Braille Translator

Grade 1, or uncontracted braille, writes every letter one cell at a time. Grade 2, or contracted braille, uses about 180 contractions and short forms, such as one cell for and, the and with, so text is shorter and faster to read. Most books, signs and adult readers use grade 2.

Unified English Braille, or UEB, is the braille code for English adopted by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, replacing older national codes such as EBAE. This translator follows the Rules of Unified English Braille, third edition, published by ICEB in 2024.

Choose Braille to text and paste the braille cells, or simply paste them into the text box and the direction switches by itself. It also reads BRF, the ASCII braille used by embossers and braille displays, so the text of a .brf file can be pasted in. Pick grade 1 or grade 2 to match the source.

Some braille can be read two valid ways under the rules: the cells for should can also spell the letters s, h and d. The translator picks the reading that looks like English, such as the full word, and lists the others so you can check them instead of trusting a silent guess.

BRF, short for Braille Ready Format, is a plain text file in ASCII braille, where each printable character stands for one braille cell. Embossers and refreshable braille displays read it directly. The download wraps lines at 40 cells, the usual width of an embossed page, breaking between words.

With a slate and stylus you punch dots from the back of the paper, writing from right to left, so the cells have to be mirror images. Mirror for slate reverses each line and flips every cell from left to right, which gives you the pattern to copy with the stylus. The .brf download always stays unmirrored for embossers.

UEB has signs for letters, digits, punctuation and many symbols, but not for emoji or every rare character. Instead of guessing, the translator leaves them out and names them under the result, so you know exactly what is missing and can describe it in words if it matters to the reader.

It gives a correct UEB translation to start from, but signage and accessible documents often have their own rules for size, spacing and placement, and should be checked by a certified braille transcriber or proofreader. The tool translates text; it does not certify that a sign or document meets an accessibility standard.

Braille cells are Unicode characters, from U+2800 to U+28FF, so they can be copied and pasted like any text. Copy the result here and paste it into a document, a message or a design. To read braille on screen, a font with braille patterns, which most systems include, shows the dots.

No. The translator runs in your browser, so the text you type and the braille you paste never leave your device and are not stored. That makes it safe for letters, school work or anything personal, and it keeps working without a connection once the page has loaded.