Editing Braille (section)

== Form ==
[[File:Alianca braille.JPG|thumb|Silver wedding bands with names ''Henri(que)'' and ''Tita'' written in braille]]
Braille was the first writing system with [[Binary numeral system|binary]] [[Character encoding|encoding]].<ref name=digital>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Peter T. |last2=Bright |first2=William |title=The World's Writing Systems |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |date=1996 |chapter=Analog and Digital Writing |page=886|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> The system as devised by Braille consists of two parts:<ref name="D&B">{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Peter T. |last2=Bright |first2=William |title=The World's Writing Systems |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |date=1996 |pages=817{{ndash}}818 |location=Oxford; New York |publisher= Oxford University Press}}</ref>
# [[Character encoding]] that mapped characters of the [[French alphabet]] to [[tuple]]s of six [[bit]]s (the dots).
# The physical representation of those six-bit characters with raised dots in a braille cell.

Within an individual cell, the dot positions are arranged in two columns of three positions. A raised dot can appear in any of the six positions, producing 64 (2<sup>6</sup>) possible patterns, including one in which there are no raised dots. For reference purposes, a pattern is commonly described by listing the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered, from top to bottom, as 1 to 3 on the left and 4 to 6 on the right. For example, dot pattern 1-3-4 describes a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and at the top of the right column: that is, the letter {{Braille cell|type=text|⠍}} ''m''. The lines of horizontal braille text are separated by a space, much like visible printed text, so that the dots of one line can be differentiated from the braille text above and below. Different assignments of braille codes (or [[code page]]s) are used to map the character sets of different printed scripts to the six-bit cells. Braille assignments have also been created for mathematical and musical notation. However, because the six-dot braille cell allows only 64 (2<sup>6</sup>) patterns, including space, the characters of a braille script commonly have multiple values, depending on their context. That is, character mapping between print and braille is not one-to-one. For example, the character {{braille cell|d}} corresponds in print to both the letter ''d'' and the digit ''4''.

In addition to simple encoding, many braille alphabets use contractions to reduce the size of braille texts and to increase reading speed. (See [[English Braille#Contractions|Contracted braille]].)