Braille embosser
Encyclopedia
A Braille embosser is a printer
, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as tactile Braille
cells. Using Braille translation
software, a document can be embossed with relative ease, making Braille production much more efficient and cost-effective.
Blind users tend to call other printers "ink printers", to distinguish them from
their Braille counterparts. This is often the case regardless of the type of printer being discussed.
As with ink printers and presses, embossers range from those intended for consumers to those used by large publishers. Thus, an embosser can cost roughly anywhere from US$2,000 to $80,000, depending on the user's needs.
The fastest industrial Braille embosser is probably the $77,000 Belgian-made "NV Interpoint 55", first produced in 1991, which uses a separate air compressor to drive the embossing head and can output up to 800 Braille characters per second. Adoption was slow at first; in 2000 the NFB
said there were only 3 of these in the USA, one owned by the NFB itself and the other two by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society http://nfb.org/legacy/bm/bm00/bm0005/brlm0005.htm. As of 2008 there are more than 60 in use across the world http://www.givengain.com/unique/blindsa/upload/blindsa1008.doc.
Smaller (and slower) Braille embossers are more common and can be found in some libraries, universities, and specialist education centres, as well as being privately owned by some blind individuals. Particularly with some lower-priced embossers, it is sometimes necessary to mount the embosser on its own table, as otherwise the vibrations can damage the computer by eventually causing microchips and other components to come loose from the circuit boards.
Braille embossers usually need special Braille paper which is thicker and more expensive than normal paper. Some high-end embossers are capable of printing on normal paper. Embossers can be either one-sided or two-sided. Duplex embossing requires lining up the dots so they do not overlap (called "interpoint" because the points on the other side are placed in between the points on the first side).
Once one copy of a document has been produced, printing further copies is often quicker by means of a device called a "thermoform", which produces copies on soft plastic. However the resulting Braille is not as easily readable as Braille that has been freshly embossed, in much the same way that a poor-quality photocopy is not as readable as the original. Hence large publishers do not generally use thermoforms.
Computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...
, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as tactile Braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
cells. Using Braille translation
Braille translator
A Braille translator is a software program that translates a script into Braille cells, and sends it to a Braille embosser, which produces a hard copy in Braille script of the original text. Basically only the script is transformed, not the language....
software, a document can be embossed with relative ease, making Braille production much more efficient and cost-effective.
Blind users tend to call other printers "ink printers", to distinguish them from
their Braille counterparts. This is often the case regardless of the type of printer being discussed.
As with ink printers and presses, embossers range from those intended for consumers to those used by large publishers. Thus, an embosser can cost roughly anywhere from US$2,000 to $80,000, depending on the user's needs.
The fastest industrial Braille embosser is probably the $77,000 Belgian-made "NV Interpoint 55", first produced in 1991, which uses a separate air compressor to drive the embossing head and can output up to 800 Braille characters per second. Adoption was slow at first; in 2000 the NFB
National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind is an organization of blind people in the United States. It is the oldest and largest organization led by blind people in the United States...
said there were only 3 of these in the USA, one owned by the NFB itself and the other two by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society http://nfb.org/legacy/bm/bm00/bm0005/brlm0005.htm. As of 2008 there are more than 60 in use across the world http://www.givengain.com/unique/blindsa/upload/blindsa1008.doc.
Smaller (and slower) Braille embossers are more common and can be found in some libraries, universities, and specialist education centres, as well as being privately owned by some blind individuals. Particularly with some lower-priced embossers, it is sometimes necessary to mount the embosser on its own table, as otherwise the vibrations can damage the computer by eventually causing microchips and other components to come loose from the circuit boards.
Braille embossers usually need special Braille paper which is thicker and more expensive than normal paper. Some high-end embossers are capable of printing on normal paper. Embossers can be either one-sided or two-sided. Duplex embossing requires lining up the dots so they do not overlap (called "interpoint" because the points on the other side are placed in between the points on the first side).
Once one copy of a document has been produced, printing further copies is often quicker by means of a device called a "thermoform", which produces copies on soft plastic. However the resulting Braille is not as easily readable as Braille that has been freshly embossed, in much the same way that a poor-quality photocopy is not as readable as the original. Hence large publishers do not generally use thermoforms.
See also
- Braille ASCIIBraille ASCIIBraille ASCII is a subset of the ASCII character set which uses 64 of the printable ASCII characters to represent all possible dot combinations in six-dot Braille...
- Braille technologyBraille technologyBraille Technology is capable of revolutionizing the lives of thousands of people because it allows them to engage in the virtual world that can not be perceived through their eyes...
- Perkins BraillerPerkins BraillerThe Perkins Brailler is a "braille typewriter" with a key corresponding to each of the six dots of the braille code, a space key, a backspace key, and a line space key. Like a manual typewriter, it has two side knobs to advance paper through the machine and a carriage return lever above the keys...
- Mountbatten BraillerMountbatten BraillerThe Mountbatten Brailler is an electronic machine used to write braille. The Mountbatten incorporates the traditional "braille typewriter keyboard" of the Perkins Brailler with modern technology, giving it a number of additional features such as word processing, audio feedback and embossing...