Aurebesh Guide
If you've ever paused a Star Wars scene to squint at the text on a ship display or stormtrooper helmet, you were looking at Aurebesh — the official writing system of the Star Wars galaxy. Here's what it is, where it came from, and how to read it.
Aurebesh is the standard alphabet of the Galactic Republic, the Empire, and the New Republic in Star Wars. It's not a separate language — it's a writing system for Galactic Basic, which is essentially English in the Star Wars universe. Every letter in the English alphabet has a direct Aurebesh equivalent.
The name comes from the first two letters: Aurek (A) and Besh (B). Same logic as "alphabet" coming from Alpha and Beta in Greek.
You'll find Aurebesh on X-wing cockpit displays, Death Star control panels, Mandalorian bounty pucks, Imperial terminals in Andor, and hundreds of other props across the entire Star Wars franchise.
The Aurebesh alphabet has 26 letters, one for each letter in English. But it also has 12 dipthongs — two-letter combinations that map to a single Aurebesh glyph. This is where most Aurebesh translators get it wrong.
The 12 Aurebesh dipthongs are:
When you write "the" in Aurebesh, it should be two glyphs: TH (one glyph) + E. Not three separate letters. Same with "cheese" — CH + EE + S + E, four glyphs total. If a translator ignores dipthongs, every word containing those letter pairs comes out wrong. That's a big deal if you're getting an Aurebesh tattoo.
Aurebesh was designed by graphic artist Stephen Crane for the 1993 West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game sourcebook. Lucasfilm liked it enough to adopt it as the official in-universe script, and it's been used consistently ever since.
The script first appeared on screen in Return of the Jedi (1983) on Death Star displays, though it wasn't fully standardized yet. By the prequel era, Lucasfilm's prop department was using the complete Aurebesh alphabet on everything — and in the Disney+ era, shows like Andor use fully readable Aurebesh text that fans can actually decode.
Reading Aurebesh is a straight letter-for-letter substitution. Once you memorize the 26 glyphs (and the 12 dipthongs), you can read any Aurebesh text in Star Wars. Most fans learn it in a few hours.
The fastest way to start is with our Aurebesh Alphabet Chart — every glyph with its English equivalent and letter name. Or just use the Aurebesh Translator to convert any text instantly.
Common uses: Aurebesh tattoos, cosplay props, fan art, secret messages, Star Wars party decorations. The translator exports PNG and SVG so you can take the output straight to a tattoo artist or print shop.
Aurebesh is the most common Star Wars writing system, but it's not the only one. The site also supports: