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LOU_TRANSLATE(1) User Commands LOU_TRANSLATE(1)

NAME

lou_translate - A Braille translator for large scale testing of liblouis Braille translation tables

SYNOPSIS

lou_translate [OPTIONS] TABLE

DESCRIPTION

Translate whatever is on standard input and print it on standard output. It is intended for large-scale testing of the accuracy of braille translation and back-translation.

TABLE is either:

KEY[:VALUE] [KEY[:VALUE] ...]
FILE[,FILE,...]

OPTIONS

display this help and exit
display version information and exit
forward translation using the given table
backward translation using the given table If neither -f nor -b are specified forward translation is assumed
use the given display table for the translation. The display table determines how braille dot patterns are encoded as text (decoded in case of backward translation). Without a display table, the braille encoding is determined by the translation table, when it is specified as a file list, or Unicode braille when the table is specified as a query. For clarity and reliability, it is recommended to always make the display table explicit.

EXAMPLES

lou_translate language:en grade:2 region:en-US < input.txt
Do a forward translation of English text to grade 2 contracted braille according to the U.S. braille standard.
lou_translate -d en-us-brf.dis language:en grade:2 region:en-US < input.txt
Here we do the same forward translation but with a specific ASCII braille encoding instead of Unicode braille.
lou_translate -d unicode.dis en-us-g2.ctb < input.txt
Do a forward translation with table en-us-g2.ctb and Unicode braille encoding.
echo ",! qk br{n fox" | lou_translate -b -d text_nabcc.dis language:en grade:2 region:en-US
Do a backward translation with the English grade 2 table. Note that the ASCII braille input (as shown here) must match the specified display table (North American Braille Computer Code in this case).

AUTHOR

Written by John J. Boyer.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to liblouis-liblouisxml@freelists.org.
Liblouis home page: <http://www.liblouis.io>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2024 ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. and JJB Software, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for lou_translate is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and lou_translate programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info liblouis

should give you access to the complete manual.

March 2026 Liblouis 3.37.0