Braille Translation Software: Duxbury vs BrailleBlaster

Braille translation software turns print, such as a Word file or a textbook, into braille that follows the rules of a braille code, laid out in braille pages for an embosser or a braille display. The four tools compared here are Duxbury Braille Translator (paid), BrailleBlaster (free, from APH), liblouis (the open-source engine inside many other programs) and the translator on braillito.com, which handles words and short texts.

Every cell in the comparison table comes from the maker's own site or manual, checked on October 31, 2026.

Key points

• Translation software applies the rules of a braille code (contractions, capitals, numbers) and lays out the braille pages.
• Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT) is the paid option: $795 for a single-user license of DBT Win or DBT for Mac, on Duxbury's US price list dated August 11, 2026. It covers over 180 languages and variants.
• BrailleBlaster is free, from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and was built to get braille textbooks to students on the first day of class.
• liblouis is not a program you open. It's an open-source library that translates braille inside other software, including BrailleBlaster and screen readers such as NVDA and JAWS.
• Braillito's translator shows a word or a short text in UEB, in the browser. It is not for books or formatted braille documents.

What braille translation software does

Print can't go to braille letter for letter. In contracted Unified English Braille, often called grade 2, many common words and letter groups are written with shorter signs called contractions; grade 1 spells every word in full. Capitals and numbers need their own indicators too. A translation program applies those rules. Duxbury's FAQ lists what goes wrong without one: no difference between capital and lowercase letters, no contractions, and garbled numbers and punctuation (why you need a braille translator).

The second job is formatting: fitting the braille into lines and pages of a fixed size, with headings, centered titles and braille page numbers where the rules put them (why you need a braille formatter). The result goes to a braille embosser, or into a BRF file: plain Braille ASCII text laid out page by page, which Duxbury calls "something of an industry standard" (Duxbury on BRF files). A BRF can also be read on a refreshable braille display. Duxbury and liblouis also back-translate: they turn braille back into print.

Braille translation software compared

Prices change: Duxbury says its list is subject to change without notice, so check its price page before you budget.

Duxbury Braille Translator (DBT)

Duxbury Systems has made braille software since 1975 (about DBT). DBT imports a document, translates it into braille and sends it to an embosser or a braille device. It imports Word files up to Word 365, OpenOffice, HTML, text, LaTeX and braille files, among others, but not RTF files (importing files into DBT). Duxbury says it supports all commercial embossers, from very old models to recent ones, and translates braille back to print for most languages.

For English, DBT follows the rules of each national braille authority. In the United States, that means UEB with UEB math and UEB with Nemeth math, both of which DBT supports, plus BANA's formatting rules. It also has UEB formatting for the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and "Learning Tables" that go step by step from uncontracted to fully contracted braille (Duxbury and UEB).

The current versions are DBT Win 15.1 SR2, out September 29, 2026, and DBT for Mac 15.1 SR1, out August 20, 2026 (Duxbury home page). They are separate products, each $795 for one user; a network license is $795 for the first seat and $575 for each additional one. A new license includes a year of free updates, and a yearly maintenance agreement for DBT Win, which extends them, costs $280 for one user (price list).

Getting started with Duxbury

Duxbury's own Getting Started page is the tutorial to start from. It covers installing DBT, registering and activating it (with a page-by-page guide to the activation wizard), setting up an embosser and a printer, and the document view. It also links installation guides in PDF, the online manual, phone support on weekdays and a list of DBT trainers around the world.

Duxbury's FAQ on how to use DBT sums up the basic cycle: open or import your document, choose a template, translate, save, and emboss. The template is the combination of language, country, braille grade and math code. For North America, Duxbury points to the English (UEB) template with BANA formatting; for the UK, the one with UKAAF formatting.

You can try DBT before you buy it. Without a license, it runs in demo mode: you can import a document of moderate length and translate it on screen, but you can't save, the braille carries a demo notice with the letters d, e, m and o sprinkled through it, and printed or embossed output stops at 10 pages (demo mode). Duxbury is plain about it: "Do not try to use the demo for your actual braille translation needs."

If you work in Microsoft Word, Duxbury's free SWIFT add-in works inside Word 2007 or later, on Windows only. It sends the document, or just the part you select, to DBT, or straight to the embosser with DBT's default settings. It needs DBT 12.2 sr1 or newer installed (SWIFT).

BrailleBlaster

BrailleBlaster is a braille transcription program from APH, made to help transcribers give blind students their braille textbooks on the first day of class (BrailleBlaster). APH says anyone can use it, from NLS-certified transcribers to casual users. It costs nothing, and from version 3.0 it is open source under the GPL3, with the code on GitHub (BrailleBlaster FAQ).

It is designed mainly for textbooks that follow BANA's specifications. It reads the markup in NIMAS files, the XML format US publishers may submit for accessible K–12 materials, to automate basic formatting. It also opens and edits DOCX, HTML, EPUB3, TXT, Markdown, XHTML and ODT files. Its codes are UEB, UEB with Nemeth, EBAE (the older English Braille, American Edition), U.S. Spanish and Cherokee, each also in an uncontracted version. Installers for Windows, Mac and Linux are on its download page.

When the braille is ready, BrailleBlaster sends it straight to an embosser or saves it as a BRF, for sharing online or reading on a braille display.

The limits it states: it can open a BRF but not edit it, and it can't retranslate a BRF into another code (only its own .BBZ documents). To edit BRFs, APH points to a separate program, BrailleZephyr, which it says is approved for NLS-certification lessons. Under the hood, BrailleBlaster relies on liblouis to translate text and math into braille.

liblouis

liblouis describes itself as "an open-source braille translator, back-translator and formatter" for many languages and braille codes (liblouis). It is not an app with a window. It's a set of libraries written in C that other programs build in: a shared library on Linux and Mac, a DLL on Windows, with bindings for C, Python, Java and JavaScript. It handles contracted and uncontracted braille, computer braille and hyphenation, plus Nemeth and Marburg math. It's free software under the GNU Lesser GPL.

You may already use it without knowing. liblouis lists the NVDA, Orca, BrailleBack and JAWS screen readers among the programs that use it. Bookshare uses it to give its members braille access to more than 350,000 books. BrailleBlaster and DAISY Pipeline are production systems built on it. Its formatter, liblouisutdml, turns XML or plain text into embosser-ready braille.

The latest release is 3.39.0, from September 1, 2026 (release notes). Each braille code is a table file; the English UEB ones are en-ueb-g1.ctb and en-ueb-g2.ctb in the tables folder. The site has a page to try a translation, but it warns that the page "does not function as a complete braille transcription tool" (try liblouis). For a developer, liblouis is the engine. For a teacher, it usually comes inside a program built on it.

Braillito's translator: what it does and doesn't do

Our braille translator translates English into UEB braille and braille back into English, in grade 1 or grade 2; grade 2 is selected when you open it. It uses liblouis 3.39.0 with its official UEB tables, and the translation runs in your browser. You can type or paste up to 5,000 characters, then copy the result as braille characters, save it as an image or a text file, print it, or download it as a .brf.

The limit, plainly: it's for words, a label, a sign or a short note. Its .brf holds the braille in lines of up to 40 cells, broken at spaces, with no pages, headings or page numbers, so it isn't a formatted braille document. It doesn't open files, it has no Nemeth or other math code, and it doesn't replace a transcriber or a program like Duxbury or BrailleBlaster. Anything a student will read for class should come from one of those, checked by someone who knows the code.

Which one to pick

• Textbooks and worksheets for a US student, from NIMAS or Word files, with no budget for software: BrailleBlaster.
• A braille production service, many languages, or an older embosser: Duxbury, with over 180 languages and variants and support for all commercial embossers.
• You write everything in Word, on Windows: Duxbury with the free SWIFT add-in.
• You use Linux: BrailleBlaster. Duxbury makes versions for Windows and Mac only.
• Math for a US student: both programs support UEB with Nemeth. The Nemeth Code explains which code a student uses.
• You build an app or a website: liblouis.
• You read on a braille display: your screen reader translates as you go. For a whole book, a BRF made by Duxbury or BrailleBlaster.
• You need to emboss an old BRF again: Duxbury can import a BRF and emboss it as it is. BrailleBlaster opens BRFs but doesn't edit them; BrailleZephyr does.
• A word, a label or a short note at home: our translator, then ask a braille reader to check it.
• You're training for NFB transcriber certification: the literary course doesn't allow translation software, as explained in how to become a braille transcriber.

For free tools beyond translation, such as charts, books and lessons, see free braille resources.

Where Braillito fits

Braillito, our app, teaches braille. It teaches the braille cells in lessons with exercises you play, with lives, levels and a daily streak: 59 lessons in 8 worlds in English. It also has a translator, a dictionary and a cell builder. The English lessons are uncontracted braille (grade 1); they don't teach contracted braille or transcription, and Braillito isn't a braille transcriber.

If you're a parent or a teacher choosing this software, reading braille yourself helps you follow what your student reads, but the braille they use in class should come from a program like the ones above, checked by a certified braille transcriber. The translator on braillito.com shows how a word or short phrase looks in UEB, but it only applies the rules a program can apply, so it doesn't replace a transcriber. Without paying, the braille translator works in any browser.

Braillito is a subscription with no free version; depending on the plan, it starts with a free trial or a discounted first period, if it's your first subscription (is Braillito free?). Get Braillito.

Frequently asked questions

Is Duxbury free?

No. Duxbury's US price list, dated August 11, 2026, puts a single-user license of DBT Win or DBT for Mac at $795. Without a license, it runs in a demo mode that can't save and stops embossed output at 10 pages. The SWIFT add-in for Word is free, but it needs DBT.

What is the best free braille translation software?

It depends on the job. For complete documents with braille page formatting, BrailleBlaster from APH is the free full program in this comparison: Windows, Mac and Linux; UEB, Nemeth and EBAE; output to an embosser or a BRF file. If you write software, liblouis is the free engine. For a word or a short text, the translator on braillito.com works in any browser.

What is liblouis?

liblouis is an open-source library that translates print into braille and braille back into print, for many languages and braille codes, including Nemeth math. Other programs build it in: BrailleBlaster, Bookshare, and screen readers such as NVDA, JAWS and Orca. It's free software under the GNU Lesser GPL, and its latest release is 3.39.0, from September 2026.

Can Word translate to braille?

With an add-in. Duxbury's free SWIFT add-in works inside Word 2007 or later, on Windows. It sends your document, or a selection, to Duxbury DBT, which does the translation, or straight to your embosser. It needs a copy of DBT. BrailleBlaster can also open a Word (DOCX) file and translate it.