right, of the dots raised. So the pattern with dots 1-2-5 raised would yield 116+216+1016 = 1316. Whether computed directly in hexadecimal, or indirectly via binary, the result is added to 280016, the offset for the Braille Patterns Unicode block. There is no regular mapping to the braille ASCII numbering. Colloquial names The Unicode names of braille dot patterns are not the same as what many English speakers would use colloquially. In particular, Unicode names use the word in the plural even when only one dot is listed: thus Unicode says when most English-speaking users of braille would simply say "braille dot 5" or just "dot 5". In addition, some English-speaking users of braille use the word "and" when listing only two dots. Thus would be spoken as "braille dots 4 and 5". The word "and" is not always used when listing many dots however. Block Braille was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0. When using punching, the filled (black) dots are to be punched. The Unicode block for braille is U+2800 ... U+28FF: Font differences When showing braille graphically in printed instruction manuals, it can be useful to indicate the dots that are not punched, especially if a single braille cell of only one or two punched dots is shown out of context: in this case it might otherwise be difficult to judge the vertical alignment of the dots and tell the difference between, say, dots 2 and 4 versus dots 3 and 5. The current Unicode charts, and some fonts, use empty circles to indicate dots that are not punched. This does not always render very clearly: if the circle outlines are printed heavily then it can be difficult to tell at a glance whether the dot is filled in or not. The braille package for LaTeX (and several printed publications such as the printed manual for the new international braille music code) show unpunched dots as very small dots (much smaller than the filled-in dots) rather than circles, and this tends to print better. Some braille fonts do not indicate unpunched dots at all. Additionally, some Linux braille fonts (e.g. GNU Unifont and the DejaVu fonts) use small squares instead of small circles to indicate dots. Other uses The Braille Pattern characters are commonly used in terminal applications as a way to draw multiple pixels per character. History The