The Autokey Cipher is a constantly rotating cipher using the Vigenre tableau, but unlike a Vigenre cipher, which

uses a word as the key and encrypts the text just once, the autokey cipher uses a single letter as the key and encypts the text for each character. The entire original text is first rotated by the key letter chosen. The first letter of the result becomes the first letter of the final encrypted text and the key for the next rotation. The new text is rotated again using this new key. The second letter of the newly encrypted text becomes the next key, and the second letter of the final encrypted text. This process continues using the third, fourth, etc. letter until all characters of the text have been encoded.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y

ZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZA CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZAB DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC E F G H IJ K L M N OP Q R S T U V W X YZ A B C D FGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDE GHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEF HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFG IJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGH JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHI KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJ L MN O PQ R S TU V WX Y ZA B CD E FG H IJ K MNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKL NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLM O P Q R S T U V W XY Z A BC D E F G H IJ K L M N PQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNO QRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP RSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ STUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR TUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS UVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST VWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU WXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV XYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW Y Z AB C D EF G H IJ K LM N O P QR S T U VW X ZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY Example: Using the simple word HELLO and the key letter B: Find the key letter in the left row-header and the intersecting character of the text from the top column-header, continuing this method for each letter of the text, to get the first rotation "IFMMP". The new key letter is I and we then rotate IFMMP, continuing for every letter - see the table below: Key Letter Rotated text Letter Placement Encrypted Letter B IFMMP 1st I I QNUUX 2nd N N DAHHK 3rd H H KHOOR 4th O O YVCCF 5th F

We can see from this that the word HELLO encrypted using the key letter B becomes INHOF.

To save you doing it all manually a converter is provided below