Introduction
IPA Braille is a braille code for the transcription of the International Phonetic Alphabet (as revised to 2005). It is based on the 1934 braille code for IPA devised by W. Percy Merrick and W. Pothoff, brought up to date in 2008 by Robert Englebretson, Ph.D., under the auspices of ICEB‘s Unified English Braille Linguistics Committee, chaired by Jean Obi. IPA Braille was launched as an ICEB recommended code at the 4th ICEB General Assembly in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in April 2008. Although IPA Braille is not part of UEB and employs a different prefix-root symbol pattern, it can be used in conjunction with UEB and other codes, and ICEB recommends its use generally for the transcription of IPA, even within non-IPA text.
ICEB launched the 2nd edition of the IPA Braille publication (Englebretson, 2025) in January 2026. The most notable improvements undertaken for the 2nd edition were to condense the publication into a single volume and to integrate tactile graphics for each IPA symbol directly into the text. Crucially, there have been no changes to the IPA Braille code itself. All of the IPA Braille symbols defined in the 2008 edition remain unchanged, and no new symbols have been added. The 2025 edition will not prove disruptive to anyone who already knows IPA Braille, and existing braille tables for Liblouis, the Duxbury Braille Translator, and other software likewise remain unchanged from those developed for the 2008 edition.
Due to advances in embossing technology during the years since IPA Braille was first published, the 2025 edition is now compatible with a range of modern embossers that support mixing tactile graphics and text on the same page. Supported embosser models are listed at the following level 2 headings on this web page. If you wish to emboss the full IPA Braille document with embedded tactile graphics, locate and download the Zip archive corresponding to your embosser model. Currently, these tactile graphics files can only be embossed from the Windows operating system. WE are working to find a solution that will enable Mac users to emboss the files directly as well.
A print edition (Word and PDF) is also available, as well as 40-cell and 32-cell BRF versions without the tactile graphics.
Document for Index and Humanware embossers
The following file is designed for use with Index (V4 or later) and Humanware (Juliet 120) embossers. It is formatted for interpoint braille (i.e., braille on both sides of the page), 40 cels per line, 25 lines per page. It requires 71 sheets of 11″x11.5″ paper. Unzip the file to a convenient folder on your computer. Note that you cannot emboss this document directly using Duxbury or other apps that you typically might use, so please be sure to follow the instructions in the readme.txt file included in this Zip archive.
IPA-Braille-2025_Index&Humanware.zip
Document for ViewPlus Embossers
The following files are designed for use with ViewPlus embossers. To download the correct format, you must first know whether the ViewPlus model you are using supports TigerPlus graphics (100DPI) or Tiger Graphics (20DPI). Most current models, including the ViewPlus Columbia and the ViewPlus Delta, support TigerPlus graphics, and you should download the 100DPI version for these. For most legacy ViewPlus embossers (such as the Tiger Pro, Tiger Advantage, Max) you should download the 20DPI version. To check which file format to download for a particular ViewPlus model, visit https://viewplus.com/embosser-selection-guide/ and look in the corresponding table row labeled “Tactile resolution”. These files are formatted for interpoint braille (i.e., braille on both sides of the page), 40 cels per line, 25 lines per page. It requires 71 sheets of 11″x11.5″ paper. Unzip the file to a convenient folder on your computer, and follow the instructions in the included readme.txt file. Please note that you cannot emboss this document directly using Duxbury or other apps that you typically might use; instead, you need to open it using Tiger Designer, or using the free Tiger Viewer app that was installed along with the ViewPlus embosser’s printer driver.
IPA-Braille-2025_ViewPlus100DPI.zip
IPA-Braille-2025_ViewPlus20DPI.zip
Document for Irie Embossers
The following file is designed for the Irie BrailleTrac or Irie BrailleSheet embossers. It is formatted for interpoint braille (i.e., braille on both sides of the page), 40 cels per line, 25 lines per page. It requires 71 sheets of 11″x11.5″ paper. Unzip the file to a convenient folder on your computer, and follow the instructions in the included readme.txt file. Please note that you cannot emboss this document directly using Duxbury or other apps that you typically might use; instead, you need to open it using Tiger Designer, or the free Tiger Viewer app that was installed along with the Irie embosser’s printer driver.
Print Edition
The print edition of the IPA Braille 2025 publication is offered in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats:
IPA-Braille-2025_print-ed.docx
BRF files (no graphics)
The following versions of the IPA Braille 2025 publication are braille files with all tactile graphics removed. These are suitable for embossing, reading with a braille display, or downloading to a braille notetaker.
IPA-Braille-2025_40cell-NoTactiles.brf
IPA-Braille-2025_30cell-NoTactiles.brf
Creative Commons License
IPA Braille: An Updated Tactile Representation of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Second Edition, 2025 by Robert Englebretson, Ph.D. is marked CC0 1.0 Universal. To view a copy of this mark, visit