What ⣮ means
Positions 1 and 5 are empty; the other six are filled.
Viewed from the reading side, the left column is numbered 1, 2, 3, 7 from top to bottom; the right is 4, 5, 6, 8. So ⣮ has a top-right dot, a left dot on the second row, and both dots on each of the bottom two rows.
“Eight-dot” describes the available positions, not the number of filled dots. Braille is a system for reading and writing by touch, with different conventions for languages, music, mathematics and computing. The Unicode character preserves the pattern without assigning it a single reading.
Why does Braille have six-dot and eight-dot cells?
Eight-dot cells extend the original six-dot layout with two positions.
In 1821, Charles Barbier presented a 12-dot code for speech sounds at the Paris school where Louis Braille studied. Braille adapted that approach into a smaller six-dot cell for blind readers. Eight-dot Braille adds a fourth row, allowing more distinct patterns.
Part of the collection
Questions people ask
2Can you feel these dots on a screen?
No. A regular screen only shows their shape. Reading by touch requires embossed dots or a Braille display, a device whose small pins rise to form the dots.
What if ⣮ is part of a picture made from text?
It can be a piece of the picture. Braille characters can serve as small grids of dots in text art; in that setting, the arrangement helps draw the image rather than spell a word.
More like this
8
How to type or find ⣮
- Search it as
- braille dots 234678 · braille dot pattern · eight-dot braille · braille cell
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⣮\28EECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.