Last checked by the TextEditor.com team
How to use the Braille translator
Type or paste text in the box. The Braille changes while you type. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard. Signs the tool can't write show as a highlighted mark.
Tick "Dot numbers" to see which dots each cell raises. Tick "Big cells" to see each cell as six large dots, which helps when you learn the alphabet.
Braille: how six dots make a letter
Louis Braille was a blind French student. He published his system in 1829, when he was 20. Each Braille cell has six dots in two columns. Dots 1, 2 and 3 run down the left side, and dots 4, 5 and 6 run down the right.
The first ten letters, a to j, use only the top four dots. The next ten, k to t, add dot 3. The letters u, v, x, y and z add dots 3 and 6. W does not fit the pattern, because French did not use it at the time.
Dot 1 is the letter a. After the number sign it is the digit 1.
Tap the dots to raise or lower them. Each pattern is one Unicode character from U+2800 to U+28FF.
Braille alphabet
All 26 letters of grade 1 Braille. Click in the list and copy a letter like any other text.
Braille numbers and capitals
The number sign ⠼ (dots 3, 4, 5 and 6) turns a to j into 1 to 0. One number sign covers the whole number, so 2026 is ⠼⠃⠚⠃⠋. The capital sign ⠠ (dot 6) marks one capital letter. Two of them mark a whole word in capitals.
Unicode has a block of 256 Braille patterns, from U+2800 to U+28FF. It holds every mix of eight dots, because some Braille codes use two extra dots at the bottom. The blank cell, U+2800, has no raised dots at all. You can find these and other signs in the character finder, or type them with the Unicode keyboard.
The tool follows Unified English Braille (UEB) grade 1. Braille groups in the United States switched to UEB in 2016. The tool writes every letter in full and puts one number sign in front of each number.
Is the Braille on screen real Braille?
Each character is a correct Braille cell. But the output is grade 1, spelled letter by letter. Most Braille books use grade 2, which has short forms called contractions. In grade 2, the word "the" is a single cell, ⠮.
Blind people do not need Braille characters on a web page. A screen reader turns normal text into speech, or into Braille on a refreshable Braille display. Braille characters in a post may be read out one by one by their Unicode names, or skipped. So a post in Braille is harder to use, not easier.
Real printed Braille needs a Braille embosser, which presses raised dots into thick paper. Use our output to learn the alphabet, to make puzzles, or to show what Braille looks like.
Plain Hello
Braille ⠠⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕
Listen uses your browser's own voice. Real screen readers differ, but many read each Braille cell by its dot numbers.
Want the same word in Morse, flags or hand signs? The symbol alphabet translator shows all five at once.