Braille cell with dots 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8

It has no universal reading outside a Braille code. The pattern marks dots 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in an eight-dot cell. Read it alongside neighboring cells and the language or technical code in use: Braille assignments vary across systems, so this shape alone does not identify a letter or word. Unicode records the shape; other Braille standards assign its meaning.

Braille grew from raised-dot night writing that Louis Braille encountered at a school for blind students in Paris in 1821. By 1824, he had developed a six-dot system. Later eight-dot systems supported specialist uses including music, stenography, and computer data exchange.