Moon Alphabet

The Moon alphabet is a tactile reading system invented in 1845 by William Moon for use by blind and visually impaired people. Unlike braille, which uses raised dots, Moon relies on simple shapes, lines, and curves, similar to printed letters.

Encoding text with the Moon alphabet means transforming printed text (standard Latin alphabet) into Moon characters (theoretically perceptible to touch) according to the correspondence table:

A		B		C		D		E		F		G
H		I		J		K		L		M		N
O		P		Q		R		S		T		U
V		W		X		Y		Z
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Numbers and digits are written with the characters from A to J (A=1, I=9, J=0) but preceded by the special character

Decoding a text in the Moon alphabet means recognizing the raised characters by touch (or visually if the user's vision is not impaired) and translating/substituting them with their equivalent in the English alphabet.

Reading is done from left to right, line by line from top to bottom. Identify the shape, then match it to the known letter or character according to the table above.

The Moon alphabet uses 9 basic geometric shapes (straight line, curve, semicircle, angle). These shapes are rotated or inverted to generate the 26 letters.

Some of the Moon letters are identical to their printed equivalents, such as C, I, J, L, N, O, U, V, or Z.

Others are derived from fragments of Latin letters, such as A, D, E, K, or X.

The symbol for H resembles a moon 🌔︎.

The Moon alphabet is designed for:

— people who have lost their sight late in life, who find in Moon a continuity with printed writing

— children with learning or physical disabilities, for whom braille is too complex

— adults suffering from tactile loss who struggle to distinguish the dots of braille

Braille: A universal system based on raised dot patterns, more compact but requiring great tactile finesse.

Moon: An alphabet based on nine simple geometric shapes, enlarged and open, making them easier to distinguish by touch.

Many users find Moon more accessible, but braille remains much more widespread and offers a much more extensive literature.

— Modern method: Computer printing with a Moon font and special thermal paper, heated to create relief.

— Alternative method: Embossing with a braille printer producing dotty Moon: raised Moon characters made up of small dots (more similar to braille in texture).

— Manual method: Writing using a Moon Frame (a frame with a special plastic sheet).