Braille is a tactile writing system in which characters are formed from raised dots in a six-dot cell. This tool works in Grade 1 (uncontracted) Braille, where every letter is spelled out, and uses the official Unicode Braille Patterns block so the output is copy-pastable text rather than an image. You can convert text to Braille cells and decode Braille cells back to text.
Background: the Braille cell
Louis Braille devised his system in 1824, adapting a French military code. Each character occupies a cell of six dot positions arranged in two columns of three. The six positions are numbered 1–6 from top to bottom, left column first:
1 • • 4
2 • • 5
3 • • 6A cell is defined by which dots are raised. The letter a raises only dot 1; b
raises dots 1 and 2; c raises dots 1 and 4. Most of the alphabet follows a
systematic pattern where the first ten letters (a–j) use only the top four
positions, the next ten (k–t) add dot 3, and the last six (u–z, minus w) add dot
3 and 6. English Braille was standardised as Unified English Braille in 2016.
How it works
Each Braille cell is one Unicode character in the range U+2800–U+28FF, where the low 6 bits select which of the six dots are raised. The 26 letters a–z map to fixed cells (a is dot 1, b is dots 1-2, and so on). Digits reuse the cells for a–j but are preceded by a number sign cell, and uppercase letters are preceded by a capital indicator cell.
When encoding, the tool emits the capital indicator before any uppercase letter
and the number sign once at the start of a run of digits. When decoding, it reads
those indicators and applies them to the following cell, so ⠠⠛ decodes to a
capital G.
Worked encoding example
| Text | Braille | Notes |
|---|---|---|
a | ⠁ | Dot 1 only |
A | ⠠⠁ | Capital indicator + letter a |
b | ⠃ | Dots 1 and 2 |
1 | ⠼⠁ | Number sign + letter a cell used for 1 |
Gera | ⠠⠛⠑⠗⠁ | Capital G, e, r, a |
2026 | ⠼⠃⠚⠃⠋ | Number sign, then 2, 0, 2, 6 |
The number sign ⠼ (U+283C) precedes a run of digits and tells the reader that
the following cells represent numbers rather than letters. Once a space or a
punctuation mark ends the numeric context, normal letter decoding resumes.
Grade 1 vs. Grade 2
This tool implements Grade 1 (uncontracted) Braille, where each cell corresponds to one letter, digit, or punctuation mark. This is the standard for Braille labels, signs, and educational materials where full spelling is required.
Grade 2 Braille uses contractions — single cells or short combinations that stand for common words or letter clusters (“and”, “the”, “for”, “st”, “ing”). Grade 2 is faster to read and write and is what most adult Braille readers use for books and documents. This tool does not implement Grade 2 contractions.
Where Unicode Braille is used
The Unicode Braille block (U+2800–U+28FF) allows Braille to be represented in digital text rather than embossed on paper or displayed on a refreshable Braille display. Common uses include accessibility documentation, Braille-aware software testing, educational materials, and decorative or symbolic text where the visual dot pattern is itself the content.
Nothing is uploaded — the conversion runs entirely in your browser.