Braille Utils

Communicating with embossers has never been easier!

Summary

BrailleUtils provides a cross platform API for embossing and converting braille in PEF-format.

Conversion to and from commonly used "braille" text formats is also supported.

The package is written in Java and contains basic user interfaces for common operations. However, the main purpose of the package is as part of other software, such as the Daisy Pipeline and odt2braille.

Main Features

Emboss PEF-files
Validate PEF-files
Convert to/from PEF
Split/merge PEF-files

Supported Embossers

The package currently supports popular Index and Braillo embossers, such as:

Index Basic-D
Index Everest
Braillo 200/270/400
Braillo 440

For details, see the complete list of supported embossers.

About PEF

PEF is an emerging file format for representing braille books accurately and unambiguously in digital form. Using PEF ensures that the contents of the file is embossed correctly. No braille knowledge is ever required from the operator.

PEF has been been awarded with the Braille21 Award.

News

Braille Utils 1.2 beta has been released (August 26)

Braille Utils 1.2 beta has been released, featuring many new embossers as well as other improvements. See the List of supported embossers for more information on supported embossers. Those who are interested can still sign up for beta testing.

Sign up for beta testing (August 18)

Sign up for beta testing of Braille Utils. If you are interested in using Braille Utils for embossing, you can sign up to make sure it works for your embosser.

Upcoming Braille Utils 1.2 beta release (August 10)

Braille Utils 1.2 beta is scheduled to be released on August 19 containing many new embossers as well as other improvements.

Braille Utils 1.1.0 in Softpedia database (May 25)

Braille Utils 1.1.0 was included in Softpedia database yesterday and also awarded the "100% FREE award".

Braille Utils 1.1.0 (April 19)

Braille Utils 1.1.0 has been released! It can be downloaded from the menu to the left. Work continues on version 1.2, which will be released later this year.

Upcoming Daisy Pipeline release (March 15)

A maintenance release of Daisy Pipeline is scheduled for March 17. It will use Braille Utils for several braille related tasks.

Related Projects

System Requirements

JRE 1.5 or later.

If you are a developer you may be interested in the Developer's Guide.