Braille Converter
Translate Latin text to Grade-1 (uncontracted) Braille.
Overview
The Braille Converter translates Latin alphabet text into Grade-1 (uncontracted) Braille — the form taught to beginners and used on signage, business cards and short labels. Each printed letter is mapped to a single six-dot Braille cell, rendered using Unicode Braille Patterns characters so the output can be copied into any document.
It is useful for accessibility designers prototyping signage, parents and teachers preparing tactile worksheets and developers building a Braille translation feature into an app. Long-tail queries it covers include "convert text to Grade 1 Braille", "uncontracted Braille translator online" and "Unicode Braille pattern generator".
How it works
Grade-1 Braille is a one-to-one mapping: every printed letter, digit and common punctuation mark corresponds to a fixed six-dot cell pattern. The converter performs a character-by-character substitution using the standard English Braille (EBAE / UEB) base set, plus the number indicator (dots 3, 4, 5, 6) for digit sequences and a capital indicator (dot 6) before uppercase letters.
Unicode encodes every possible six-dot Braille cell in the U+2800 to U+283F block. Each dot maps to a bit, so cell rendering is a straight bitmask lookup. The converter preserves spaces and newlines so the structure of the input is retained in the output.
Examples
hello → ⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕
World → ⠠⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙
42 → ⠼⠙⠃
Hi 5! → ⠠⠓⠊ ⠼⠑⠖
FAQ
What is the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 Braille?
Grade 1 is uncontracted — every letter is spelt out. Grade 2 uses hundreds of contractions and short-forms to save space, such as a single cell for "and" or "the". Most published Braille is Grade 2.
Why does my output have a strange symbol before numbers?
That is the number indicator (⠼). In Braille, the letters A through J double as the digits 1 through 0, so the number indicator tells the reader that what follows is a digit, not a letter.
Will Braille readers be able to use the on-screen output?
The on-screen Unicode cells are visual representations. To produce a tactile copy, send the converted text to a Braille embosser or use a refreshable Braille display.
Does this support languages other than English?
The cell-per-letter mapping uses the English UEB base. The same Unicode patterns are used in other Braille codes, but accented characters, alternative letter assignments and punctuation may differ.
Can I convert Braille back to text?
This tool is one-directional. A reverse converter would need a Unicode Braille input string and the same EBAE/UEB mapping table applied in the opposite direction.