Free Braille Translator — English to UEB Grade 1 or Contracted Grade 2

Braille translator

See your name in braille

Type a name to see it in braille, with the print letter under each cell. Share the link, or print it.

Braille back to text

Paste Unicode braille characters and read them back as print. It reads back uncontracted UEB only — contracted braille will come back as its single-letter equivalents rather than whole words.

What this tool does — and what it doesn’t

Contracted (Grade 2) braille uses the same UEB translation engine as Quality Brailler. Contraction rules depend on syllables and sometimes pronunciation, so check automated Grade 2 before you use it for graded or published work. For that, our certified transcribers produce and proofread it — certified braille transcription.

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.

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 done by simple substitution. Whether a contraction is used depends on where the letters fall in the word, whether they straddle a syllable boundary, and sometimes on how the word is pronounced. This translator’s Grade 2 follows those rules with the same engine as Quality Brailler; for graded or published work, a certified transcriber checks it.

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

Numbers

Numbers reuse the letters a–j, preceded by the numeric indicator ⠼ (dots 3-4-5-6).

Punctuation and indicators

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 capitalized 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 standardized 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 standardized 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 we deliver it.

Frequently asked questions