Write braille patterns without a braille keyboard
Unicode braille patterns (⠓⠑⠇⠇⠕) let you typeset braille in documents. Convert English text to grade-1 patterns and back.
Tools used in this guide
The job
Grade-1 (uncontracted) braille maps letters one-to-one to dot patterns. Digits get a ⠼ number sign, capitals a ⠠ prefix. For signage mockups and accessibility documents you need those exact Unicode characters — not font glyphs.
Type or paste, either direction
Text → braille encodes a–z, digits, capitals, and basic punctuation; characters with no mapping are counted as dropped. Braille → text decodes back, joining the ⠼/⠠ markers to the characters they modify.
Worked example
abc123 Hi! becomes ⠁⠃⠉⠼⠁⠃⠉ ⠠⠓⠊⠖ — the ⠼ shifts the next letters to digits until the space, and ⠠ makes the H a capital. Round-tripping returns 'abc123 Hi!' exactly. Japanese characters are dropped (3 per word) — Japanese tenji is a different table.
Scope
Up to 100,000 characters. This is grade-1 literary English braille only — contractions (grade 2), Japanese tenji, and computer braille are different systems and are not converted.