About the ROT47 Encoder and Decoder
ROT47 rotates each character across the 94 printable ASCII characters from ! to ~, shifting by 47. Unlike ROT13, it scrambles digits, punctuation and symbols as well as letters, so the output looks thoroughly garbled. Because 47 is half of 94, applying it twice restores the original, so one operation both encodes and decodes.
The rotated range starts at code point 33, so the space at 32 falls just outside it and survives untouched. Everything visible around it does not, which is what makes ROT47 output look so much more scrambled than ROT13 while still showing where the words break. Tabs and newlines are left alone for the same reason, so the shape of a pasted paragraph is preserved.
It is used in the same spirit as ROT13, hiding spoilers and puzzle answers, but produces far less recognisable output because digits and symbols move as well as letters. One consequence worth expecting: a URL or a code snippet run through ROT47 comes back full of quotes, backslashes and angle brackets, so paste the result somewhere that will not try to interpret it. Like ROT13 it offers no security. The ROT13 tool is the letters-only version, and Caesar Cipher lets you pick the shift yourself.
How to use
- Paste the text.
- Read the rotated output. Run it again to reverse.
- Copy the result.
Common questions
- How is ROT47 different from ROT13?
- ROT13 rotates only letters; ROT47 rotates all 94 printable ASCII characters including digits and punctuation.
- Does it decode itself?
- Yes. Applying ROT47 twice returns the original text.
- Why are the spaces unchanged?
- ROT47 rotates code points 33 to 126. A space is code point 32, just below that range, so it passes through as-is.