As the name suggests, the transposition cipher is based on rearranging the letters of plaintext. This is done by placing the text in a table with an unknown number of columns.
To translate your plaintext into transposition cipher, select a key (A-Z) and start typing into the respective input field below.
As mentioned before, the transposition cipher works on the basis of shuffling letters. The principle is quite straightforward: plaintext is placed horizontally into a table, where each character occupies one cell. The text is then read vertically.
The number of columns is chosed by the key. Every letter in the
alphabet has a number associated with it. The user chooses a letter,
without knowing what number it stands for. After the number of columns
is chosen, the number of rows depens only on the length of the string.
When the string doesn't occupy every cell in the table, the remaining
cells are filled with a chosen special sign that acts like a placeholder,
so the cipher can be later translated in the other direction as well. For
this purpose, the '∞' symbol is used.
The figure below shows a visual example of how the cipher functions.
The chosen key is number 4.
Input: Donuts are awesome!
| D | o | n | u |
| t | s | a | |
| r | e | a | |
| w | e | s | o |
| m | e | ! | ∞ |
Output: Dtrwmoseeen s!uaao∞
The cipher can take any input, however using the ∞ symbol is not advised
as it will be ommited when translated in the other direction.
Also, it is necessary
that the input's length is larger than the key, therefore use this cipher
for longer strings only.