lyric parade of historical names and events creates a diverse, wide-ranging word list. The canvas burns in reds, oranges, and yellows on a deep red-black background. Default word: FIRESTARTER. Read text & view key index →

🇺🇸 Declaration of Independence

America's founding document packs in formal, weighty vocabulary that covers every letter of the alphabet. The canvas glows in patriotic red, white, and blue. Default word: INDEPENDENCE. Read text & view key index →

Digit Pile-Up

When you click Encode, each letter's cipher number is split into individual digit particles. These digits rain down one by one, landing in a tight pile at the letter's home position while the original letter fades away.

Explosion Cloud

Once every digit for every letter has arrived, the entire canvas explodes. Every digit particle blasts outward at high speed, filling the screen with a dense, themed number cloud. Enable Digit echoes (Environment card) for a streaking effect.

Per-Letter Reveal

Press Assemble (or Space). Each digit steers back toward its assigned home position within its letter's pile. Once all digits for a given letter have returned, the original letter materialises with a bright scale-pop burst. Letters reveal in a cascade until the full word reappears.

How to Encode

1. Select a key text from the Key Text dropdown.
2. Type your message in the Encode tab (A–Z, 30 chars max).
3. Click Encode. Watch the digit rain and the pile-up on the canvas.
4. After the explosion, copy the cipher numbers and share them along with the key text name.

How to Decode

1. Select the same key text that was used to encode.
2. Paste cipher numbers into the Decode tab (space- or comma-separated).
3. Click Decode. Digit particles scatter across the canvas.
4. Press Assemble and watch each letter materialise, one at a time.

Behind the Scenes

Two foundational algorithms power the animations in this app. Curious how they work? Explore them step by step:

• Assemble Algorithm → — see how digit particles steer back to their home positions and trigger the per-letter reveal cascade.
• Recursion Tutorial → — understand the recursive thinking behind breaking cipher numbers into individual digit particles and processing each letter in sequence.