’MOON Braille’ is a system of reading by touch that can be learned by people of all ages.

MOON differs from Braille in that many of the symbols closely resemble print letters and so are often more easily recognised by people with a visual memory of print or by some who do not have the tactile sensitivity to recognise small Braille characters.

Previously, MOON text had to be laboriously printed by hand with special machines only available in the UK, but now MOON files can be easily and quickly produced by the Enterprise MOON Translator and edited either as MOON, or as the ordinary text that generated it. 

It is then a simple matter to emboss the MOON files to an Everest D or other embosser 

This easy to use Windows program runs on any IBM compatible computer or laptop. The software is versatile, intuitive and simple in operation.

Text, .rtf, or MSWord .doc files can be opened, or loaded into the TEXT Edit Box, and then a mouse click on the Moon button will translate the Text into either Grade One, or Grade Two Moon and place the Moon Characters in the upper MOON Edit Box. In common with most Windows programs there are shortcut keystrokes that can be used by non-mouse users.

In the on-screen example to the left, you can see the standard text entered in the bottom edit box, and the corresponding Moon characters displayed in the upper edit box.

Three sizes of Moon characters are available,

 Standard, (as used in RNIB Moon documents),

 Large size for people with reduced tactile sensitivity,

and Largest for teaching purposes.

There are a variety of formatting options available including the ability to highlight the un-translated text and select the appropriate command to indicate that it is a heading, or that it is in italics, or poetry mode.

Many of these options are obtained by selecting them in the systems settings area. Additionally if required the Moon text can be entered or edited directly.

Also text can be embossed in the Zig-Zag fashion where the first line of the page is read conventionally, left to right, and then the second line read right to left, the third line left to right, fourth line right to left and so on. This can be a great help for people who experience difficulty locating the beginning of the lines, and can reduce the amount of paper that Moon text takes.