Free Braille Translator & Converter: English to Braille

What this translator does

It converts English text to braille, in Unified English Braille Grade 1 or Grade 2, and turns braille back into English. It adds the capital and numeric indicators for you, uses the contractions a braille reader expects in Grade 2, and draws every cell with its dots. It runs in your browser and does not store or send what you type.

A translation, not a transcription

The result follows the UEB rules a program can apply. It cannot judge layout, emphasis or the few contraction choices that depend on meaning, which a transcriber makes by hand. Use it to learn, check and practise.

For signs, books, menus, medicine labels or anything a blind person will read by touch, work with a certified braille transcriber.

Grade 1 or Grade 2?

Grade 1 spells out every letter. Grade 2 replaces common words and letter groups with contractions, so the same text is shorter and faster to read. A few of them, translated by the same engine as the tool above:

Common English words in Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille.
Word	Grade 1	Grade 2	Contraction type
the	⠞⠓⠑	⠮	Strong contraction
and	⠁⠝⠙	⠯	Strong contraction
you	⠽⠕⠥	⠽	Alphabetic wordsign
people	⠏⠑⠕⠏⠇⠑	⠏	Alphabetic wordsign
knowledge	⠅⠝⠕⠺⠇⠑⠙⠛⠑	⠅	Alphabetic wordsign
world	⠺⠕⠗⠇⠙	⠸⠺	Initial-letter contraction
character	⠉⠓⠁⠗⠁⠉⠞⠑⠗	⠐⠡	Initial-letter contraction
children	⠉⠓⠊⠇⠙⠗⠑⠝	⠡⠝	Shortform
because	⠃⠑⠉⠁⠥⠎⠑	⠆⠉	Shortform
braille	⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑	⠃⠗⠇	Shortform

Grade 2 is the standard for books and signs in English. Most learners start with Grade 1 and add the contractions once the letters feel natural. All 180 of them, grouped by type, are in braille contractions.

The English braille alphabet

The 26 letters are the same in English and in almost every language written with the Latin alphabet. Each cell has six dot positions: 1, 2 and 3 down the left column, 4, 5 and 6 down the right. A letter is the set of dots raised in that cell.

The English braille alphabet: letter, cell and raised dots.
Letter	Braille	Dots
a	⠁	1
b	⠃	1-2
c	⠉	1-4
d	⠙	1-4-5
e	⠑	1-5
f	⠋	1-2-4
g	⠛	1-2-4-5
h	⠓	1-2-5
i	⠊	2-4
j	⠚	2-4-5
k	⠅	1-3
l	⠇	1-2-3
m	⠍	1-3-4
n	⠝	1-3-4-5
o	⠕	1-3-5
p	⠏	1-2-3-4
q	⠟	1-2-3-4-5
r	⠗	1-2-3-5
s	⠎	2-3-4
t	⠞	2-3-4-5
u	⠥	1-3-6
v	⠧	1-2-3-6
w	⠺	2-4-5-6
x	⠭	1-3-4-6
y	⠽	1-3-4-5-6
z	⠵	1-3-5-6

Capitals and numbers

UEB indicators for capitals and numbers.
Indicator	Braille	Dots	What it does
Capital indicator	⠠	6	The next letter is a capital.
Capitalized word indicator	⠠⠠	6 6	The whole word is in capitals.
Numeric indicator	⠼	3-4-5-6	The letters a to j that follow are the digits 1 to 0.

Digits in Unified English Braille: the numeric indicator plus the letters a to j.
Digit	Braille	Dots
1	⠼⠁	3-4-5-6 1
2	⠼⠃	3-4-5-6 1-2
3	⠼⠉	3-4-5-6 1-4
4	⠼⠙	3-4-5-6 1-4-5
5	⠼⠑	3-4-5-6 1-5
6	⠼⠋	3-4-5-6 1-2-4
7	⠼⠛	3-4-5-6 1-2-4-5
8	⠼⠓	3-4-5-6 1-2-5
9	⠼⠊	3-4-5-6 2-4
0	⠼⠚	3-4-5-6 2-4-5

See the full braille alphabet chart, with punctuation and how the letters are built

Decimals, fractions, times and prices have their own rules: how braille numbers work. To write a name, see names and phrases in braille.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Grade 1 and Grade 2 braille?

Grade 1 writes every letter in its own cell. Grade 2, also called contracted braille, adds about 180 contractions: single cells or short groups that stand for whole words or common letter groups, such as ⠮ for “the” or ⠸⠺ for “world”. Grade 2 is what most books, signs and documents in English use, because it is shorter and faster to read. The full list is in braille contractions.

Is this a braille interpreter?

Yes, in the sense people usually mean: it interprets text as braille and braille as text, in both directions, in Grade 1 or Grade 2. It is not a human braille transcriber. For anything a braille reader will rely on, such as a sign or a book, a certified transcriber should produce or check the final braille.

Which braille code does this translator use?

Unified English Braille (UEB), the code adopted by all eight members of the International Council on English Braille: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The United States moved from the older English Braille American Edition (EBAE) to UEB in 2016, so some older charts and converters still follow EBAE rules.

Can I use this for a sign or a printed document?

Use it to understand and check braille, not to produce braille that someone will read by touch. In the United States, the 2010 ADA Standards require contracted (Grade 2) braille on signs, with rules for dot shape, spacing and placement, and they restrict where capital indicators go. Braille on paper also needs an embosser or a brailler. For anything a blind person will rely on, work with a certified transcriber or a sign maker that follows the standard.

Is braille the same in every language?

No. The six-dot cell is universal, but each language decides what the combinations mean, and the English Grade 2 contractions exist only in English. For Spanish braille, with ñ and accented vowels, use our Spanish braille translator. How other languages differ is explained in braille in other languages.

Why does a capital letter add a cell?

Braille has no separate uppercase shapes. A capital is marked by the capital indicator, dot 6 (⠠), in the cell before the letter. Two of them in a row (⠠⠠) put the whole word in capitals.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The translation engine runs inside your browser, so what you type never leaves your device.

The engine behind this translator

This page runs liblouis 3.39.0, the open-source braille translation library used by screen readers such as NVDA, with its official Unified English Braille tables, unmodified.

Before publishing, we ran liblouis's own UEB test suite against the exact build this page loads: 215,960 checks, from print to braille and back, all passed. liblouis lists 361 further cases as known issues, so take extra care with unusual layouts, technical notation and emphasis.

liblouis is © the liblouis contributors and is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later. Its complete source code (liblouis-3.39.0.tar.gz, 18 MB) and the script we build it with are served from this site, so you can rebuild or replace the library. Licence, source and build notes.

From translating to reading

Translating is instant. Reading braille by touch takes practice

Braillito teaches braille from scratch, with 63 lessons and 16 mini-games in 38 languages, English included.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Works with VoiceOver and TalkBack

Braille translator and converter: English to braille and back

Braille