A method of shape encoding and retrieval is proposed in this letter, which uses centripetal code to encode shape and extracts shape’s convex for retrieval. For the rotation invariance and translation invariance of the centripetal code and the normalization of convex, the proposed retrieval method is similarity transform resistant, Experimental results confirm this capability. A method of shape encoding and retrieval is proposed in this letter, which uses centripetal code to encode shape and extract shape’s convex for retrieval. For the rotation invariance and translation invariance of the centripetal code and the normalization of convex, the proposed retrieval method is similarity transform resistant, Experimental results confirm this capability.