Free Tool
Free Braille Translator — Convert Text to UEB Grade 1 Braille
Type anything below to see it in uncontracted Unified English Braille — as braille characters you can copy and as dot cells you can read. Free, instant, and nothing you type ever leaves your browser.
Braille back to text
Paste Unicode braille characters and read them back as print. This decodes uncontracted UEB — contracted braille will come back as its single-letter equivalents rather than whole words.
What this tool does — and what it doesn’t
It does
- Map every letter, digit and punctuation mark to its exact UEB cell
- Insert capital, capital-word and capital-passage indicators by rule
- Open and close numeric mode correctly, including decimals and thousands separators
- Handle accented letters with UEB modifier prefixes
- Export Unicode braille, ASCII braille and BRF wrapped at 40 cells
- Run entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded or stored
It doesn’t
- Contract words (that’s Grade 2, and it can’t be faked — see below)
- Apply braille page formatting: margins, running heads, print page numbers, headings, lists, tables
- Handle mathematics or science notation — that’s Nemeth or UEB Math/Science
- Carry bold, italic or underline from plain text
- Translate languages other than English
- Produce anything tactile — that needs an embosser
We could have shipped an approximate Grade 2 translator like most free tools do. Contraction rules are positional and pronunciation-dependent, and approximate braille is worse than no braille when a student is being graded on it. Everything above is honest about where a character-level tool stops and a transcriber starts.
Grade 1 vs Grade 2 braille, explained properly
Grade 1 — now usually called uncontracted braille — spells every word out letter by letter. One print letter, one braille cell. It’s what beginners learn first and what this tool produces.
Grade 2 — contracted braille — adds roughly 180 contractions and short forms. Whole words collapse into single cells, common letter groups get their own signs, and long words shrink dramatically. Nearly all published braille is contracted, because it is faster to read by touch and takes far less paper.
Twelve cells become four. That compression is why contracted braille is the standard — and why it can’t be automated by substitution. Whether a contraction is legal depends on where the letters fall in the word, whether they straddle a syllable boundary, and sometimes on how the word is pronounced. “Mother” takes the th sign; “mothball” does not, because the t and h belong to different syllables. No lookup table settles that. A certified transcriber does.
The braille alphabet, numbers and punctuation
Every cell below is the real UEB character with its dot numbers. Dots are numbered 1–2–3 down the left of the cell and 4–5–6 down the right.
Letters A–Z
⠁adot 1
⠃bdots 1-2
⠉cdots 1-4
⠙ddots 1-4-5
⠑edots 1-5
⠋fdots 1-2-4
⠛gdots 1-2-4-5
⠓hdots 1-2-5
⠊idots 2-4
⠚jdots 2-4-5
⠅kdots 1-3
⠇ldots 1-2-3
⠍mdots 1-3-4
⠝ndots 1-3-4-5
⠕odots 1-3-5
⠏pdots 1-2-3-4
⠟qdots 1-2-3-4-5
⠗rdots 1-2-3-5
⠎sdots 2-3-4
⠞tdots 2-3-4-5
⠥udots 1-3-6
⠧vdots 1-2-3-6
⠺wdots 2-4-5-6
⠭xdots 1-3-4-6
⠽ydots 1-3-4-5-6
⠵zdots 1-3-5-6
Numbers
Numbers reuse the letters a–j, preceded by the numeric indicator ⠼ (dots 3-4-5-6).
⠼⠁1# + a
⠼⠃2# + b
⠼⠉3# + c
⠼⠙4# + d
⠼⠑5# + e
⠼⠋6# + f
⠼⠛7# + g
⠼⠓8# + h
⠼⠊9# + i
⠼⠚0# + j
Punctuation and indicators
⠲.dots 2-5-6
⠂,dot 2
⠆;dots 2-3
⠒:dots 2-5
⠖!dots 2-3-5
⠦?dots 2-3-6
⠄’dot 3
⠤-dots 3-6
⠠capitaldot 6
⠼numberdots 3-4-5-6
How a braille cell works
Every braille character lives in one cell: six dot positions in two columns of three. Dots 1, 2 and 3 run down the left; dots 4, 5 and 6 run down the right. Sixty-four combinations are possible, including the empty cell used as a space.
The alphabet is built on a pattern that becomes obvious once you see it. The first ten letters, a–j, use only the top four dots (1, 2, 4 and 5). The next ten, k–t, repeat those exact shapes and add dot 3. The last group repeats them again and adds dots 3 and 6 — except w, which breaks the pattern because Louis Braille’s French alphabet had no letter w; it was added later and given the leftover cell.
That same a–j group does double duty as the digits 1–9 and 0, which is why numbers need the numeric indicator in front of them to say “read what follows as figures, not letters.”
Capitals, numbers and punctuation in UEB
Capitals. There is no separate uppercase alphabet. A single capital letter takes the capital indicator, dot 6, immediately before it. A word in all capitals takes the capital word indicator — dot 6 twice — once, before the word. Three or more capitalised words in a row take the capital passage indicator, dot 6 three times, closed by a terminator.
Numbers. The numeric indicator opens numeric mode, and the letters a–j then stand for 1–9 and 0. Numeric mode survives digits, decimal points and commas, so 1,000.50 needs only one indicator. Anything else — a space, a letter, a slash, a colon — closes it, and the next number needs a fresh indicator. When a lowercase letter a–j follows a digit directly, a grade 1 indicator is required so it isn’t read as another digit. This tool applies all of that automatically.
Punctuation. Punctuation marks sit in the lower half of the cell, using dots 2, 3, 5 and 6 only, so they can never be mistaken for a letter. The period is dots 2-5-6, the comma is dot 2. Some marks take two cells: opening and closing parentheses, brackets, quotation marks and the currency signs all use a prefix cell.
Need this applied to mathematics? Equations use a different code entirely — see Nemeth math braille and UEB Math/Science transcription.
Unicode braille, ASCII braille and BRF — and why your printer can’t do this
Unicode braille (⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕) is text. Each cell is a character in the Unicode braille block, so it copies and pastes anywhere and a refreshable braille display can read it directly. It is what the translator shows above.
ASCII braille represents the same 64 cells using ordinary keyboard characters. It looks like nonsense on screen — but it is what most embossers and braille software expect.
BRF (Braille Ready File) is ASCII braille saved as a plain text file with lines wrapped to the embosser’s carriage width, conventionally 40 cells. The .brf download above produces exactly that.
An inkjet or laser printer cannot make braille. Printing these characters puts flat ink on paper in the shape of dots, which is invisible to touch. Tactile braille requires an embosser that punches raised dots into heavy paper at a standardised height and spacing — and dot geometry is specified, not a matter of taste. If you need something a person will actually read with their fingers, that is embossing, and it’s what we do.
When you need a certified transcriber
A character-level tool is genuinely useful for learning, curiosity and quick checks. These are the cases where it isn’t enough:
- Textbooks and classroom sets — formatting, volumes, running heads and print page numbers all follow the Braille Formats standard. Braille transcription
- IEP and 504 materials, and standardised tests — where accuracy is a legal requirement, not a preference
- Mathematics and science — a separate code with its own grammar. Nemeth and UEB Math/Science
- Diagrams, charts and maps — these need redesigning for touch, not converting. Tactile graphics
- ADA signage, menus and labels — contracted braille with regulated dot geometry
- Large print — a different accommodation with its own standards. Large print services
Quality Braille Transcriptions is run by a braille transcriber certified by the Library of Congress in Literary Braille and Nemeth Code, with National Braille Association certification in Textbook Format. Every project gets a second-pass review against BANA standards before it ships.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille?
Grade 1 (uncontracted) braille spells every word out letter by letter, so one print letter equals one braille cell. Grade 2 (contracted) braille adds roughly 180 contractions and short forms — “the” becomes a single cell, “knowledge” is written as just “k” — which makes books dramatically smaller and faster to read by touch. Which contraction is legal depends on where the letters fall in the word, whether they cross a syllable boundary, and how the word is pronounced, which is why contracted braille cannot be done reliably by simple substitution. BANA now prefers the terms uncontracted and contracted over Grade 1 and Grade 2.
Is this braille translator accurate?
For uncontracted UEB it is exact: every letter, digit and punctuation mark maps to one defined cell, and the capital and numeric indicators are inserted by rule rather than guessed. What it does not do is contract words or apply braille page formatting — margins, 40-cell lines, running heads, print page numbers, headings, lists and tables all follow the Braille Formats standard, and none of that exists in a plain string of characters. The characters here are right; a finished braille document is a great deal more than characters.
How do I write my name in braille?
Type it into the translator above and it appears immediately as braille characters and as dot cells you can read off. Each letter becomes one six-dot cell and a capital indicator (dot 6, ⠠) goes in front of the first letter, so “Sam” is ⠠⠎⠁⠍ — four cells for three letters. Short names usually look identical in contracted braille, but longer ones can take contractions (Charles uses the single “ch” sign), so a name embossed in a book or on a sign may not match this letter-for-letter version.
How are numbers written in braille?
Braille has no separate digits. A numeric indicator (⠼, dots 3-4-5-6) is placed in front of the number, and then the letters a through j stand for 1 through 9 and 0 — so 2026 is ⠼⠃⠚⠃⠋. The indicator stays in effect until a space or certain symbols end it, and this tool inserts and terminates it for you. Anything beyond plain numbers — fractions, equations, exponents — uses a separate code, usually the Nemeth Code in US school materials, and is not handled here.
Can I print this braille and have someone read it by touch?
No. Printing braille characters on an inkjet or laser printer produces flat ink in the shape of dots, which is unreadable by touch. Tactile braille requires an embosser, which punches raised dots into heavy braille paper at a standardised dot height and spacing, and embossers take a BRF (braille ready file) or ASCII braille — not Unicode braille pasted into a word processor, which most embossers will render as garbage. You can download BRF or ASCII braille from this page for an embosser you already have access to.
Does braille have capital letters and punctuation?
Yes. A capital letter is marked with dot 6 (⠠) placed before the letter, and a fully capitalised word takes the capital word indicator — dot 6 twice (⠠⠠). Punctuation lives in the lower half of the cell so it can never be confused with a letter: a period is ⠲ (dots 2-5-6) and a comma is ⠂ (dot 2). This translator adds and terminates these indicators automatically as you type.
Is braille the same in every language?
The six-dot cell is universal, but the code built on top of it is not. English-speaking countries use Unified English Braille, which the United States finished adopting in 2016; other languages assign the same cells to different letters and accented characters, so running French or Spanish through an English translator gives you the wrong result. Technical material has its own codes as well — most US mathematics and science braille uses the Nemeth Code, and braille music is a separate notation entirely. This tool produces UEB English only.
Can I use this for ADA braille signs, menus, or product labels?
Not directly. The ADA Standards require signage braille to be contracted (Grade 2) and specify dot height, dot base diameter, dot spacing, cell spacing and where on the sign the braille must sit — a string of uncontracted characters will not comply on any of those counts. Menus, labels and business cards are read by experienced braille readers who expect contracted braille too. Use this tool to see what braille is doing; have anything a person will actually rely on produced by a certified transcriber.
Do you store or see what I type?
No. The translation runs entirely in your browser using a local character table — nothing you type is sent to a server, logged, or stored anywhere. There is no account, no email requirement, no usage cap, and it keeps working if you go offline after the page has loaded. That means it is safe to paste a name, address, or private note.
Can it translate braille back into English?
Yes — paste Unicode braille characters (⠠⠓⠊) into the reverse field above and it decodes them back to print text. It reads uncontracted UEB, so a passage of contracted braille will come back with contraction signs shown as their single-letter equivalents rather than the full words. A photograph of embossed braille cannot be decoded here; that needs braille OCR or a human reader.