Braille Translator

Grade 1, also called uncontracted braille, spells every word letter by letter, with one braille cell per letter plus signs for capitals, numbers and punctuation. Grade 2 (contracted) braille adds about 180 contractions such as single cells for and, the and with, and is what most adult readers use. Grade 1 is the standard starting point for learners.

A capital letter is shown by the capital sign, dot 6, before the letter. Two capital signs mark a whole word in capitals. Numbers use the number sign, dots 3-4-5-6, followed by the letters a to j, which stand for the digits 1 to 9 and 0.

It follows Unified English Braille (UEB), the code adopted by the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and other English-speaking countries, for letters, capitals, numbers and punctuation. After a number it adds the grade 1 indicator (dots 5-6) when a letter from a to j follows, so 3a is not read as 31.

Printing on a normal printer only shows the dots visually. For tactile braille you need a braille embosser or swell paper. Download the .brf file (North American ASCII braille), which most embossers and braille notetakers accept.

Braille has its own Unicode block, U+2800 to U+283F, so braille cells can be copied and pasted like any other text. In this tool's braille-to-text mode you can also click the six dots of the pad to build a cell and add it to the input.

No. This translator writes and reads uncontracted Grade 1 braille only. Grade 2 contracted braille follows hundreds of rules about where contractions may be used, and should be produced with dedicated software or checked by a qualified transcriber.