BrailleKit

Braille Translation for Everyone

A table defines how text in a specific language and Braille grade is translated. Tables are identified by short IDs like en-ueb-g2 or de-g0. The naming convention is:

<language-code>[-<variant>]-<grade>
  • Language code — ISO 639 two-letter code (en, de, fr, …)
  • Variant — optional, e.g. ueb for Unified English Braille
  • Grade — g0 (uncontracted reference), g1 (basic/Vollschrift), g2 (contracted/Kurzschrift), comp8 (8-dot computer braille), nemeth, cbc, …

Grade quick reference

Grade What it is
g0 One cell per character, no contractions — used as a standards baseline
g1 Basic Braille: letters, numbers, punctuation, minimal indicators
g2 Contracted Braille: short forms for common words and letter groups
comp8 8-dot computer Braille: 1-to-1 with a computer keyboard

Which should you pick?

  • Reading plain text like a book → g2 (if available for your language)
  • First steps learning Braille → g1
  • Programming or technical text → comp8
  • Math and science → a dedicated table (en-nemeth, en-cbc, …)

Table maturity: stable, beta, alpha

Not every table in BrailleKit is at the same quality level. We classify every table with a status field that tells you how much you can trust its output:

Status What it means UI label
stable Verified against the official Braille standard for the language. (no suffix)
beta Functional and covers typical text, but not fully verified yet. [Beta]
alpha Basic character mapping only — likely to produce incorrect output. [Alpha]

In the desktop app, the language picker shows the suffix after the table name:

  • German Kurzschrift (de Grade 2) — stable
  • Mongolian (mn Grade 1) [Beta] — beta
  • Khmer (km Grade 1) [Alpha] — alpha
Open Braille Table dropdown, Windows light

The picker also sorts by status, so stable tables appear first.

Rules of thumb:

  • Production work, embossing, published material → use stable only.
  • Drafting, early feedback, experiments → beta is usually acceptable.
  • Alpha tables are for contributors helping us mature them. Don't rely on their output without human verification.

From the command line, query the status of every installed table:

braillekit_cli tables

Each row is tab-separated <id> <name> <status>, so you can grep or pipe the output into scripts.

Why the distinction matters. A Braille book produced with an alpha table may be readable on the surface but wrong in ways that matter: missing contractions, incorrect capital indicators, or wrong emphasis sequences. A blind reader can't cross-check against the print original — so you must trust the software. We use the status field so you know when to.

Next steps