Computers can be very helpful in producing braille materials. Most electric data, such as document prepared with word processing software for inkprint, information available on the Internet, etc., can be translated into braille and embossed by braille embossers. Printed materials can also be scanned using scanner and converted into text using OCR (optical character recognition) software, and translated into braille, if the print is clear and the layout is not so complex. Using such system can be extremely helpful when the volume of the material is large, or many copies are needed. This part of the presentation provides the basics of the braille as well as brief description of braille transcribing system.
Each column (or cell) in braille text consists of up to six dots. The six dots are arranged in two vertical lines, each of which is made up by three dots, placed side by side. The dots are numbered from the left top to the bottom, then right top to the bottom from 1 to 6. So on the left-hand side, the dots are from the top to the bottom, 1, 2, and 3, and on the right-hand side, the dots are from the top to the bottom, 4, 5, and 6. In many cases, one column represents one character, but there are often cases where more than two columns are used to represent one character.
The same 6 dot system is used across many different languages. It is very important to understand that the same dot pattern represents totally different character depending on the language.
In many languages, there are certain form of contracted braille. The original purpose for the contracted braille was to reduce the volume of braille material as well as to raise the reading speed. For example, in English, the word ``the'' can be represented by dots 2, 3, 4, and 6. There are many more contraction for frequently used words and letter combinations.
The basic purpose of computer braille is to provide representation of signs used on computer screens but not so frequently in conventional braille. There are a few variants of so called computer braille. The most widely used computer braille is one used in the North America, and is called North American Braille Computer Code (NABCC.) The NABCC and the European braille code are both designed so that every character only requires one column to be represented. This is very useful when braille displays are in use since the layout on the screen can be preserved and conveyed to users much better. For example, numbers must be preceded by the number sign and uppercase letters must be preceded by the capital sign in conventional braille. In the NABCC and the European computer braille, however, they only take up one column. In order to make this possible, instead of conventional 6 dot system, 8 dot system is used. Two dots were added below the conventional 6 dot column. When referring to these added dots, the dot below the dot 3 is called the dot 7, and the dot below the dot 6 is called the dot 8. In the NABCC, the dot 7 is added to all the alphabet to represent uppercase letters, and lowered numbers are used to represent numbers. (See the table below.)
One notable thing about the NABCC is that all the 64 combinations, which is possible with 6 dot system, are used. Each combination represents one unique character. Note that the 64 combinations do include the space character, but do not include any character with the dot 7 as shown in the table below.
This means that any text that can be represented in 6-dot braille system can be represented using the NABCC. So most, if not all, braille displays and braille embossers understand the NABCC. Therefore, braille translation software take electric data in other formats and convert it into the NABCC so that it can be sent to braille embossers. Note that what is displaed on the screen, and read by screen readers, when editing braille documents within braille translation software are symbols representing characters in the NABCC, so they do not make much sense.
| symbol | dots | symbol | dots | symbol | dots |
| ! | 2-3-4-6 | 6 | 2-3-5 | j | 2-4-5 |
| " | 5 | 7 | 2-3-5-6 | k | 1-3 |
| # | 3-4-5-6 | 8 | 2-3-6 | l | 1-2-3 |
| $ | 1-2-4-6 | 9 | 3-5 | m | 1-3-4 |
| % | 1-4-6 | : | 1-5-6 | n | 1-3-4-5 |
| & | 1-2-3-4-6 | ; | 5-6 | o | 1-3-5 |
| ' | 3 | < | 1-2-6 | p | 1-2-3-4 |
| ( | 1-2-3-5-6 | = | 1-2-3-4-5-6 | q | 1-2-3-4-5 |
| ) | 2-3-4-5-6 | > | 3-4-5 | r | 1-2-3-5 |
* |
1-6 | ? | 1-4-5-6 | s | 2-3-4 |
| + | 3-4-6 | _ |
4-5-6 | t | 2-3-4-5 |
| , | 6 | ` | 4 | u | 1-3-6 |
| - | 3-6 | a | 1 | v | 1-2-3-6 |
| . | 4-6 | b | 1-2 | w | 2-4-5-6 |
| / | 3-4 | c | 1-4 | x | 1-3-4-6 |
| 0 | 3-5-6 | d | 1-4-5 | y | 1-3-4-5-6 |
| 1 | 2 | e | 1-5 | z | 1-3-5-6 |
| 2 | 2-3 | f | 1-2-4 | { | 2-4-6 |
| 3 | 2-5 | g | 1-2-4-5 | | | 1-2-5-6 |
| 4 | 2-5-6 | h | 1-2-5 | } | 1-2-4-5-6 |
| 5 | 2-6 | i | 2-4 | ~ |
4-5 |
| symbol | dots | symbol | dots |
| @ | 4-7 | ] |
1-2-4-5-6-7 |
[ |
2-4-6-7 | ^ |
4-5-7 |
| \ | 1-2-5-6-7 |
As described above, braille embossers understand the NABCC. They can be connected to computers via either the serial port, the parallel port, or the USB port. Most braille embossers have both the serial and the parallel ports. Only newer embossers have the USB port. While use of the USB port is encouraged for variety of reasons, it is also true that older computers do not have the USB port.
When there is no USB port, the serial port is used more often than the parallel port since the parallel port is usually occupied by the ink printer. While using the parallel port does not require the settings described below, it often requires more complicated settings modification, specifically in the BIOS menu.
To connect embossers using a serial connection, serial settings of both devices, the computer and the embosser, must agree with each other. The following table shows the most commonly used, and recommended settings.
| communication speed (baud rate) | 9600 |
| parity | none |
| bit length | 8 |
| stop bit | 1 |
| handshake | software handshake |