With the brailler in front of you and the keys facing you, the keys are identified from left to right as: line spacer key, dot 3, dot 2, dot 1, spacer key, dot 4, dot 5, dot 6, backspace key.
Each braille cell is produced by pressing the corresponding keys simultaneously. The letter “a” is made with dot one and requires only one key to be pressed. To braille the letter “b” press keys 1 and 2 at the same time to emboss dots 1 and 2. Click on the brailling demo link to view a short video clip demonstrating the action of brailling.
Click on each letter below to see which keys are used on the Perkins brailler to form each letter of the alphabet (pop-ups must be enabled.) If you have the Simbraille font installed on your computer each letter in the chart below will appear as braille dots below the print. Click on the print letter to bring up a window that shows an image of the Perkins brailler with the keys for that letter highlighted.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j |
| k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t |
| k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t |
| u | v | w | x | y | z | ||||
| u | v | w | x | y | z |
Numbers in braille do not have their own unique symbols. Instead, numbers are represented in braille by the same cells used for the letters a through j, preceded by the number indicator.
The number indicator is (#, dots 3-4-5-6) is unique to braille and does not have a print symbol equivalent.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| #a | #b | #c | #d | #e |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| #f | #g | #h | #i | #j |