Tactile graphic settings

To properly configure the width and height of your tactile graphic area, you need to know and control several features of your embosser.

First, you need to set the correct braille model. By setting up the right braille model, you will know if the embosser allows you to emboss at graphic points. Compared to normal braille dots, the graphic dots are closer together, so you can emboss more detailed drawings.

If your embosser allows you to emboss graphs, it would be useful to know the resolution of the graph point. A standard resolution is 2 millimeters, but there are embossers that allow you to reduce this size, resulting in a higher graphic resolution.

The boxes for setting the width and height of the graphics area have a context menu containing some commands to set the values automatically. Auto settings derive width and height values by calculating them based on characters per line and lines per page. Therefore, first set braille characters and lines, checking that they are correct emboss values, and then use the controls to automatically set the width and height of the tactile graph. Automatic settings are not foolproof, they may return values smaller or larger than a few points, compared to the actual size accepted by the embosser. The last test to be done is always the empirical one.

The context menu for automatically setting width and height contains various graphic point sizes. The "Generic Size" should be used when the Braille model is a generic model or a model that does not have a graphic emboss. In other cases, you can use the size configured in your embosser, or try to find the correct size empirically.

The Test Graph button is very useful for trying to emboss a graph. The graph that is embossed is a rectangle. The rectangle should outline the edges of the sheet you are using. If the rectangle does not reach the right side of the sheet, increase the width. If it does not reach the underside, the height must be increased. If the graph takes more than one sheet, decrease the height. If there is no line on the right, decrease the width.

It may happen that width and height never reach the right and bottom edges of the sheet. In these cases, the emboss sheet may not have been set correctly. In these cases, use the panel of your embosser to properly configure the emboss sheet.

The End of page Quantity box should not normally be used. If your touch plot area is configured correctly, you should not need the additional end of page.

Tactile graphics can be embossed even if you do not find the exact dimensions of width and height. However, for a professional tactile emboss that covers the entire emboss surface, it would be useful to take a little longer to find the correct size.

We also recommend that you read the manual of your embosser.