TIPS FOR LEARNING AND REMEMBERING
SOME SYMBOLS AND INDICATORS
Underline, Bold, and Italics Indicators
These indicators have prefixes as well as roots. The prefix indicates the type of
attribute, and the root indicates how far it extends.
For the "begin" indicators, the prefixes are easy to remember:
Italics: dots 46, just like the current italics
Underline: dots 456, like the underscore in computer braille code
Bold: dots 45—a little like a letter b (b for bold) but on the other side of the cell.
The roots are the same for these three:
Letter: dots 23 (looks a little like a letter sign but on the other side of the cell)
Word: dot 2
Passage, dots 2345
Prefix
Symbol Word Passage
(Root) (Root) (Root)
Passage end
(Root)
italic
.
2
1
7
'
bold
^
2
1
7
'
underline
_
2
1
7
'
grade 1
;
2
1
7
'
Generally only the passage indicators need an "end" indicator; the prefixes for the
endings are the same as for the beginning, and the root is dot 3.
The Accents (modifiers)
The root for the umlaut
^3 looks like two dots across, like the umlaut in print.
Acute and grave accents also slant the same way in braille as they do in print.
"Cedilla below" and "tilde above" are based on the current representations of these
symbols used in foreign language contexts.
Where to Learn More
Comprehensive code books and symbols lists for UEB are available
at www.iceb.org
Samples of material using UEB are available from www.brailleauthority.org
(Last updated March 11, 2013)
Overview of Changes from Current Literary Braille to UEB; BANA, March 2013
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