Simple Braille Graphics

An option within DBT's Word importer allows you to treat Braille and Simbraille fonts as braille, and therefore import them in to DBT without translation.

However until the release of DBT 11.2 (SR4) any more than single spaces between characters in these two fonts were also removed. Now they are retained, and Simbraille in particular can now even display the spaces in Word when Wored's Show/Hide is on.

This is a new feature, and any constructive feedback is welcomed, good or bad.

Here is a screen shot from Word which includes a graphic as well as Simbraille which has to be faithfully re-produced in braille.

When this file is opened in DBT, the image shown on the left is as usual omitted. However the braille shown on the right will move to the left in DBT and translated exactly as shown.

Your next question will doubtless be, "How do I input the braille in Word?". There is a list here which shows which keyboard character will generate which dots when a Braille or Simbraille font is used Embosser Character Table. This list in is braille dot number sequence.

Design Tips

First you need to turn on Word's Options: Display: Spaces, by checking this option to always show spaces. (You can turn it off when finished)

Now create a new document with lines of spaces representing where dots can appear. You MUST use a New Line (Shift+Enter) for each new line. This will help for the next part.

The following shows a very simple box shape. To assist we have used Word's Insert: Shape feature and placed a box over existing spaces. Our aim is to cover as many braille dots as possible.

On the left we show the print box adjusted to cover as many dots as possible, and on the right, the characters we used to replace the spaces to produce the braille. Further below is an illustration of what it looks like after we remove the print box.

Obviously this is an extremely simple example, but as many will already know, it is quite remarkable what can be achieved.