Extension braille is working with no effect

confirmed on Windows XP 0.47pre1, the text has been converted into the following symbols:

         id="flowPara18">â žâ “â Šâ Ž â Šâ Ž â žâ ‘â ­â ž

Not confirmed with Inkscape 0.46+devel r22179 on OS X 10.5.8, Python 2.6.2 (python and needed modules installed with MacPorts)

The attached screenshot shows a result as I would expect it after reading the release notes 0.47:
"The new Text > Convert to Braille extension recodes English (or just Latin letters) text to Braille code. This is obviously just an aesthetical feature. It is not intended to create real braille text for visually impaired people but instead it is meant to enable an accurate graphical representation of braille text to be used in illustrations"
<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.47#New_and_improved_extensions>

- looks like a Windows problem.
- when I load the file Braille-1.svg, the screen does not show the Braille version at all. However, the XML editor shows something that could conceivably be Braille, somewhat small.

The screen display is not compatible with the XML editor display.

also, in the file text_braille.py there is a table that looks like:

convert_table = {\
'a': unicode("⠁", "utf-8"),\
'b': unicode("⠃", "utf-8"),\
'c': unicode("⠉", "utf-8"),\
'd': unicode("⠙", "utf-8"),\
'e': unicode("⠑", "utf-8"),\

this is probably a conversion table to Braille, but on my computer all I'm seeing is plain rectangles, no Braille.

What do you see if you open the python script in the webbrowser: <http://inkscape.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/inkscape/inkscape/trunk/share/extensions/text_braille.py?revision=20240&view=markup>?

Attached screenshot of the OS X character palette shows the code table for Unicode Braille Patterns. Do you have the font family 'DejaVu' installed? Besides Apple's own 'Apple Braille' font (with small dots), 'DejaVu' also seems to contain the Unicode Braille Patterns (with small squares).

here is a screenshot of what the text_braille.py file looks like in svn.
I don't have DejaVu font installed, will try to find it tomorrow.

found a link at
http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/index.php?title=Download
will try it out tomorrow, thanks.

unfortunately, no luck with Braille on Windows. I downloaded 3 different Braille fonts, XBraille, UBraille, and DejaVu Sans. I believe UBraille is working in IE8, XBraille is working in Inkscape and Microsoft Word, DejaVu does not appear to contain Braille as far as I can tell, and none of them work with this extension, so I am going to move on to other things...

okay, it works on Windows.
- install DejaVu Sans font from the link above
- choose Text tool, choose DejaVu Sans font, type text
- double-check just to make sure DejaVu is still the font, you never know...
- run Extensions->Text->Convert to Braille, and it works

@~suv, thanks for the tip, it worked perfectly, I just had to take a somewhat circuitous route to get there.

@uwesch, could you try this and see if it helps?

@uwesch - did you try installing DejaVu Sans yet?

Hi,

sorry for my delay.
With DejaVu Sans, Braille is working fine.

@Tav - subscribing you to this report: could a note be added to <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Extensions-Text.html#Extensions-ConvertToBraille> that the extension 'Convert to Braille' requires a font installed which contains the Unicode Braille characters, like for example 'DejaVu Sans'?

Good idea, I'll add a note in the next update.

Proposing to close as 'Won't fix': Inkscape itself does not distribute fonts and cannot ensure that a required font is installed.

Documentation will be added to Tavmjong Bah's Inkscape manual, and a FAQ in German is provided by courtesy of Uwe Schöler <http://www.oss-marketplace.com/index.php/faq/45-inkscape/649-faq-inkscape-brailleschrift>

Please add a comment and reopen if you don't agree and think this report was closed in error.