Tool to decipher the windows cipher of Johann Balthasar Friderici, a technique presented as steganographic, using squares of 4 cells, painted black or white boxes, or filled with a point.
Friderici Cipher (Windows) - dCode
Tag(s) : Symbol Substitution, Steganography
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Friderici windows are the name given to a steganography technique used by Johann B. Friderici in his book Cryptographia. There he presents an illustration of a ruined building made up of 22 four-paned windows.
The windows are divided into squares of 4 squares, and each square represents a letter according to the configuration of the squares.
The Friderici cipher is a substitution of the letters of the alphabet by a window according to the lookup table:
A | ![]() | B | ![]() | C | ![]() | D | ![]() | E | ![]() | F | ![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | ![]() | H | ![]() | I | ![]() | K | ![]() | L | ![]() | M | ![]() |
N | ![]() | O | ![]() | P | ![]() | Q | ![]() | R | ![]() | S | ![]() |
T | ![]() | U | ![]() | W | ![]() | X | ![]() | Y | ![]() | Z | ![]() |
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Note the absence of the letters J and V which did not exist in the (german) alphabet at the time. The X is absent from the drawing but was proposed by Klaus Schmeh.
Friderici's decryption is a substitution of each window by a letter of the alphabet.
Example: The image of the building can be deciphered WIRHABENKEINPULVERMEHR (so wir haben kein pulver mehr that can be translated we have run out of powder)
The message is a drawing or a series of square or rectangular symbols made up of 4 smaller squares filled or colored in 3 different ways. In the original version, the tiles are either white / blank, black / striped, or filled with a black dot in the center.
Friderici presents this coding as a steganographic technique, so expect to see it reproduced on the windows of a building or any type of design that can present these square / rectangular shapes.
Johann Balthasar Friderici published the book Cryptographia, oder geheime Schrifft mund und wurckliche Correspondenss in 1685.
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