The Braille Alphabet: Full Chart of Letters and Numbers

by FreeFontsGeneratorAlphabets9 min read
The word braille, then the letters a to j, written in Unicode braille pattern cells

Braille is a writing system, not a language and not a code. English braille writes English; French braille writes French. What makes it different from print is that it is designed for a fingertip rather than an eye, and every decision in it follows from that one constraint.

This page has the full braille alphabet chart, the numbers, how the six-dot cell is built, and how braille is represented in Unicode — which is how the characters below can appear on your screen at all.

How a braille cell works

Every braille character occupies one cell: two columns of three dots, six positions in total. The positions are numbered down the left column first, then down the right:

1 • •  4
2 • •  5
3 • •  6

A character is defined by which of the six are raised. Six positions gives 64 combinations, including the one where nothing is raised, which is the space.

That number — six — is the whole invention. Charles Barbier’s earlier military “night writing” used twelve dots per cell, which was too tall for a fingertip to read without moving. Louis Braille, blind since a childhood accident and a student at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, cut it to six so an entire character sits under one fingertip at rest. He was fifteen when he worked it out, and published the system in 1829. Wikipedia’s article on Louis Braille covers the history.

The braille alphabet: A to Z

The alphabet is not arbitrary. It is built in three rows of ten, and once you see the pattern you do not need to memorise 26 shapes — you need to memorise ten.

First decade: A to J

These use only the top four positions — dots 1, 2, 4 and 5.

LetterBrailleDotsLetterBrailleDots
a⠁1f⠋1 2 4
b⠃1 2g⠛1 2 4 5
c⠉1 4h⠓1 2 5
d⠙1 4 5i⠊2 4
e⠑1 5j⠚2 4 5

Second decade: K to T

Take each letter from the first decade and add dot 3.

LetterBrailleDotsLetterBrailleDots
k⠅1 3p⠏1 2 3 4
l⠇1 2 3q⠟1 2 3 4 5
m⠍1 3 4r⠗1 2 3 5
n⠝1 3 4 5s⠎2 3 4
o⠕1 3 5t⠞2 3 4 5

Third decade: U to Z

Take the first decade again and add dots 3 and 6.

LetterBrailleDotsLetterBrailleDots
u⠥1 3 6x⠭1 3 4 6
v⠧1 2 3 6y⠽1 3 4 5 6
w⠺2 4 5 6z⠵1 3 5 6

W is the exception, and the reason is historical: French has little use for W, so Braille’s original alphabet did not include it. It was added afterwards, out of pattern, when the system spread to English.

Braille numbers

Braille has no separate digits. It reuses the first ten letters and marks them with a number sign, ⠼ (dots 3 4 5 6), which says “everything after this is a number until further notice”.

NumberBrailleNumberBraille
1⠼⠁6⠼⠋
2⠼⠃7⠼⠛
3⠼⠉8⠼⠓
4⠼⠙9⠼⠊
5⠼⠑0⠼⠚

So 2026 is written ⠼⠃⠚⠃⠋ — one number sign, then b, j, b, f. Capital letters work the same way, with a capital sign ⠠ (dot 6) before the letter: ⠠⠎⠁⠗⠁⠓ is Sarah.

Grade 1 and grade 2 braille

A braille book set out letter for letter would be enormous — braille cells cannot shrink, because fingertips do not. So real braille contracts.

Contracted braille is what most published books use, and it is why a braille chart of the alphabet is only the beginning. English-speaking countries have largely standardised on Unified English Braille, adopted by the International Council on English Braille, which reconciled the literary and technical codes that used to disagree.

Separate codes exist where the subject demands them: the Nemeth code for mathematics, braille music notation, and a chemistry code. The Braille Authority of North America publishes the current rules.

Braille in Unicode

Everything in the tables above is real text on your screen, not images, because Unicode encodes braille in a block called Braille Patterns, U+2800 to U+28FF.

The encoding is elegant. The block holds 256 characters — every possible combination of eight dots, since some systems add a fourth row for computer braille — and the character’s position in the block is a bitmap of which dots are raised. Dot 1 adds 1, dot 2 adds 2, dot 3 adds 4, dot 4 adds 8, dot 5 adds 16, dot 6 adds 32, dot 7 adds 64, dot 8 adds 128.

So the letter g, dots 1 2 4 5, is 1 + 2 + 8 + 16 = 27, and sits at U+2800 + 27 = U+281B. Which is ⠛. You can work out any cell in the block with arithmetic.

One character in that block has a second life. U+2800 BRAILLE PATTERN BLANK is a cell with no dots raised — visually empty, but not a space character, so a lot of software that trims or collapses spaces leaves it alone. That property is why it turns up in empty usernames and blank messages, and why it is listed on our invisible character page alongside the other characters people use that way.

What Unicode braille is and is not

Worth being clear about, because it is a common misunderstanding: the characters above are printed pictures of braille cells. They are not braille. A blind reader does not encounter them as dots; a screen reader will announce them as whatever its braille table says, and a refreshable braille display driven by a screen reader renders the underlying text, not these symbols.

If you want something read in braille, write it in ordinary letters and let the display do the transcription. Use the Unicode braille characters for what they are good for — showing sighted readers what a cell looks like, exactly as this page does.

And if you are producing physical braille — signage, a label, a card — that is embossing, which needs correct dot height and spacing to standards, not a font. A “braille font” that prints flat dots on paper is decoration, not braille.

Quick answers

Who invented the braille alphabet?
Louis Braille, in 1824, publishing in 1829. He adapted Charles Barbier’s twelve-dot night writing down to six dots.

Is braille the same in every language?
No. The cell is the same; the letters it maps to differ by language, and every language has its own contractions.

How many dots are in a braille cell?
Six in standard braille, in two columns of three. Computer braille adds dots 7 and 8 for a total of eight.

Can I type braille on a keyboard?
You can type the Unicode braille characters, and a braille input method on a phone or a Perkins-style keyboard lets you enter cells directly by pressing dot combinations.

Is there a braille converter on this site?
Not yet. The chart above is the reference; for transcription that a blind reader will actually use, work with a screen reader or a braille translation tool that implements the full contracted rules.

Where to go next