Abstract: A method and apparatus for converting data in a pure binary format into a format that is transparent to a data handling system that utilizes the International Telegraphers Alphabet No. 5 (ITA 5), or the American subset thereof, the American Standard Code for Information Exchange (ASCII). The apparatus according to a specific embodiment of the present invention includes a 4 byte input register that has a parallel output, a 5 byte output register that has a parallel input and encode logic connected between the two registers. The input logic either directly connects or maps the output from the bits of the input bytes to corresponding positions in the bits of the first four output bytes, converts the data of other bits in the input bytes, or maps the bits of the input bytes into the 5th byte of the output word.