Type text to get braille you can copy, or tap dots to build cells and read them.
Each braille character is a cell of six dot positions, two columns of three. The dots are numbered 1-2-3 down the left and 4-5-6 down the right. Louis Braille published the system in 1829 when he was twenty, adapting a military night-writing code. Raised dots in different combinations give 63 possible characters.
The first ten letters, A to J, use only the top four dots. K to T are A to J with dot 3 added, and U, V, X, Y and Z add dots 3 and 6. W is the odd one out, because French had no W when the system was designed.
There are no separate digit cells. The number sign (dots 3-4-5-6, ⠼) means the letters A to J that follow are the digits 1 to 9 and 0, until the next space. A capital is marked by dot 6 (⠠) in front of the letter. Untick “Mark capital letters” if your puzzle doesn't use it.
Braille in a hunt is usually printed as black dots, sometimes with the empty positions faint or missing. Use the cell builder: tap the raised dots of the first cell, press Add cell, and move on. Watch the cell's outline. If you can't tell which column a lone dot is in, the letter changes, so dot 1 alone is A but dot 4 alone isn't a letter at all.
This tool translates grade 1 (uncontracted) braille. Most real-world English braille is grade 2, which uses contractions: single cells for “and”, “the” and many letter groups. If a decode has strange gaps, contractions are the likely reason.
Grade 1, also called uncontracted braille: one cell per letter, plus numbers and basic punctuation. Everyday English braille (grade 2) also uses contractions for common words, which this tool doesn't expand.
With the number sign (dots 3-4-5-6) followed by the letters A to J, which stand for 1 to 9 and 0 until the next space.
Use the cell builder: tap the raised dots for each cell, add it, and move on to the next. Dots are numbered 1-2-3 down the left column and 4-5-6 down the right.