Braille Translator
NewConvert text to Grade 1 (uncontracted) Unicode Braille and back, with automatic number-sign and capital-sign handling.
This uses Grade 1 (uncontracted) Unicode Braille — each letter, digit, and common punctuation mark maps to one Braille cell, unlike Grade 2 Braille which uses contractions for common letter groups. Numbers are preceded by the Braille number sign (⠼) as per standard Braille convention.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 Braille?
Grade 1 (uncontracted) Braille maps each letter, digit, and punctuation mark to exactly one Braille cell, which is what this tool produces; Grade 2 (contracted) Braille additionally uses special contraction symbols for common letter groups and whole words to make reading and writing faster, but requires a much larger rule set to convert correctly.
Why do numbers get a special symbol before them?
Braille reuses the same ten cells for both the letters A-J and the digits 1-0, so a "number sign" character (⠼) is placed before a run of digits to tell the reader that what follows should be interpreted as numbers rather than letters.
How are capital letters represented in Braille?
A dedicated "capital sign" cell is placed immediately before a letter to indicate it should be read as uppercase, since Braille letter cells themselves don't have separate upper/lowercase forms.
Can this tool decode Braille back into plain text?
Yes — click "Decode Braille → Text instead" to flip the tool into reverse mode, where you type or paste Unicode Braille characters and get the translated plain text back, correctly handling the number and capital signs.
Does this use real Unicode Braille characters?
Yes — it outputs standard Unicode Braille Patterns block characters (U+2800 range), so the result can be pasted into any application or document that supports Unicode text, not a custom font or image-based representation.