Braille pattern dots-14567

⡹ fills five positions across two columns of four.

Braille numbers its left column 1, 2, 3, 7 from top to bottom, and its right column 4, 5, 6, 8. In this pattern, the left column has its top and bottom dots; the right has its upper three. Positions 2, 3 and 8 are empty.

The name 14567 lists the filled positions; it is not a number to read aloud. Unicode identifies that arrangement without assigning it a particular letter or sound. To decode it as writing, identify the Braille code and read the surrounding cells.

Braille is writing you can read by touch

In tactile Braille, raised dots form cells that readers feel with their fingertips. Traditional six-dot cells have two columns of three; eight-dot Braille adds a fourth row and is used in computing. Braille has codes for different languages, as well as mathematics and music.

Louis Braille developed his six-dot system from Charles Barbier’s 12-dot “night writing,” introduced at a Paris school for blind pupils in 1821. Braille published his system in 1829. The eight-dot arrangement used by ⡹ is an extension of that six-dot structure.