Pigpen Cipher

The Pigpen cipher replaces every letter with a small geometric symbol: the shape of the “pen” the letter sits in on a grid. It is quick to draw, looks mysterious, and is easy to teach, which makes it a favourite for escape rooms, treasure hunts, scout activities and classroom code-breaking. This tool draws Pigpen messages ready to print and helps you decode them.

The key

Two tic-tac-toe grids and two X shapes hold the alphabet. The first grid holds A to I, row by row; the second holds J to R and has a dot in each cell. The first X holds S, T, U and V in its top, left, right and bottom wedges; the second X holds W, X, Y and Z, again with dots. Each letter is written as the lines around its cell: E, in the middle of the first grid, is a closed square; A, in the top-left corner, is the two lines on its right and bottom. The key image on this page can be printed and handed out with a puzzle.

Writing a message

Type the message and it is drawn immediately, one symbol per letter, with a gap between words. Adjust the line weight to suit the print size, and the number of symbols per line to fit a card, a poster or a slide. Turn on the letters under the symbols to make an answer key for yourself or for younger players.

Downloading and printing

Download a PNG to drop into a document, slide or worksheet; it is rendered at three times screen resolution so it stays sharp. Download the SVG for large prints such as posters or escape-room props: it is a vector drawing that can be scaled to any size without blurring, and it opens in Word, Inkscape, Illustrator and design tools such as Canva.

Decoding

Switch to “Read Pigpen” to decode a message. The symbol keyboard shows all 26 symbols; click them in the order they appear in the message, with Space between words, and the letters build up below. Back removes the last letter. It is much faster than looking each symbol up in a table.

Variants

The layout used here, with the dotted grid and dotted X for the second half of the alphabet, is the most common modern form. Historical versions used by Freemasons and others arranged the letters differently, for example filling the grids column by column or placing the dots in other positions. If a puzzle’s symbols do not decode sensibly, it may use another key.

Not a secret cipher

Pigpen is a simple substitution: anyone who knows it, or counts symbol frequencies, can read it. Its value is in the fun of decoding.

A worked example

The word HELP is drawn as four symbols: H is the bottom-middle cell of the first grid, a shape open at the bottom; E is the centre cell, a closed square; L is the top-right cell of the second grid, two lines on the bottom and left with a dot; and P is the bottom-left cell of the second grid, two lines on the top and right with a dot. In decode mode, clicking those four symbols in order writes HELP.

Related tools

Try other puzzle codes with the Tap Code Translator, the Caesar Cipher Solver or the Bacon Cipher, or translate into dots and dashes with the Morse Code Translator.