Designing Braille code (alphabet)

Designing Braille code consists in the definition, through dots, of how Braille characters are visualized.

Braille codes in Package Designer

Each EngView installation comes with one Braille code file, EBU Pharmaceutical.txt, located in C:\EngViewWork7\Settings\Braille\Alphabets.

Structure of a Braille code file

Braille code file is structured in three sections:

• Params — The program uses two parameters to design the rows and column of the cell in which the dots of a character are displayed.
• Modes — These control how the program distinguishes between letters and numerals.
• Alphabet — This section is a list of the characters — letters, numerals and other symbols — that form an alphabet.

Descriptions of the three sections follow.

Parameters

The program uses two parameters to set the number of columns and rows in a character cell:

• LetterW defines the number of columns in a character cell.
• LetterH defines the number of rows in a character cell.

The parameters are defined at the top of the Braille code file, in the [Params] section.

The following example describes a character cell with two columns and three rows:

Modes

The program uses two modes to distinguish between Braille numerals and letters:

• D designates a numeral.
• A designates a letter.

In the Braille code file, the character modes section comes after the [Params] section, in the [Modes] section.

The following example describes the structure of numerals (indicated by the letter D) and letters (indicated by the letter A):

The alphabet

In the Braille code file, the alphabet section comes after the [Modes] section, in the [alphabet] section.

A Braille code characters are described individually after the following pattern:

The following example describes the structure of:

Letter	Numeral	Symbol

See an example for the structure of lowercase letter a and uppercase letters A:

NOTE: The EBU Pharmaceutical alphabet, which is part of your installation, contains descriptions of lowercase letters only. This requires you to type only lowercase when you are entering Braille text. You can create your own alphabet and set in it the symbols that you want to use.