Braille Translator
Type English and read the supported six-dot cells, or paste cells and read the text back. This limited uncontracted subset includes 26 letters, ten digits, eight punctuation marks and capital, number and letter indicators. It is not a complete UEB transcriber: capital-word/passage conventions, Grade 2 contractions, eight-dot cells, maths/music and other-language alphabets are unsupported. Characters outside the subset are listed with their positions and contribute no output cells. A printable vector chart and a six-dot entry interface support lookup and reverse translation. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Cells appear here.
- Direction
- Dot size
- Unsupported
- 0 characters
The supported English alphabet, digits and punctuation
Dots are numbered 1, 2 and 3 down the left of the cell and 4, 5 and 6 down the right. Digits are shown with the number sign in front, which is written once for a whole run of digits.
| Character | Cells | Dots |
|---|---|---|
| a | ⠁ | 1 |
| b | ⠃ | 1-2 |
| c | ⠉ | 1-4 |
| d | ⠙ | 1-4-5 |
| e | ⠑ | 1-5 |
| f | ⠋ | 1-2-4 |
| g | ⠛ | 1-2-4-5 |
| h | ⠓ | 1-2-5 |
| i | ⠊ | 2-4 |
| j | ⠚ | 2-4-5 |
| k | ⠅ | 1-3 |
| l | ⠇ | 1-2-3 |
| m | ⠍ | 1-3-4 |
| n | ⠝ | 1-3-4-5 |
| o | ⠕ | 1-3-5 |
| p | ⠏ | 1-2-3-4 |
| q | ⠟ | 1-2-3-4-5 |
| r | ⠗ | 1-2-3-5 |
| s | ⠎ | 2-3-4 |
| t | ⠞ | 2-3-4-5 |
| u | ⠥ | 1-3-6 |
| v | ⠧ | 1-2-3-6 |
| w | ⠺ | 2-4-5-6 |
| x | ⠭ | 1-3-4-6 |
| y | ⠽ | 1-3-4-5-6 |
| z | ⠵ | 1-3-5-6 |
| 0 | ⠼⠚ | 3-4-5-6 then 2-4-5 |
| 1 | ⠼⠁ | 3-4-5-6 then 1 |
| 2 | ⠼⠃ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-2 |
| 3 | ⠼⠉ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-4 |
| 4 | ⠼⠙ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-4-5 |
| 5 | ⠼⠑ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-5 |
| 6 | ⠼⠋ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-2-4 |
| 7 | ⠼⠛ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-2-4-5 |
| 8 | ⠼⠓ | 3-4-5-6 then 1-2-5 |
| 9 | ⠼⠊ | 3-4-5-6 then 2-4 |
| , comma | ⠂ | 2 |
| ; semicolon | ⠆ | 2-3 |
| : colon | ⠒ | 2-5 |
| . full stop | ⠲ | 2-5-6 |
| ! exclamation mark | ⠖ | 2-3-5 |
| ? question mark | ⠦ | 2-3-6 |
| ' apostrophe | ⠄ | 3 |
| - hyphen | ⠤ | 3-6 |
| Capital indicator | ⠠ | 6 |
| Number indicator | ⠼ | 3-4-5-6 |
| Letter indicator | ⠰ | 5-6 |
Common questions
- Is this Grade 1 or Grade 2 Braille?
- It is a limited uncontracted English subset, rather than a complete Grade 1/UEB transcriber. It supports letters, digits, eight punctuation marks and single-letter capital/number/letter indicators. It does not implement contractions, full UEB signs or capital-word/passage sequences. A contracted cell can share a pattern with a supported letter, so the decoder cannot detect all Grade 2 input and may interpret it literally.
- Why does a capital letter come out as two cells?
- Because braille has no separate capital letters. A capital is written by putting the capital indicator, the single dot 6 cell ⠠, in front of the ordinary letter, so A is ⠠⠁: the indicator and then the a cell. The indicator applies to the one letter after it, so a word in capitals gets one in front of every letter here. Lower case needs nothing at all.
- What is the ⠼ that appears before numbers?
- It is the number sign, dots 3, 4, 5 and 6. The digits 1 to 9 and 0 are written with the same cells as the letters a to j, so something has to say which you mean: the number sign opens a run of digits and the first character that is not a digit closes it. 12 is ⠼⠁⠃, one number sign followed by the a and b cells. If a letter from a to j comes straight after a number with no space, it takes the letter sign ⠰ so it cannot be read as another digit. A comma or a full stop inside a number counts as a non-digit here, so 1,000 comes out as ⠼⠁⠂⠼⠚⠚⠚, with a fresh number sign after the comma: it reads as the same number and is more literal than a transcriber would write it.
- Can this print or emboss tactile Braille?
- No. Unicode text and the PDF/SVG chart represent cells visually. The print view and chart print in ink; they are not embossed Braille or validated production files for an embosser. Tactile output needs appropriate hardware and transcription software.
- What happens to a character it has no braille cell for?
- Unsupported source characters are listed with their positions and contribute no output cells. This subset contains letters, digits and comma, semicolon, colon, full stop, exclamation mark, question mark, apostrophe and hyphen. Multi-cell UEB signs, accented letters, other alphabets and emoji are unsupported. Input up to 20,000 Unicode characters is translated per pass; longer input receives an error.
- Can I paste braille cells and get the text back?
- Yes. Select Braille to text and paste Unicode cells or enter dots using the six-dot controls. Known indicators restore single-letter capitals and digits; blank cells or spaces become spaces. Unknown cell patterns and malformed indicator sequences receive an error. Contractions sharing a supported letter pattern cannot be detected, so this is not a Grade 2 reader.
Limited six-dot English uncontracted subset: letters, digits, eight punctuation marks and single-letter capital, number and letter indicators. This is not complete UEB transcription. Capital-word/passage sequences, Grade 2, eight-dot Braille, image input, maths/music and other alphabets are unsupported. Unsupported source characters are listed and omitted from cell output.