Braille Proofreading Font

This page shows a sample of a proposed braille proofreading font that is based on the PIXymbols Braille and Braille Two simulated braille fonts.

The print source is a sentence that might be found in a children's book:
The cat said, "meow."

The display was produced as follows.

1. The upper line was brailled using PIXymbols simulated braille; this line is analogous to the braille file output from a transcribing program.
2. The upper line was duplicated to produce the original version of the lower line.
3. The font of the lower line was changed from simulated braille to the new PIXymbols DotlessBraille font to produce the final version of the lower line.

Note that the DotlessBraille is a print equivalent of the actual braille; it is not the original print. The braille contractions for the, said and ow are shown using closely-spaced letters so their total width is the same as that of the corresponding braille cell or cells. (This allows the proofreader to check layout as well as the proper use of contractions.) The dot-6 capital letter indicator is shown as its closest print analog: the standard symbol for a Shift key, which is an up-arrow enclosed in a squarish outline meant to resemble a key on a computer keyboard.

The DotlessBraille font is currently a sample font with only a few symbols. However, if there is enough interest, it might be possible to persuade the font designer to complete the font so that all of the braille contractions, letters, punctuation marks, special symbols, etc. could be displayed correctly in print. Use of the new font would require support from a transcribing application like Duxbury Braille Translator since it requires a braille output file consistent with PIXymbols simulated braille rather than with SimBraille©. However, once the file is produced, one would only need the Dotless Braille Font, not the transcribing application, in order to view the print equivalent to the braille.

DotlessBraille does NOT use back-translation. It is based on a new method for recording the algorithm used in the forward translation. It shows you exactly what decisions were made during forward translation. It is up to the proofreader to know whether these were the correct decisions. However, commercial transcribing applications almost never make transcribing errors related to the use or non-use of contractions; most errors are formatting errors which a para-professional could be trained to recognize.