Braille Translator

In short This converts text into Grade 1 (uncontracted) braille, where every letter is written out as its own cell, and reads Grade 1 braille back into text. The output is real Unicode braille characters, so it copies and pastes anywhere text goes. Two things surprise people. Braille is longer than print: a capital letter needs a dot 6 indicator before it, so a single capital A is two cells rather than one, and a run of digits needs a number sign in front of it. And there are two braille codes in common use, not one. Grade 1 spells everything out and is what signage, labels and beginners use. Grade 2 contracts around 180 common words and letter groups, so "the" is one cell rather than three, and it is what published books and most official documents use. They are genuinely different codes, and text produced in one cannot simply be read as the other. This tool does Grade 1 only, deliberately: a half-implemented contraction engine produces output that looks authoritative and is wrong, which is worse than not offering it. If you are making a label, a sign or a name plate, Grade 1 is what you want. If you are transcribing a book, you need a proper Grade 2 transcription service and, for anything that will be embossed and read by someone, a human proofreader.