Roni Bandini — Buenos Aires, Argentina — May 2021

The Nyctograph Machine is an Arduino-powered device that translates ordinary alphabetic text into Lewis Carroll's Nyctographic Square Alphabet and prints the resulting symbols on thermal paper.

A rotary encoder is used to select letters on a 16×2 LCD. After entering a 16-character phrase, the Arduino replaces each character with its corresponding 104×104 pixel nyctographic bitmap and sends the sequence to a thermal printer.

The project combines Victorian writing technology, substitution alphabets, Arduino electronics and physical printing.

• 🌙 Lewis Carroll Nyctographic alphabet
• ♾️ Arduino Mega 2560
• 🎛️ Rotary encoder text input
• 🖥️ 16×2 I²C LCD
• 🧾 Thermal printer output
• 🔡 26 bitmap glyphs stored in flash
• 🖼️ 104×104 pixel / 1-bit symbols
• ✍️ 16-character phrase input
• 💡 Status LEDs
• 🧪 Alphabet test-print mode
• 📕 PDF user's guide included
• 🧱 Custom 3D-printable enclosure

flowchart LR
    USER["👤 User"]
    ENC["🎛️ Rotary Encoder"]
    LCD["🖥️ 16×2 LCD"]
    MEGA["♾️ Arduino Mega"]
    PHRASE["16-character buffer"]
    MAP["🔡 Nyctograph glyph lookup"]
    BITMAP["104×104 bitmaps"]
    PRINTER["🧾 Thermal Printer"]

    USER --> ENC
    ENC --> MEGA
    MEGA --> LCD
    MEGA --> PHRASE
    PHRASE --> MAP
    BITMAP --> MAP
    MAP --> PRINTER

The complete alphabet is stored locally inside the Arduino firmware. No computer or network connection is required during operation.

Lewis Carroll — Charles Lutwidge Dodgson — developed the Nyctograph in 1891 as a way to record ideas while lying in bed without having to light a candle.

He created a small writing guide based on square cells and developed a corresponding alphabet made from dots and strokes.

The common visual rule is a prominent dot in the upper-left corner of each letter symbol, helping identify the beginning of each character.

Carroll recorded the invention on September 24, 1891 and described it publicly in a letter published in The Lady on October 29, 1891.

Historical reference:

👉 Alice's Adventures in Carroll's Own Square Alphabet — Lewis Carroll Society of North America

The original Nyctograph was designed to help a person write without seeing.

This project reverses the direction:

Conventional alphabet
        ↓
Arduino
        ↓
Nyctographic alphabet
        ↓
Thermal paper

Instead of manually encoding each letter, the Arduino performs the substitution automatically.

The firmware contains:

static char letters[27] =
    " ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

char phrase[16] = "";

The rotary encoder moves through the alphabet:

if (digitalRead(outputB) != aState) {
    counter++;

    if (counter > 26)
        counter = 26;
}
else {
    counter--;

    if (counter < 0)
        counter = 0;
}

The selected character appears on the LCD.

Pressing the encoder button stores its numeric index:

phrase[index] = counter;

index = index + 1;

counter = 0;

The main phrase buffer is:

char phrase[16] = "";

The interface also uses a:

LiquidCrystal_I2C lcd(
    0x3F,
    16,
    2
);

After sixteen positions have been entered:

if (index > 15) {

the machine begins printing the encoded phrase.

The original project also references the sixteen-cell format associated with Carroll's writing system and the conveniently sixteen-character phrases:

THE WHITE RABBIT
EL CONEJO BLANCO

Each character was converted into a:

104 × 104 pixel
1-bit bitmap

and stored in:

👉 letters.h

The glyph arrays use PROGMEM:

static const uint8_t PROGMEM a[] = {
    ...
};

static const uint8_t PROGMEM b[] = {
    ...
};

This allows the large bitmap data to remain in program flash instead of occupying SRAM.

The machine uses the Adafruit Thermal Printer library:

#include "Adafruit_Thermal.h"
#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

Serial configuration:

#define TX_PIN 12
#define RX_PIN 11

SoftwareSerial mySerial(
    RX_PIN,
    TX_PIN
);

Adafruit_Thermal printer(
    &mySerial
);

Printer serial speed:

mySerial.begin(19200);

Each symbol is printed as a bitmap:

printer.printBitmap(
    104,
    104,
    a
);

printer.println(F(""));

Official documentation:

👉 Adafruit Mini Thermal Receipt Printer Guide

👉 Adafruit Thermal Printer Library

flowchart TD
    START["Power On"]
    LCD["Display Nyctograph 1.0"]
    SELECT["🎛️ Select Letter"]
    BUTTON{"Encoder pressed?"}
    STORE["Store letter"]
    FULL{"16 positions?"}
    NEXT["Continue entering"]
    LOOKUP["Find Nyctographic bitmap"]
    PRINT["🧾 Print 104×104 glyph"]
    DONE["Reset phrase"]

    START --> LCD
    LCD --> SELECT
    SELECT --> BUTTON

    BUTTON -->|"No"| SELECT
    BUTTON -->|"Yes"| STORE

    STORE --> FULL

    FULL -->|"No"| NEXT
    NEXT --> SELECT

    FULL -->|"Yes"| LOOKUP
    LOOKUP --> PRINT
    PRINT --> DONE
    DONE --> SELECT

The firmware includes a test-print function.

Default:

int alphaPrint = 0;

Change to:

int alphaPrint = 1;

to activate the alphabet printing routine at startup.

This is useful for checking the bitmap conversion, thermal-printer connection and print quality.

Two LEDs are configured:

#define ledA 8
#define ledB 9

They are used to indicate startup, debug printing and normal printing activity.

Firmware definitions:

#define outputA 6
#define outputB 7
#define buttonA 5

#define ledA 8
#define ledB 9

The encoder button uses:

pinMode(
    buttonA,
    INPUT_PULLUP
);

The first prototype used an Arduino Nano, but storing the full bitmap alphabet exceeded the available program-memory resources, so the final machine moved to the Arduino Mega 2560.

The Mega provides an ATmega2560, 16 MHz clock and substantially more flash memory.

👉 Arduino Mega 2560 Documentation

The sketch uses:

#include <Wire.h>
#include <LiquidCrystal_I2C.h>
#include "Adafruit_Thermal.h"
#include "SoftwareSerial.h"
#include "letters.h"

👉 Adafruit Thermal Printer Library

Install a compatible LiquidCrystal_I2C library through the Arduino Library Manager.

Included with Arduino.

Included with the AVR Arduino core.

👉 Download Arduino IDE

Install:

Arduino AVR Boards

and select:

Arduino Mega or Mega 2560

git clone https://github.com/ronibandini/nyctograph.git
cd nyctograph

Repository:

👉 github.com/ronibandini/nyctograph

Install:

• LiquidCrystal_I2C
• Adafruit Thermal Printer

Open:

👉 nyctograph7.ino

Compile and upload to the Arduino Mega.

Serial Monitor:

9600 baud

The printer itself communicates at:

19200 baud

Startup LCD:

Nyctograph 1.0
Roni Bandini

The repository includes the original PDF manual:

👉 Nyctograph.pdf

It can be used as a compact reference for the machine and its alphabet.

The custom case was modeled to integrate:

• Arduino Mega
• Thermal printer
• LCD
• Rotary encoder
• LEDs
• Power electronics

Printable model:

👉 Nyctograph — Thingiverse

The original build was designed in:

👉 Autodesk Fusion

▶️ Nyctograph Machine Demo — YouTube

nyctograph/
│
├── nyctograph7.ino
├── letters.h
├── Nyctograph.pdf
└── README.md

• ⚙️ nyctograph7.ino — main Arduino firmware
• 🔡 letters.h — nyctographic bitmap alphabet
• 📕 Nyctograph.pdf — user's guide
• 📖 README.md — original repository documentation

Complete original build article including the electronics, bitmap conversion, rotary interface, enclosure and thermal-printer setup.

👉 The Nyctograph Machine — Hackster.io

Historical background on Carroll's original Nyctograph and Square Alphabet:

👉 Alice's Adventures in Carroll's Own Square Alphabet

Current hardware documentation:

👉 Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3

Thermal-printer setup, serial communication and bitmap printing:

👉 Mini Thermal Receipt Printer Guide

👉 Bitmap / Arduino Printer Documentation

Project overview published shortly after the original release:

👉 The Nyctograph Machine — jpralves.net

Arduino-controlled literary reading machine based on Juan Esteban Fassio's interpretation of Raymond Roussel.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/RousselReadingMachine

A dedicated eInk device designed specifically for reading haiku.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/haikureader

Raspberry Pi literary installation combining animated writing and ASCII portraits.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/HunterSThompsonAscii

Literary experiment using NFC cards as physical containers for micropoetry.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/MIFAREPoetry

A 1998 Furby rebuilt as a Jorge Luis Borges animatronic.

👉 github.com/ronibandini/furby

Contracultura Maker is a book by Roni Bandini about maker culture, experimental electronics, AI, physical computing and technological autonomy.

📂 Contracultura Maker — GitHub repository

📕 Download Contracultura Maker PDF

Roni Bandini Maker · AI Developer · Writer Buenos Aires, Argentina

• 🐙 GitHub — @ronibandini
• 🌐 Medium — @ronibandini
• 𝕏 X / Twitter — @RoniBandini
• 📸 Instagram — @ronibandini
• ▶️ YouTube — @RoniBandini
• 💼 LinkedIn — Roni Bandini

Built with 🌙 + literature + Arduino + thermal paper.