ALT-Codes

Encryption with AltCodes (ALT = alternative) consists in replacing numbers (between 1 and 31) with their graphic equivalent ALT Code. Letters can be replaced by numbers (A=1, B=2, etc.) before encoding.

Example: DCODE corresponds to 4,3,15,4,5 that is encrypted ♦♥☼♦♣

The full alphabet is:

Not to be confused with the functionality of operating systems that can use a key combination with ALT to write characters according to their ASCII or Unicode code. (In this case the numbers are greater than 32)

Decryption consists in replacing coded-characters by their corresponding number. Between 1 and 26, it is possible to convert them to letters.

Example: ♦♥☼♦♣ for 4,3,15,4,5 that is DCODE (A=1, B=2, etc.)

ALT-Code generally has the number of their associated character in ASCII or Unicode nomenclatures.

These characters comes from ASCII code page 437 and 850 from IBM, reused in Windows as ALT-Code, it allows writing characters that are not on a keyboard.

Numbers between 32 and 128 are the usual ASCII characters. dCode has a tool to convert ASCII codes.

Place cursor into a text area, hold the ALT key, type the code number with the keypad, release ALT key. It is possible to obtain any Unicode characters with this technique.

ASCII table is born in 1986, graphic characters were added shortly afterwards.