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Braille Translator

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Uncontracted Grade 1 Unified English Braille, letter for letter, in both directions. Every cell in the tables is defined by its dot numbers and the Unicode character is computed from them, so the character and the dots can never disagree. What this deliberately does not do is Grade 2 — the contracted braille that published books are actually written in, which cannot be produced by substitution.

Direction

Letters, digits and the punctuation listed below. Grade 1 means letter for letter, with no contractions.

Result

Grade 1 UEB

⠠⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕⠂ ⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙⠖ ⠠⠗⠕⠕⠍ ⠼⠁⠃⠰⠃⠲

Cells
27

one braille cell per character position

Characters in
23
Unsupported
0

none

  • Digits are written as the letters A to J after a number sign, which is why the same six dots mean 1 and A. Number mode runs until a space or a letter sign ends it.

This is uncontracted Grade 1 Unified English Braille. Published braille books are written in Grade 2, which replaces common words and letter groups with single cells under rules that depend on meaning and syllable boundaries — that cannot be produced by substitution, and this tool does not attempt it.

The alphabet

⠁
a
dots 1
⠃
b
dots 12
⠉
c
dots 14
⠙
d
dots 145
⠑
e
dots 15
⠋
f
dots 124
⠛
g
dots 1245
⠓
h
dots 125
⠊
i
dots 24
⠚
j
dots 245
⠅
k
dots 13
⠇
l
dots 123
⠍
m
dots 134
⠝
n
dots 1345
⠕
o
dots 135
⠏
p
dots 1234
⠟
q
dots 12345
⠗
r
dots 1235
⠎
s
dots 234
⠞
t
dots 2345
⠥
u
dots 136
⠧
v
dots 1236
⠺
w
dots 2456
⠭
x
dots 1346
⠽
y
dots 13456
⠵
z
dots 1356

The first ten letters use only the top four dots, the next ten add dot 3, and the last five add dot 6 as well. W breaks the pattern because French, which braille was invented for, did not use it — it was bolted on afterwards.

Digits

⠼⠚
0
number sign + dots 245
⠼⠁
1
number sign + dots 1
⠼⠃
2
number sign + dots 12
⠼⠉
3
number sign + dots 14
⠼⠙
4
number sign + dots 145
⠼⠑
5
number sign + dots 15
⠼⠋
6
number sign + dots 124
⠼⠛
7
number sign + dots 1245
⠼⠓
8
number sign + dots 125
⠼⠊
9
number sign + dots 24

A digit is the number sign followed by one of the first ten letters, so the cell for 1 and the cell for A are identical. Number mode runs until a space or a letter sign ends it — which is why "12b" needs a letter sign before the b, or it would read as a third digit.

Indicators and punctuation

CellsCharacterDotsMeaning
⠠Capitaldot 6Capitalises the next letter.
⠠⠠Capital worddot 6 twiceCapitalises the whole of the next word.
⠼Numberdots 3456The cells that follow are digits until a space or a letter sign.
⠰Letterdots 56Ends number mode, so a letter after a digit reads as a letter.
⠂,dots 2Comma
⠆;dots 23Semicolon
⠒:dots 25Colon
⠲.dots 256Full stop
⠖!dots 235Exclamation mark
⠦?dots 236Question mark
⠄'dots 3Apostrophe
⠤-dots 36Hyphen
⠐⠣(dots 5 + dots 126Opening parenthesis
⠐⠜)dots 5 + dots 345Closing parenthesis
⠨⠣[dots 46 + dots 126Opening square bracket
⠨⠜]dots 46 + dots 345Closing square bracket
⠦"dots 236Quotation mark
⠸⠌/dots 456 + dots 34Forward slash
⠐⠔*dots 5 + dots 35Asterisk
⠐⠖+dots 5 + dots 235Plus
⠐⠶=dots 5 + dots 2356Equals
⠈⠁@dots 4 + dots 1At sign
⠸⠹#dots 456 + dots 1456Number sign (as printed text, not the braille indicator)
⠈⠯&dots 4 + dots 12346Ampersand
⠨⠴%dots 46 + dots 356Percent
⠈⠎$dots 4 + dots 234Dollar sign

How to use the braille translator

  1. 1Choose the direction: text into braille, or braille cells back into text.
  2. 2Type or paste. The output updates as you go, and can be copied or downloaded.
  3. 3Tick the dot numbers box to see each cell written as the dots it raises — which is how braille is taught and described aloud.
  4. 4Use the reference tables underneath for the alphabet, the digits, and the indicators that change how the following cells are read.

Examples

A capital and a full stop

Input
Hello.
Result
⠠⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕⠲

The first cell is dot 6 on its own — the capital indicator. It is a cell, not a modification of the letter.

Where the letter sign is needed

Input
Room 12b
Result
⠠⠗⠕⠕⠍ ⠼⠁⠃⠰⠃

After the digits, the b would read as a third digit. Dots 5 and 6 close number mode so it reads as a letter.

Reading cells back

Input
⠠⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙⠖
Result
World!

Anything that is not a braille cell passes through untouched, so a mixed document keeps its ordinary text.

About the braille translator

Six dots, and what they had to fit into

A braille cell is two columns of three dots, numbered 1 to 3 down the left and 4 to 6 down the right. Six dots give 64 combinations including the blank, and everything English braille needs has to come out of those 64 — which is why the system leans so heavily on indicators. The capital sign, the number sign and the letter sign are cells that change how the following cells are read, rather than characters in their own right.

The cell size is not arbitrary. Six dots is close to the largest pattern a fingertip can take in as a single shape without moving, and the standard spacing has been essentially unchanged since the 1820s for that reason. Eight-dot cells exist for computer braille, where the extra two dots carry the information needed to represent every ASCII character without indicators, but they are read differently and are not what a book uses.

Why the Unicode block maps so cleanly

The Unicode braille patterns block runs from U+2800 to U+28FF, and the code point is the base plus one bit per raised dot: dot 1 is bit 0, dot 2 is bit 1, and so on. So the cell for the letter A, which raises dot 1 alone, is U+2801, and the cell for B, dots 1 and 2, is U+2803.

That arithmetic is why the tables here define each cell by its dot numbers and compute the character rather than storing it. It is impossible for a character in the table to disagree with the dots printed beside it, because one is derived from the other — a small thing, but the kind of inconsistency that is very easy to introduce into a hand-typed reference table and very hard to notice.

The block covers all 256 eight-dot patterns, with the upper two dots occupying the higher bits, which is why the range extends to U+28FF rather than stopping at U+283F.

What braille is for, and what a translator is not

Braille is not an alphabet for sighted people to admire; it is how a substantial number of people read. Literacy rates among blind people track braille instruction closely, and audio, useful as it is, does not teach spelling, punctuation or the shape of a paragraph any more than an audiobook teaches a sighted child to write.

A translator like this one is a learning and labelling tool. It is genuinely useful for making a label, checking a short phrase, or working out what a cell says. It is not a substitute for a transcription service, and text run through it is not what a braille reader would expect to be handed — that would be Grade 2, laid out for the page, produced by software built for the job.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille?
Grade 1 spells everything out, one cell per letter. Grade 2 is contracted: single cells stand for whole words like "the" and "and", and other cells stand for letter groups like -ation or -ing, under rules that depend on the word's meaning, its syllable boundaries and where the group falls in it. Published braille is almost entirely Grade 2, because it is far more compact and much faster to read. It cannot be produced by table lookup, so this tool does not claim to.
Why do digits use the same cells as letters?
Because braille has only 64 possible cells with six dots, which is not enough for letters, digits and punctuation all at once. So digits reuse the first ten letters, preceded by the number sign at dots 3456: the cell for 1 and the cell for A are the same six dots, and the number sign is what tells you which is meant. Number mode then runs until a space or a letter sign ends it — which is why "12b" needs a letter sign before the b.
Can this produce braille I can emboss?
Not directly. The output is Unicode braille patterns, which display as dot patterns on screen and can be read by a refreshable braille display. Physical embossing needs correct cell spacing, line length and page layout for a specific machine, and usually Grade 2 contraction, which is what dedicated transcription software handles. Use this to learn the cells, label something, or check a short piece of text — not to produce a document for a braille reader.
Why is W out of sequence in the alphabet?
Because Louis Braille was writing for French, which does not use the letter. The first ten letters use only the top four dots, the next ten repeat those shapes with dot 3 added, and the last five add dot 6 as well — a neat pattern that W does not fit, because it was appended later when the system was adapted for English. The other twenty-five letters follow the decades exactly.
Does this handle other languages or maths?
No. It is English Grade 1 UEB only. Other languages use the same cells with different assignments, particularly for accented letters, and mathematical braille is a separate notation again — Nemeth code in North America, UEB maths elsewhere — where familiar cells mean entirely different things. A tool that ran French or algebra through an English table would produce output that looked like braille and read as nonsense.

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