The standards generally recommend\u00a0that braille on pharmaceutical packaging is represented in full (grade 1) braille. Meaning that no contractions are used.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0words, 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\u00a0more quickly and takes up less space than uncontracted (grade 1) braille.<\/p>\n
The DIN EN 15823 standard recommends that the Braille rules of the country in which the product is placed on the market are applicable.<\/span><\/p>\n The German braille association (Blista) are requesting<\/span>\u00a0that certain group letter contractions are\u00a0used<\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0pharmaceutical packaging.<\/span><\/p>\n Care must be taken when using the some letter\u00a0contractions. For example the contraction for\u00a0IE \u00a0should not be used in words where it is pronounced as two syllables\u00a0rather than one, e.g. \u201cFamili\u2019e\u201d, \u201cBelgi\u2019en\u201d, \u201cVegetari\u2019ERin\u201d, etc. More information on letter group contractions and rules for using the contractions can be found in\u00a0Germany Braille Code<\/a>. Also, guidance should be taken from the relevant braille authority of the country in which the product will be marketed.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\nThe German Braille Letter Group Contractions<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n Letter group<\/th>\n Braille<\/th>\n Braille dots<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n au<\/td>\n \u2821<\/td>\n \u00a016<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00e4u<\/td>\n \u280c<\/td>\n \u00a034<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n ch<\/td>\n \u2839<\/td>\n \u00a01456<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n ei<\/td>\n \u2829<\/td>\n \u00a0146<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n ein<\/td>\n \u282b<\/td>\n \u00a01246<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n er<\/td>\n \u283b<\/td>\n \u00a012456<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n eu<\/td>\n \u2823<\/td>\n \u00a0126<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n ie<\/td>\n \u282c<\/td>\n \u00a0346<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n in<\/td>\n \u2814<\/td>\n \u00a035<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n sch<\/td>\n \u2831<\/td>\n \u00a0156<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n st<\/td>\n \u283e<\/td>\n \u00a023456<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Guidelines for Letter Group Contractions<\/h2>\n
Letter Group\u00a0Contractions contained in PharmaBraille fonts<\/h2>\n