[Blindmath] Tiger Max braille embosser

Sat Sep 27 20:09:59 UTC 2014

Hi Dan,

If you're operating without braille then TSS won't be much use to you. It is for conversion of documents into braille with the capacity to render figures along the way.

I don't know what size the font would need to be during the creation of the graphic so that it was recognisable text in tactile form. I'm not sure 30pt would be enough, but you will probably need to do some experimentation of your own to see what you can read.

If you are working with a sighted support person to modify the graphs, then they would use IVEO creator to modify an SVG file. You would then use the IVEO creator to investigate the graphic or emboss it.

My suggestion at first would be to just try to emboss the images without using IVEO to see what you get. You can ask to ignore the text when you emboss so that you only get the lines etc. Then you will need to test the readability that results from the use of different graph sizes. I have found it easier to fix this at the time of creation instead of trying to fiddle with an already created graphic. In R, the default graph size is 7x7 inch which wastes a lot of braille paper. I found increasing a graph to 9x7 and printing in landscape worked best for the testing I was doing.

If you do use the support person to modify a graph, and have a choice of file type during creation, then choose SVG. Png has little going for it in terms of editing but is useful for insertion into documents for the web or in Word.

I'd like to offer two other things to think about.
1. At some point you will leave the comfort of the education environment. By that time you will need to know that you can survive without the support person if you expect someone else to employ you. You don't have to ditch them overnight, but do think about how certain tasks will be done without them and get them to help you work out systems for surviving independently.
2. Get a rudimentary knowledge of braille at the very least. I didn't need braille while I was an undergraduate but did once I was doing my PhD. I struggled without it for too many years and while I'm far from a great braille reader, I have a braille display on my desk, I regularly read short pieces of hardcopy braille in hardcopy, and now I wish I had learned it sooner. Again, you don't need to learn it overnight, in fact that won't work, but using sound alone was letting me down  especially in the increasing number of situations where case sensitivity is crucial and exactness is compulsory not optional.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dániel Hajas via Blindmath
Sent: Sunday, 28 September 2014 7:27 a.m.
To: john.gardner at oregonstate.edu; 'John Gardner'; 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Tiger Max braille embosser

Thanks Jonathan and John for the responses,

Firstly, I won't need braille labels for some time as I do not read braille, so this might make it easier for my support worker and myself to print correct diagrams.
So if I understand correctly in most of the case the best is to put the picture in a Word file extend it to full size and with text boxes and the needed labels in latin symbols. Actually, I am curious: How can you expand the picture to full size using JAWS?
Though this might be the best solution, as far as I understand it is possible to print from other software as well such as R. So in theory I could print some graphs I produce with Python?  What I usually do if a graph is needed that I try to code it in Python and save it as an image file such as, png, jpg, or svg.
Thanks for the tipp about the contrast, I will keep that in mind if something like you described happens.

Also not sure if I got it fully with regards the font size:
If I want to lets say print a label ont he axes saying e.g. x (m), and t(s), in latin letters and not braille, what is the size I should use? Is it 30?

An other question with regards texture and line width:
Firstly can a sighted person adjust the line thickness and style of a diagram using the tss before printing a graph that was produced with some other program?
Also now I understand the 3 different height of dots depends ont he darkness. However, is there a way to specify shaded area textures within TSS or again it has to be done while the diagram is made.

Thanks,
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John Gardner via Blindmath
Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2014 4:45 PM
To: 'Godfrey, Jonathan'; 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Tiger Max braille embosser

Hi Dan, I can add a bit to Jonathan's comments.  There are lots of things you can do all by yourself, but it will be a lot faster to get just a bit of sighted help.  If you know exactly what the sighted help is supposed to do, they are a lot more likely to help you.  Jonathan is right that you can run the embosser, but some software manipulation to get the image into good form is not something a blind person can always do.  If you do have IVEO tools, there are many things you can do by yourself, but again, sighted help is lots faster.

First of all, understand that the Max is an embosser with a very intelligent printer driver, but it is not magic.  The printer driver can convert a visual image into a tactile image so that dark things become big dots and light things become small dots.  White is no dots.  It can convert ViewPlus BrailleASCII fonts to braille equivalents, permitting sighted people to see ASCII characters on screen. The Max does not convert text to braille however, and I recommend strongly you try using the TIGER29 fonts, which convert to DotsPlus braille.  I promise you that you can read it, and there is no conversion.

One big hint.  If you emboss graphs and find a textured background, it means that the graph is printed with a slightly off-white background.  In the Tiger Tab there is an undocumented feature called contrast set at 0 by default.  Set it at 1, and off-white backgrounds then emboss with no dots.
You can just leave it set at 1, because the effect on anything else is negligible.

Finally, for most existing graphics, Jonathan's advice about Word is correct.  Paste the image into Word, stretch to maximum size (you can do this yourself actually), and then have a sighted person overlay any bit map text with a Word text box. Try having them use Tiger29 font set a point size 29.  It should work just fine.  If you do want "real braille", they should use any standard font, but big, say size 30. Then use Tiger Formatter to translate.  One can put MathType equations above and below the graph if you wish, and it will also be translated. However you can also read math equations in DotsPlus just fine too.

Good luck.

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Godfrey, Jonathan via Blindmath
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 5:26 PM
To: Dániel Hajas; Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Tiger Max braille embosser

Hi Dan,

I've just taken possession of an EmBraille and am also investigating its use with graphics and braille at the moment.

I've already use Tiger embossers to get images out of R and I'm pretty confident that I could do the same out of other software without having to take the images through other software, whether that be using TSS in a Word document or the IVEO viewer etc.

The graphs I generated do not have braille of course. They are just the visual image bashed out on paper, but there was plenty of information in the content of the graphs I've tried thus far without the text being readable.
In particular, I want to know that a label has been printed where I expect one to be when I take the image and put it in a document for the sighted world. 

If you want braille in the images, then you will need a human to intervene.
They'll need more than the TSS to do this. IVEO creator for them and IVEO viewer for you.

So, my advice is to get some of the software you'll use, generate some images and then emboss them using the Tiger. If that means taking someone from the department to the place where the embosser is so that you can test it then perhaps that is what you'll need to do.

If you want to have a tactile version of the images someone else is making then try the above, but be prepared to put them into a Word document  if you don't have the right software. 

It seems to me that you will have more trouble with the software used to make the images  than the embossing process. Depending on the software you need to test I may be able to help. I'll soon have a ViewPlus Premiere 100 on the network at work and will get others to send images from software I don't use. I can probably track down a few physicists if needed but mathematicians are easier for me to come by. Send requests to me directly in that case at a.j.godfrey at massey.ac.nz

Good luck.
Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dániel Hajas via Blindmath
Sent: Saturday, 27 September 2014 10:11 a.m.
To: 'Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics'
Subject: [Blindmath] Tiger Max braille embosser

Hi all,

My university just bought a Tiger Max braille embosser. It should also come with the Tiger Software Suite.

Could you please give me some advice how to use it efficiently for producing diagrams needed in physics and mathematics?

The embosser is going to be used by myself for purposes of printing mathematical figures and an other blind person mainly for printing braille text.

As I have never used any embosser and have a very limited knowledge on them, I am asking for your experiences and technical tipps. I am really new in the topic of creating tactile figures using an embosser.

May be a few explicit questions to get started:

1.       Can I produce diagrams 100% individually using the software and a
screen reader? Not necessarily by producing them directly on TSS but lets say import from an svg or pdf file? Or I will still need someone to adjust graphs from a file to a tactile print view?

2.       What can the software do? Is it only for settings of the embosser
or it is a sort of editor for image sas well?

Many thanks,

Dan

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