What ⣜ means
Five positions are filled, not eight. A braille cell is one unit of dots. In standard eight-dot numbering, the left column runs 1, 2, 3, 7 from top to bottom; the right runs 4, 5, 6, 8. In ⣜, the bottom two positions on the left and the top two plus the bottom position on the right are filled.
The name 34578 lists the occupied positions. It is not a number that the character spells out.
Why doesn't it translate into one letter?
Unicode records the pattern; a braille code supplies its meaning. Braille is a system of raised dots read by touch, used by blind and partially sighted readers. Its conventions differ by language and purpose, so identifying ⣜ alone does not identify a particular letter or word.
Traditional braille uses six positions. Eight-dot braille adds two at the bottom, allowing 256 patterns instead of 64, counting the blank cell. This extra range is useful for representing computer text.
Part of the collection
Worth knowing
- Louis Braille published a description of his raised-dot writing system in 1829, building on earlier tactile writing.
Questions people ask
1Can I feel this character on a phone screen?
No. On an ordinary screen, a font draws ⣜ without raising any dots. Tactile braille needs embossed material or a braille display, a device with pins that rise to form the dots.
More like this
8
How to type or find ⣜
- Search it as
- braille pattern 34578 · braille 34578 · braille dots 3-4-5-7-8 · eight-dot braille · braille symbol
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⣜\28DCCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.