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Announcing Duxbury DBT Win 12.7 sr2 for Windows and Mac

DBT 12.7 sr2
2023-10-03 (2023-10-02)

Duxbury Systems continually revises DBT to add new features, support new and updated embossers, and fix problems, as well as to respond to the latest revisions in braille rules, operating system updates, and third party changes.

Below you will find our advances and improvements since the prior release.

For more sources of information, please take advantage of "Check for Updates" from your DBT Help menu. Or, visit the Duxbury Website for both new information and historical information about DBT features and updates.

Service Release SR2 is free to all licensed users of DBT 12.7. It includes these fixes as improvements.

DBT 12.7 sr1
2023-9-06 (2023-9-11)

DBT 12.7 SR1 has been released free to all users of DBT 12.7 to fix a few critical issues:

DBT 12.7
2023-7-19 (2023-7-24)

DBT 12.7 provides the following important improvements and fixes and more.

Accessibility

Document Importing

Document Exporting

Math

DBT Operations / General

Language Updates

 
Flag Description
Flag of the Russian Federation Bashkir: print-to-braille translation support added.
Syriac Flag Biblical Original Languages table improved (better tables, better language switching).
Flag of Bulgaria Bulgarian: improved print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation, including hypenation issues; eliminated use of English contractions for embedded English script.
Flag of Canada Canadian aboriginal: many languages are now supported via syllabic support when importing documents into any UEB template.
Flag of Denmark Danish: Supporting the new 2022 rules with print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation. We also support the older 1993 rules.
Flags of the world English/Unified (UEB): print-to-braille translation of several unusual words has been improved.
Flag of the United Kingdom English/Unified (UEB) - United Kingdom: The new template (with some improvements) is called English (UEB) - UK formatting. The prior template is English (UEB) - UK formatting (legacy). Detailed documentation is available here.
Flag of Estonia Estonian: braille-to-print translation improved the handling of spaces following emphasis. Localized display of braille documents added.
Flag of Guinea Fula: Revised Fula translators are now identical to the new West African languages translators.
Flag of Japan Japanese: handling of Kanji is greatly improved, especially for words comprising multiple Kanji characters.
Flag of Japan Japanese: improved braille-to-print and print-to-braille handling of embedded Latin script text and certain special characters.
Flag of the Russian Federation Khakas: language support added.
Flag of Cambodia Khmer: braille-to-print translation improved the handling of independent vowels.
Flag of South Korea Korean: braille-to-print translation improved the handling of a certain character after dots 126.
Flag of Mali N'ko (language and script): support through West African Languages.
Flag of Slovakia Slovak: improved print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation, using the latest rule book.
Flag of Morocco Tifinagh (language and script): support through West African Languages.
Flag of Liberia Vai (language and script): support through West African Languages.
Flag of Nigeria West African Languages: New language added (print-to-braille and braille-to-print). This is not an official code, but intended to serve for myriad West African languages with no currently defined official code, unless and until an official code is defined. Support for many scripts (Arabic, Extended Arabic, Amhrmic, N'ko, Vai, and Tifinagh) is included. More information is available online.

DBT 12.7 adds support for about 20 additional Unicode ranges. For a complete list, see the List of Unicode Ranges (halfway down the page).

We are constantly working on improved language support. If you are interested in specific language improvements, please write to us at languages@duxsys.com.

Notice: Microsoft Windows 7

You may still find occasional references to the Windows 7 operating system in these Help pages, but be warned that Microsoft has ended support of Windows 7, and security updates ceased as of January 2020. For this reason, Duxbury cannot recommend using DBT on Windows 7 computers or on any earlier Microsoft operating system.


Announcing NimPro 3.0 (Windows)

NimPro 3.0 (Widows Only)
2022-9-1

NimPro 3.0 improves on version 2.0 principally in three MAJOR respects:

More information about NimPro, including downloads links for both Windows and macOS (version 2.0), is posted here.

Announcing SWIFT 5.5

SWIFT 5.5 is a Free Product which enhances
your copy of Word and DBT.

This version release updates the Dot NET platform requirement to work more seamlessly with newer versions of Windows.

Perky Duck and QuickTac Releases

We are very happy to announce new Perky Duck and QuickTac releases in July 2020. These are both free products.

Perky Duck is a simple braille editor, often used in braille classroom settings. Information about Perky Duck, with downloads links for Windows and macOS, is posted here.

QuickTac is a tactile graphics composition program. Information about QuickTac, with download links for Windows and macOS, is posted here.

The News Archive

NimPro 2.0: New Service Release for Windows & First Release on the Macintosh

NimPro 2.0, which features the new MathML capability and improved "wizards", was released in July, 2020. As of January 2021, NimPro 3.0 (Windows) brings NimPro up to date with the template enhancements in DBT 12.5.

Meanwhile, NimPro for Mac 2.0 marks the first appearance of Duxbury's NimPro (Nimas Processor program) on the Macintosh computer, with all the same capability as NimPro on the Windows platform, including MathML.

Duxbury DBT 12.6 for Windows and Mac

DBT 12.6 sr2
2023-3-06 (2023-3-22)

This is an update to fix a number of structural problems with DBT related to installation.


DBT 12.6 sr1
2022-12-8 (2023-1-12)

Duxbury Systems continually revises DBT to add new features, support new and updated embossers, and fix problems, as well as to respond to the latest revisions in braille rules, operating system updates, and third party changes.

Below you will find our advances and improvements since the prior release.

For more sources of information, please take advantage of "Check for Updates" from your DBT Help menu. Or, visit the Duxbury Website for both new information and historical information about DBT features and updates.

DBT 12.6 SR1 provides the following important improvements and fixes and more.

Reference Page Numbering

Reference Page Numbering, also known as Print Page Numbering, is an important formatting feature of textbooks and other documents where collaboration with inkprint readers is important. DBT 12.6 SR1 has made several important improvements to the handling of Reference Page Numbering:

Accessibility

Document Importing

Document Exporting

Math

Embosser Support

DBT Operations / General

Language Updates

 
Flag Description
Indian Flag All Languages of India: fix apostrophe
Indian Flag Assamese: Repair some letter combinations
Indian flag Hindi: handle English in braille to print.
Russian Flag Khakas: (adding a new language); This is a minority language spoken in Russia
Lithuanian Flag Lithuanian: Respecting emphasis in braille to print.
United States flag Nemeth Code: fix spacing issues near boldface and a few other things.

We have made several "internal" improvements, with potential impact on other languages, including Cherokee, Canadian Aboriginal languages, Japanese, and several West African languages, though these improvements are not fully exposed in the update. If you are interested in this work, or any other language improvements, please write to us at languages@duxsys.com.


DBT 12.6
2022-4-15 (2022-4-25)

DBT 12.6 provides the following important improvements and fixes and more.

User Interface/ Commands / Accessibility

Embosser Support

DBT Operations / General

Document Importing

Language Updates

 
Flag Description
Languages of India: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Panjabi, Sinhala, Telugu. The accuracy of the braille-to-print translations for these Indian languages has been improved.
All eleven official languages ofSouth Africa: have fully functional braille-to-print translators suitable for demanding applications (Afrikaans, English, and the nine indigenous languages: Ndebele, Nguni, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu).
Mathematics Braille: There is a correction for the "identical to" symbol (dots 456 123456) in the English (UEB) braille-to-print table and in 11 non-English braille-to-print tables: including Afrikaans, Welsh, Irish, Biblical Original Languages, Esperanto, and several of the indigenous South African languages.
Amharic: The print-to-braille translation table, and braille-to-print table, are updated to correct the representation of the Amharic syllable "do", and to extend support for the "simplified mode."
Biblical Original Languages tables improved.

Danish, Greenlandic: The translation tables in both directions, print-to-braille and braille-to-print, have been updated to correct handling of certain indicators, including emphasis and termination of capitals, and to remove pre-UEB American-style English braille as a secondary language. The associated Danish (and Greenlandic) uncontracted tables were likewise updated.

English / UEB: The English/Unified Braille translation tables, both print-to-braille and braille-to-print, have been updated to disallow interior type form changes within words standing alone, which affects short-form usage in rare cases. They also correct the contraction usage of several unusual words, and include the recent decisions of the UEB Code Maintenance Committee.

The "learning series" (partial contraction) tables for BANA: TSBVI Clusters, Mangold Method, and NLS I.M.B.T.; those for UKAAF/BAUK: Braille in Easy Steps, Fingerprint (UEB), and Take off Series; and OTHERS: RNZFB STAR and S.A. Syllabus Level are included in these updates.

If you wish us to include your language's curricula for learning tables, please contact us at: languages@duxsys.com.

Finnish: The braille translation tables in both directions, print-to-braille and braille-to-print, have been updated to correct emphasis indicators and a punctuation mark.
Quebec French, Pre-Unified: The print-to-braille table corrects the encoding for a square shape input character.
Greek: The print-to-braille table is updated to correct the encoding of dasia in the entry for alpha upsilon with varia and dasia.
Igbo: NEW! This language now has a braille-to-print (reverse) translation table. Also, the print-to-braille translation table is updated to correct the representation of several characters.
Latvian: The braille translation tables in both directions, print-to-braille and braille-to-print, have been updated to conform to newer standards for certain indicators and punctuation marks.
Mathematics – Nemeth Code: The Nemeth translator already adds spaces around many signs of comparison including all of the common ones. This handling has just been added for double length arrows. Also, when a comparison sign is at the end of a math style, the translator now correctly adds a space before the sign but not after it. In addition, we fixed a problem that could cause the omission of a baseline indicator needed after a term with subscripts and/or superscripts when followed by a trigonometric function.
Romanian: The print-to-braille translation table has been updated to provide support for Cyrillic characters, still sometimes found in Romanian and Moldovan text.
Serbian: Improved braille-to-print translation including the correction of two non-alphabetic symbols in Cyrillic text.
Slovak: Updated print-to-braille & braille-to-print tables for a number of symbols specified by the Slovak braille authority. Also, fixed the local encoding to enable correct Slovak braille display.

Slovenian: Because of recent contact with Slovenian braille experts, we have reworked the Slovenian print-to-braille table. The changes include the typeform indicators (bold, italic, etc.), and the decimal comma. A corresponding braille-to-print table has been developed, and a new template added for grade 1 (uncontracted) Slovenian braille.

Swedish Flag Swedish: has improved translation tables in both directions, print-to-braille and braille-to-print, respecting certain punctuation signs and emphasis indicators.
Urdu: The print-to-braille translation table has been updated to correct the representation of the Arabic letter "heh goal" (Unicode: U+06C1).

Duxbury DBT 12.5 for Windows and Mac

DBT 12.5 SR4
2021-10-22 (2021-11-09)

Service Release 4 of DBT 12.5 provides the following important improvements and fixes and more.


DBT 12.5 SR3
2021-06-16 (2021-07-06)

Service Release 3 of DBT 12.5 provides the following important fixes and improvements.


DBT 12.5 SR2
2021-04-02 (2021-04-27)

Service Release 2 of DBT 12.5 provides the following important fixes and improvements.


DBT 12.5 SR1
2021-02-01 (2021-02-02)

Service Release 1 of DBT 12.5 principally improves program stability when running with a UI Automation client, e.g. a screen reader.


DBT 12.5
2021-01-14 (2021-01-19)

Duxbury Systems continually revises DBT to add new features, fix problems, and to respond to changes in braille rules, embosser and operating system updates, and third party changes.

Below you will find our latest advances since the prior release.

For more sources of information, please take advantage of "Check for Updates" from your DBT Help menu. Or, visit the Duxbury Website for both new information and historical information about DBT features and updates.

Faster Software Response

DBT operations have been considerably accelerated: translated line display, editing, pasting large blocks of text, etc., are significantly faster than any prior version of DBT.

Document Importing

User Interface

Major Improvements

Braille Mathematics

Embosser Improvements

Language Updates

Flag Description (** = New Language)
South African Flag Afrikaans: Translation is improved in both directions, especially in the braille-to-print direction.
Flag of Spain ** Basque: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Spain.
xxx Flag Biblical original language study print-to-braille translation, supports Ethiopic script and fixes Greek language tagging and other minor problems.
Malawi Flag ** Chewa (a.k.a., Nyanja): newly added language, spoken in Malawi.
Danish Flag Danish translation uses German math, when using the math style of the Danish template.
Dutch Flag

Dutch print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation has been updated to support more recent standard representations of braces.
Dutch localization is now supported.

Flag of the United States English BANA Formatting: spurious skipped lines are eliminated when headings precede a set of directions and likewise between directions and a following list.

English/UEB translation is updated to support section 7.6 of Rules of Unified English Braille (October 2019) regarding quotation marks. Several other language tables, which use UEB conventions for quotation marks, contain this same update.
Print-to-braille translation of a number of uncommon words has been corrected. In UEB transcription, a word that breaks across more than two lines will include a continuation indicator at all appropriate places.

Flag of the United Kingdom The English (UEB) - UK formatting (UKAAF) template and corresponding style map are updated.
Flag of Estonia

Estonian print-to-braille and braille-to-print translation has been improved through feedback from an Estonian user.
The Estonian template now reserves the bottom line of each page for braille page numbers with no preceding text.

Faroese Islands Flag ** Faroese: newly added language, spoken in Faroese Islands.
Flag of the Philippines Filipino, Tagalog, and the regional languages of the Philippines (Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Iloko): The basic templates for all of the Philippine languages are now set to use the Nemeth code for mathematics and technical notation as their standard choice.
French Flag French (Unified) braille translation is updated to correct the treatment of Greek letters and currency symbols. The French tables improve print-to-braille handling of ligatures preceded by a hyphen, they perform better capitalization of combined letters, better handling of certain spaced numeral expressions, and improved braille-to-print translation of math and text. Along with these, the handling of French footnote and endnote reference numbers has been fixed.
Guinea Flag ** Fulah (a.k.a, Fula): newly added language (print to braille), spoken in Guinea.
Flag of Spain ** Galician: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Spain.
Flag of Greenland ** Greenlandic (Kalaallisut): newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Greenland.
Paraguay Flag ** Guarani: newly added language (uncontracted), spoken in Paraguay and other nations.
Flag of the United States Hebrew (American) print-to-braille translation corrects certain combinations involving shuruq.
Flag of Laos ** Hmong (RPA): newly added language, spoken in Southeast Asia and the United States.
Icelandic Flag Icelandic: braille-to-print translation handles emphasis indicators.
Flag of Russia Ingush (a Russian minority language): print-to-braille translation of a characteristic letter has been corrected.
Japanese Flag Japanese: Japanese documents are imported using the On'yomi system of Han characters rather than the Kun'yomi. Handling of embedded Latin script text is improved.
Flag of Botswana Zimbabwe Flag ** Kalanga: newly added language, spoken in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Flag of Angola ** Kikongo (Kongo): newly added language, spoken in Angola.
Rwanda Flag ** Kinyarwanda: newly added language, spoken in Rwanda.
Burundi Flag ** Kirundi (Rundi): newly added language, spoken in Burundi.
Congo Flag ** Kituba: newly added language, spoken in Congo.
South Korean Flag

Korean: braille-to-print translation has minor corrections.

Korean localization is markedly improved.

Uganda Flag ** Leb-Lango: newly added language, spoken in Uganda.
China Flag ** Lisu: newly added language (print to braille), spoken in China, Myanmar and Thailand.
Congo Flag ** Luba-Kasai (Luba-Lulua): newly added language, spoken in Congo.
Flag of Indonesia ** Madurese: newly added language, spoken in Indonesia.
Flag of Madagascar ** Malagasy: newly added language, spoken in Madagascar.
Flag of Norway Norwegian translation uses German math, when using the math style of the Norwegian template.
Ethiopia Flag ** Oromo: newly added language, spoken in Ethiopia.
Bolivia Flag ** Quechua: newly added language, spoken in Bolivia and other nations.
Flag of Indonesia ** Sundanese: newly added language, spoken in Indonesia.
Swedish Flag Swedish translation (both directions) has been updated to correct several issues with punctuation signs and emphasis indication, and to align better with published standards.
Zimbabwe Flag ** Tonga (a.k.a., Chitonga, Zambezi): newly added language, spoken in Zimbabwe.
Flag of Ukrania

Ukrainian braille-to-print translation has been corrected.
The Ukrainian template now shows the capital letter sign in braille.

Flag of Angola ** Umbundu: newly added language, spoken in Angola.

George Bell Calendar Files


Braille 2019 Calendar files available for DBT users. (zip file for download)
Thanks to George Bell of Techno-Vision Systems Ltd. for creating these and making them available!

The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) Launches a Guide for the Production of Braille Books in India

Duxbury Systems is proud that this guide centers around the use of DBT. We also note that the advice in this guide can be applied to almost every country in the world.

The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is pleased to launch a Guide for the production of Braille books in India using digital content. The Guide, produced by the DAISY Consortium with the generous funding of the United Nations and Skoll Foundations, explains how digital files can be used to create Braille books in India. India was the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty, and it has legislation allowing for the production of accessible format works – such as Braille, audio and large print – without the need to request prior authorization from the copyright owner.

Download here: A Guide for Braille Presses of India || Annex to the guide

The full press release is available at this location at the ABC website.

Announcing NEW DBT for Mac

DBT for Mac is no longer in beta!

This version is free for purchasers of DBT for Mac 12.1 beta!

To use DBT for Mac, we recommend running Mac OSX El Capitan (10.11), Sierra (10.12), High Sierra (10.13), or higher.

Pricing is the same as for DBT Win: $695 for a single-user license.

DBT MAC print and braille files are compatible with DBT WIN.

Contact your local dealer or Duxbury Systems directly!

Click here for the details

SWIFT Works From Inside Your Copy of Microsoft Word

Click here for more information.


New Graph Paper Files Available for Embossing

Thank you, to one of our skilled users for providing us with these useful files which are used on a regular basis in schools. One of the largest supplier of tactile graph paper is discontinuing the product line. As a replacement, we have a series of "do-it-yourself" files to allow one to produce your own. Follow this link for the details.


MegaDots Sales Discontinued

After much consideration, Duxbury Systems confirms that MegaDots will not be made UEB capable. MegaDots sales will be discontinued immediately.

It is with much sadness that we have come to the point where we must say goodbye to MegaDots. Thank you to all the loyal users, contributors, programmers and supporters over the years.

We will be contacting those who have purchased MegaDots since January 1, 2015 for a special offer. All registered MegaDots 2.4 customers will be able to upgrade to the current version 2.5 at no charge. We will continue MegaDots technical support until July 4th, 2016.

Thank you all for your past, present and future love of braille and literacy as keys to individual determination and freedom.

We, at Duxbury Systems, are very proud to have carried on the heritage of literacy for the blind that was shared by Raised Dot Computing & Braille Planet. We will honor and continue that tradition with the current and future editions of the Duxbury Braille Translator and future developments.

We look forward to an exciting future as Duxbury Systems moves into its 40th year of working with braille

Duxbury Welcomes BANA'S Decision to Adopt UEB

On November 2, 2012, the Braille Authority of North America voted to adopt Unified English Braille, while also retaining the Nemeth Code for Math and Science, following a carefully designed transitional process as announced in BANA's press release at: http://www.brailleauthority.org/pressreleases/pr-2012november.html

With this announcement, UEB has now been adopted by all the members of the International Council on English Braille. Because some other ICEB countries have been using UEB for several years, our Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) already supports UEB and, by virtue of the table-switching facility, it is also already possible to use Nemeth Code in the context of UEB. We are working to make that kind of transcription even easier in future releases.

Our president, Joe Sullivan, has been deeply involved in the development of UEB, having chaired the basic code design subcommittee from the beginning of the UEB development project in 1991 until acceptance of the code by ICEB in 2004, and having served since 2004 on ICEB's committees for maintenance of the code. By virtue of that involvement, he is naturally pleased to see UEB's gradual acceptance as a robust universal code for English-based text including math and other kinds of technical notation, but he is also aware of many issues that will need to be worked out over time and determined to support BANA's decisions fully.

Duxbury Systems acknowledges that it needs to make changes in DBT so that US users can more easily select Nemeth Code for math in conjunction with UEB (or any other braille code) within DBT.

Introducing NimPro

Duxbury Systems is introducing a new product, NimPro, to read NIMAS files. This product automates many of the common transcriber steps which may be very time consuming. These files can then be exported to DBT (version 11.1 or higher) or to MegaDots (version 2.4 or 2.5).

NimPro is currently available for $295 for licensed DBT 11.1 and MegaDots 2.4/2.5 users only.

For more information about NimPro, click here.


Duxbury Systems offers Two Important Document Collections

Duxbury Systems created two important web pages

Those who study the history of the blind and the history of braille should find this material useful.


Copyright Duxbury Systems, Inc. Monday, August 7, 2023

Duxbury Systems, Inc. website