Braille translation: supported languages and sizing

Braille sign customisers translate the customer’s typed wording into braille automatically. This article covers how that translation behaves, which languages and grades are supported, which braille table a store uses by default, and why the braille row never changes size.

For creating a braille customiser and its merchant settings, see Braille Signs.

How translation works

• The customer types the printed wording and it appears on the sign immediately. The braille row underneath refreshes a moment after they stop typing — while it refreshes, the current dots stay visible under a subtle shimmer.

• Customers never edit the braille itself. The row is always derived from the wording, so the preview, the braille string, and the production files cannot disagree.

• Add to cart stays unavailable until the current wording has a successful braille translation. Pending, failed, and untranslatable wording all block it.

• On the review step the customer sees the translated braille string next to Braille:, so they can confirm exactly what will be fabricated.

Translation runs on liblouis, the industry-standard braille translation engine, at a pinned version. Every product records the braille string, table, and grade it was created with, so an engine upgrade never changes a sign that has already been sold.

Supported languages

Included languages

Automatic translation is enabled for these braille tables. The translation engine handles letters, digits, number signs, punctuation, and capital indicators.

• Dutch — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• English — UEB Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• English — UEB Grade 2 (contracted)

• French — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• German — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Italian — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Portuguese — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Spanish — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

Included languages — review recommended

Automatic translation works for these tables, but review the braille output before fabrication. Use a braille-literate proofreader for production jobs.

• Arabic — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Greek — Standard (review recommended)

• Hebrew — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Korean — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Russian — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Vietnamese — Grade 1 (uncontracted, review recommended)

Not supported: Japanese, Chinese, and Thai

• Japanese — Japanese braille requires kana reading and word-segmentation decisions before translation, so automatic signage translation is not supported in this release.

• Chinese — Chinese braille is pronunciation-based and hanzi-to-pinyin conversion is ambiguous, so automatic signage translation is not supported in this release.

• Thai — Thai braille needs language-specific word segmentation and review before signage automation, so it is not supported in this release.

Default braille table by store country

New braille customisers use Automatic (based on your store’s country). The store country picks the braille table:

• United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia — Arabic — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Belgium, Netherlands — Dutch — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand — English UEB Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• United States — English UEB Grade 2 (contracted)

• France — French — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Austria, Germany — German — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Greece — Greek — Standard (review recommended)

• Israel — Hebrew — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Italy — Italian — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• South Korea — Korean — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Brazil, Portugal — Portuguese — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Russia — Russian — Grade 1 (review recommended)

• Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico — Spanish — Grade 1 (uncontracted)

• Vietnam — Vietnamese — Grade 1 (uncontracted, review recommended)

Stores in any other country default to English UEB Grade 1 (uncontracted). Dot geometry defaults to the Marburg preset; stores in United States use the ADA preset; stores in Australia and New Zealand use the AU preset.

To use a different table — for example, a project specified in another market’s standard — set it per customiser in the Braille section of your customiser’s settings. The table used is stored with every order.

Grade 1 vs Grade 2

• Grade 1 (uncontracted) braille spells wording out letter by letter.

• Grade 2 (contracted) braille uses standard contractions for common words and letter groups, which is why the dot row is often shorter than the printed wording.

United States signage convention is contracted Grade 2 — that is the US default. Australian signage uses uncontracted Grade 1 — that is the Australian default. If braille on a US store looks “too short” for the wording, it is almost always Grade 2 contractions doing their job.

Braille keeps a fixed physical size

Braille dots are drawn at exact physical geometry and never scale with the sign. Choosing a bigger plate makes the printed wording larger; the braille stays at the size tactile readers need. The first time a customer resizes a sign with braille on it, a small dismissible note explains why: “Braille is sized to accessibility standards and does not scale with your sign.” (a merchant-editable label).

The braille row counts toward the sign’s real dimensions: the reported width is the wider of the wording and the braille row, and the reported height includes the braille row and its clearance below the wording. Multi-line wording is supported — the braille row always sits below all lines.

If the plate cannot fit the wording and braille together, add to cart is blocked and the customer sees “Choose a bigger sign size so the braille can fit at its fixed size.” (also merchant-editable).

Each braille table maps to a geometry preset. These are the values Sign Customiser uses to draw, measure, and export the dots:

• ADA (United States) — 1.6 mm dot diameter, 2.54 mm dot spacing within a cell, 6.1 mm cell spacing, 10.0 mm line spacing, 0.6–0.9 mm dome height.

• Marburg Medium (international default) — 1.5 mm dot diameter, 2.5 mm dot spacing within a cell, 6.0 mm cell spacing, 10.0 mm line spacing, 0.6–0.9 mm dome height.

• AS/NZS 1428.4.2 (Australia and New Zealand) — the same values as Marburg Medium.

When translation is temporarily unavailable

If the translation service cannot be reached, the sign keeps the last successful braille row and the customer sees “Braille translation could not refresh. Please try again.” with a Retry button. Add to cart stays blocked until a fresh translation of the current wording succeeds — a stale row is never sold.

Successful translations are cached for months, so common signage wording usually keeps translating even during a brief outage.

If the wording itself cannot be translated — emoji, or Japanese, Chinese, and Thai text — that is not an outage. The customer is offered a quote path instead; see Braille Signs.