Typing in Braille

Question

Level 1

6 points

Typing in Braille

Apple Braille shows up in Font Book, says its enabled, displays correctly with options of Outline, 6 Dot, 8 Dot, Regular, etc.

When I open Microsoft Word:Mac 2008, it doesn't show up in the list of available fonts.

When I open Photoshop/Illustrator CS3, its available but the text just types as a row of squares.

If I open TextEdit, (in RichText mode), highlight my text, then go to Format --> Font --> Show Fonts, I can navigate to the Apple Braille, but the highlighted text remains "normal text," nothing changes.

I would like to be able to type a paragraph of text and have it display in braille, and be able to increase/decrease the font size, and utilize the available options Font Book says I have installed. The application is less important than simply getting the type to display as braille. I'll use whatever works.

Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 22, 2009 7:18 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 22, 2009 7:43 PM in response to Karl Clay

You may be looking for it in normal alphabetical order, but instead look for it at the bottom of the list of fonts in your word processor. All the special "Apple" fonts are listed after "Z" for some reason.

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Answer 2

Karl Clay Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 22, 2009 10:28 PM in response to Kappy

Thank you, Kappy. Negative, the font does not appear in the Word list, anywhere. Let me clarify that the Braille font DOES appear in Text Edit, however when I select it, the highlighted type remains as type, it doesn't switch over to look like Braille the way it displays in Font Book.

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,012 points

Nov 23, 2009 5:41 AM in response to Karl Clay

the Braille font DOES appear in Text Edit, however when I select it, the highlighted type remains as type, it doesn't switch over to look like Braille the way it displays in Font Book.

Inputting Braille is like inputting another language -- you can't just change the font. Go to Character Palette (Edit > Special Characters), View = Code Tables, Tab = Unicode, 00002800 Braille Patterns, and input by double-clicking or the Insert button.

⠁⠂⠃⠄⠆⠌⠍⠎⠏

This might also be useful.

http://atmac.org/use-your-regular-keyboard-as-a-perkins-braille-keyboard/

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Answer 4

Karl Clay Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 24, 2009 10:19 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Wow, what a pain in the a**. Thank you, Tom. This works, although not efficiently. The characters in the Unicode window are not displayed in order but I'm using http://www.translatum.gr/converter/braille.htm to match them up with the correct letters. Thanks again.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,012 points

Nov 24, 2009 10:54 AM in response to Karl Clay

If you need to do a lot of this, it might not be hard to create a custom keyboard for it. The tool is quite simple to use:

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,012 points

Nov 24, 2009 11:43 AM in response to Karl Clay

PS Here's an online converter that does Unicode so you could use it directly:

http://libbraille.org/translator.php

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Answer 7

Nov 24, 2009 2:39 PM in response to Karl Clay

Another way of finding out which Braille characters to use is to turn on VoiceOver, switching off any functions you don't need, then selecting the Visuals tab in VoiceOver Utility and displaying the Braille Panel, then selecting the appropriate output format in the Braille tab.

This would be particularly useful if you wished to produce contracted Braille, which the online translators often have trouble with. Using my Multilingual Braille package for Snow Leopard (from http://cecimac.org/ would also enable you to visualise Braille in other languages.

HTH

Archie

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