Braille Converter

What is Braille?

Louis Braille devised this tactile reading system for blind people back in 1825. Each letter maps to 6 raised dots laid out in a 3×2 matrix.

Every combination of those 6 dots lives in the Unicode block 2800-28FF. The tool swaps each Latin letter for its Braille counterpart, following the simplified American system.

For formal texts, Grade 2 Braille (which uses contractions) is the way to go.

Braille: a complete guide to the tactile alphabet

Braille is a tactile writing system used by people who are blind or visually impaired to read and write through touch. Each character is a cell of raised dots arranged on a small rectangular grid, traditionally two columns by three rows (six dots), with extended variants adding two extra dots for a two by four matrix. Reading is performed by sliding the fingertips across embossed paper or against the pins of a refreshable Braille display. Far from being a separate language, Braille is a script: it transcribes Portuguese, English, mathematics, music and computer programming, with country-specific conventions for accents, contractions and punctuation.

History: Louis Braille and Charles Barbier

The system is named after Louis Braille (1809-1852), a French educator who lost his sight as a child after an accident in his father's leather workshop in Coupvray. At the age of ten he received a scholarship to the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, where he encountered "ecriture nocturne" (night writing), a tactile code invented by Charles Barbier de la Serre (1767-1841), a captain in Napoleon's army. Barbier's system used a 12-dot cell in two columns of six, designed to let soldiers exchange messages in the dark. It was phonetic, bulky and lacked numbers and punctuation.

Between 1824 and 1825, when he was just fifteen, Louis Braille redesigned the matrix down to six dots in a two by three grid, mapped directly to letters rather than phonemes and added explicit signs for numbers, punctuation and basic music notation. He published the code in 1829 and released a definitive revised edition in 1837. The system was officially accepted in France in 1854, two years after his death, and rapidly spread across Europe and the Americas.

The Braille cell: six dots, 64 combinations

A standard Braille cell measures roughly six millimetres tall by three to four millimetres wide. The six dots are numbered: dots 1, 2 and 3 in the left column and dots 4, 5 and 6 in the right. Each dot is either raised or flat, so the cell represents 2^6 = 64 distinct patterns (including the blank pattern used as a space). Letters follow an alphabetical progression: the first ten (a-j) use only the top two rows; the next ten (k-t) add dot 3; the last group adds dot 6 as well. Numbers reuse a-j preceded by a number indicator (dots 3-4-5-6), and capitals are signalled by dot 6. National codes add accented letters.

Eight-dot Braille and Unicode

To represent computer characters and richer mathematical notation, the cell was extended in the 20th century with two extra dots numbered 7 (below dot 3) and 8 (below dot 6), forming a two by four cell with 2^8 = 256 combinations. This 8-dot variant is used by refreshable Braille displays and computer Braille codes.

In the Unicode Standard, Braille has a dedicated block at U+2800 to U+28FF named "Braille Patterns", introduced in Unicode 3.0 (1999). The block contains all 256 possible 8-dot patterns, naturally including the 64 six-dot patterns at U+2800 to U+283F. Each codepoint is named after the raised dots: U+2800 is BRAILLE PATTERN BLANK, U+2801 is DOTS-1, U+2813 is DOTS-125. The encoding is bit-mapped, with each dot as a bit. This converter relies on that block to translate text into Braille glyphs that any Unicode-compatible font can render.

Grade 1 versus Grade 2 Braille

There are two main levels of Braille transcription. Grade 1, or uncontracted Braille, is a one-to-one transliteration of print text: every letter, punctuation mark and number maps to its corresponding cell. It is the version learners use first and the one used in most signage, menus and short labels.

Grade 2, or contracted Braille, introduces hundreds of abbreviations and contractions that compress common words and letter groups into a single cell or short sequence. In English the single cell dots-1245 stands for "the". This reduces paper consumption and increases reading speed. Each language has its own code: Unified English Braille (UEB) for English, the Grafia Braille para a Lingua Portuguesa for Portuguese.

• Grade 1: literal transcription, ideal for beginners and short text.
• Grade 2: contracted, faster and more compact, used in published books.
• Grade 3: highly abbreviated personal shorthand, rarely standardised.

Accessibility and law

In Brazil, Braille is recognised as an official means of communication for people with visual impairment by the Lei Brasileira de Inclusao da Pessoa com Deficiencia (Lei 13.146/2015), also known as the LBI or "Estatuto da Pessoa com Deficiencia". It mandates Braille and Libras as part of accessible communication. Anvisa's RDC 71/2009 requires pharmaceutical packaging to display the medicine name and concentration in Braille. ABNT NBR 9050 specifies Braille on elevator panels, stair handrails, room signs, ATMs and tactile floor signage. The US Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Accessibility Act impose similar requirements.

Applications and devices

Braille is produced and consumed through several technologies:

• Slate and stylus: the traditional manual writing tool, equivalent to pencil and paper.
• Perkins Brailler: a mechanical six-key typewriter introduced in 1951, still widely used in schools.
• Embossers: electronic printers that convert digital files into hard-copy Braille.
• Refreshable Braille displays: rows of piezoelectric pins that rise and lower under software control to render text from a computer or smartphone in real time.
• Tactile signage: aluminium, acrylic or thermoformed plates used in buildings, elevators and on appliances.
• Audiobooks and screen readers: complementary, not replacement, technologies that pair with Braille for full literacy.

Curiosities

• Braille music: a complete musical notation, devised by Louis Braille himself, uses the same cell to encode notes, octaves, rhythms and dynamics.
• Nemeth code: a Braille code for advanced mathematics and science developed by Abraham Nemeth in 1952, widely used in the United States.
• Chess and games: Braille editions of chess sets, dominoes, Uno cards and Rubik's cubes exist for blind players.
• Currency: many countries (Canada, India, the European Union) emboss Braille marks on banknotes to indicate denominations.
• World Braille Day: celebrated on January 4, the birthday of Louis Braille, recognised by the United Nations since 2019.

Frequently asked questions

Is Braille a language?

No. Braille is a writing system, comparable to the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. It can be used to transcribe any spoken language, each with its own national code, contractions and conventions.

Can sighted people learn Braille?

Yes. Many parents, teachers, librarians and transcribers learn Braille visually. Reading it by touch, however, requires sustained practice to train the fingertips.

Does this converter produce Grade 1 or Grade 2 Braille?

It produces Grade 1 (uncontracted) Braille, mapping each character to its corresponding Unicode pattern in the U+2800 block. The result is suitable for learning, signage, casual messages and demonstrations. For published books and official documents, professional transcribers using software like Liblouis are recommended.

Can I print the output as physical Braille?

Yes, if you have access to a Braille embosser. You can also copy the patterns into a document and send it to specialised printing services. For occasional needs, the Instituto Benjamin Constant in Rio de Janeiro and several state libraries offer Braille printing services.