The standards generally recommend that braille on pharmaceutical packaging is represented in full (grade 1) braille. Meaning that no contractions are used.
Contracted (Grade 2) Braille
Contracted (grade 2) braille uses a contracted system of shorthand to combine groups of letters into single braille cells. Single braille characters are used to represent common words, such as and, the, for. There are also braille characters to represent common letter combinations, such as ing, er and sh in English braille. This allows braille to be read and created more quickly and takes up less space than uncontracted (grade 1) braille.
Follow Local Guidelines
The DIN EN 15823 standard recommends that the Braille rules of the country in which the product is placed on the market are applicable.
The German braille association (Blista) are requesting that certain group letter contractions are used on pharmaceutical packaging.
The German Braille Letter Group Contractions
Letter group | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
au | ⠡ | 16 |
äu | ⠌ | 34 |
ch | ⠹ | 1456 |
ei | ⠩ | 146 |
ein | ⠫ | 1246 |
er | ⠻ | 12456 |
eu | ⠣ | 126 |
ie | ⠬ | 346 |
in | ⠔ | 35 |
sch | ⠱ | 156 |
st | ⠾ | 23456 |
Guidelines for Letter Group Contractions
Care must be taken when using the some letter contractions. For example the contraction for IE should not be used in words where it is pronounced as two syllables rather than one, e.g. “Famili’e”, “Belgi’en”, “Vegetari’ERin”, etc. More information on letter group contractions and rules for using the contractions can be found in Germany Braille Code. Also, guidance should be taken from the relevant braille authority of the country in which the product will be marketed.
Letter Group Contractions contained in PharmaBraille fonts
The PharmaBraille font set for Germany contains two sets of fonts. One set contains the letter group contractions as OpenType ligature characters. When using these fonts the contractions are automatically inserted when a letter combination is typed.
Free Upgrade
PharmaBraille customers are entitled to a free upgrade to the latest German braille font set. Complete the upgrade form to obtain your free braille font upgrade.
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