Braille Translator

How to use it

1. Type English text in Text or braille. Capitals, digits and punctuation are converted as the sections below describe.
2. Or paste braille cells, such as ⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕, to read them as text. Leave Direction on Detect and the page chooses.
3. Read Braille or text for the result, and use Dot numbers, one row for each cell to check each cell.
4. Copy the result or download it. Look at Not converted for the characters that were left out.

Dots, cells and the Unicode block

A braille cell is a group of up to eight raised dots. Each cell has its own character in the Unicode Braille Patterns block, from U+2800 to U+28FF, and the page writes a cell as the numbers of its raised dots: h is 125, which is dots 1, 2 and 5.

• Dot 1 has the value 1, dot 2 the value 2, dot 3 the value 4, dot 4 the value 8, dot 5 the value 16, dot 6 the value 32, dot 7 the value 64 and dot 8 the value 128.
• The character is U+2800 plus the sum of the raised dots: dots 1, 2 and 5 give 1 + 2 + 16 = 19, which is U+2813, the cell ⠓.

Letters, digits and punctuation

Grade 1 is uncontracted: each letter has its own cell and no cell stands for a whole word. The English Braille article describes it as a nearly one-to-one transcription of printed English.

• The letters a to z are dots 1 for a, 12 for b, 14 for c and so on to 1356 for z.
• A number sign (dots 3456, ⠼) comes before each run of digits, and the letters a to j then stand for the digits 1 to 0. So 2026 is ⠼⠃⠚⠃⠋.
• A point between two digits is the decimal point (dots 46, ⠨), so 3.5 is ⠼⠉⠨⠑. Any other full stop is dots 256 (⠲).
• Comma is dots 2, semicolon 23, colon 25, exclamation mark 235, apostrophe 3 and hyphen 36. Brackets are dots 2356 (⠶), and quotation marks are dots 236 to open and dots 356 to close.

Capital letters

A capital letter takes the capital sign, dot 6 (⠠), before it. The English Braille article says the capital sign is doubled to put a word in all capitals, and that this is repeated for each all-capitals word. So ABC is ⠠⠠⠁⠃⠉, and Hi is ⠠⠓⠊.

Not converted, and not for official use

• The question mark is not converted. The cell table of the English Braille article and the Turkish Braille article give it different dot numbers, so the page leaves it out until they agree.
• Symbols such as %, $, &, * and @ are not converted, and neither are the contractions of grade 2 or the letter sign. So a letter a to j that follows a digit with no space reads back as a digit.
• This page writes uncontracted braille for reading and practice. It is not an official transcription: an official braille text is made by a trained transcriber under the rules that apply in the country.

Frequently asked questions