For the transmission of messages, there were already in ancient times simple systems for the optical transmission of messages with fire or smoke. These consisted of a few signals and were used for alerting.

With the increasing need for communication, these systems were no longer sufficient. The invention of the telescope made a wide range of signals possible.

Proven were

• Systems with flags
  • Flag alphabets of various navies – NATO, Royal Navy, German Kriegsmarine
  • Signal alphabets with flags
    • NATO
    • Wig Wag of the US Signal Corps
• Systems with poles
  • Claude Chappe, France
  • Prussian Telegraph
• Systems with flaps
  • George Murray, England
  • Abraham Niklas Edelcrantz, Sweden
  • Ohlsen, Norway

With the discovery of electric current, there were new possibilities to transmit texts by the rash of needles. Well known were for example the needle telegraphs of

• Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber
• Pual Ludwig Schilling von Canstatt
• William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone
  

With the invention of the punched tape, further possibilities of data transmission but also storage arose, which were used in the so-called teleprinters. Known became the codes of

• Jean Maurice Emile Baudot
• Donald Murray
  

GC Wizard offers for the above mentioned systems besides symbol tables also functions for encrypting and decrypting.