Slate
Use the arrow keys to move from cell to cell, in the order you punch them. Each cell says what it means and which dots to punch. The Braille as text box below has the whole message as Unicode braille.
Type a message above to see it in braille.
Braille as text
The finished page as Unicode braille, readable on a braille display or with a screen reader. Copy it to paste into an email or document.
Help
How to use this with a slate and stylus
- Set Cells per row (and optionally Rows per page) to match your slate.
- In the Writing side view, each row starts at the right edge (marked with the row number). Punch the cells from right to left, exactly as drawn.
- Empty cells on the left of a row are the end of that line: stop and move to the next row. Words are never split unless they are longer than a whole row.
- Flip the paper over (left to right, like turning a page). The dots now read left to right, with every line starting at the left margin.
- Hover over or tab to any cell to see what it means and how it looks from the reading side.
Capitals, numbers and punctuation
This uses Unified English Braille (UEB), the standard in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. Some cells don't stand for a letter but change how the next cells are read:
- Capital sign (dot 6): the next letter is uppercase.
- Capital word sign (dot 6 twice): the rest of the word is uppercase.
- Number sign (dots 3-4-5-6): the following letters a to j are the digits 1 to 0.
Grade 1 or Grade 2?
Grade 1 writes every letter. Grade 2 uses about 180 contractions: common words and letter groups get shorter signs, so "the" is one cell and "knowledge" is just "k". Most adult braille readers use Grade 2, and it's less punching for you. Hover over a contraction to see which letters it stands for.