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".BRF" files containing Braille books and magazines do not open and render Braille on the normal Chromebook display screen
Reported by
robertgl...@gmail.com,
Feb 12 2018
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Issue description
Chrome Version : 63.0.3239.140
OS Version: 10032.86.0
URLs (if applicable) :
Other browsers tested:
Add OK or FAIL after other browsers where you have tested this issue:
Safari:
Firefox:
IE/Edge:
What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. go to website http://www.unity.org/resources/message-hope/document-library
2. Click on any free book in the list, to download it as a ".BRF" file to Chromebook (example: download "garden_of_prayer.brf" )
3. Open up the Google Chrome File App, and double click on "garden_of_paryerbrf"
What is the expected result? It should show the Braille book visually on the normal Chromebook laptop screen in 2 dimensions (NOT 3 dimensions). I.e. it should show the pictorial representation of the 6 dot braille characters of the Braille book.
What happens instead of that? Instead, it only shows the raw metadata of the .BRF file. This is roughly analagous to showing raw, unprocessed HTML code instead of a rendered HTML page.
Please provide any additional information below. Attach a screenshot if
possible. .BRF is an industry standard in the Braille community and the Braille industry for encoding digital representations of Braille books, magazines, etc. Especially now that all English speaking countries have standardized (since 2012) on UEB (Unified English Braille), new Braille books and literature are increasingly being distributed only in .BRF format, not in paper format. Concurrently, there is a shortage of certified Braille transcriptionists. By fixing Google Chromebook so that it can open .BFR Braille files and render them 2 dimensionally on the normal display visually, this will greatly assistant students who are studying to become certified Braille transcriptionists. It will also help the parents of blind children who Chromebooks, because parents can teach themselves Braille visually (as opposed to with their fingers) on the Chromebook-- being able to see on the Chromebook screen the visual representation of the Braille dots of the Braille books (in .BRF files) would be very helpful. Please note this request has nothing to do with 3rd party tactile Braille readers that can be attached to a Chromebook via USB. That is a completely different subject than the subject of this request. It may help to better understand if you familiarize yourself conceptually with a Braille font named "SimBraille" that can be installed onto PCs and MACs in order to display Braille visually when printing to a PDF file or to a normal printer via the free program, "Perky Duck" ( http://www.brl.org/perkyduck.html ).
UserAgentString: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; CrOS x86_64 10032.86.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/63.0.3239.140 Safari/537.36
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Feb 13 2018
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Feb 14 2018
Please note this enhancement request for Chromebook to "out of the box" render a .BRF file in 2 dimensional (visual) Braille is already available for free on every Windows 10 and Windows 7 computer. I attached a screenshot that shows a .BRF file rendering correctly in WordPad on Windows 10 (using the "SimBraille" font). I also attached the actual 36KB .BRF file that is shown being rendered in the image ("garden_of_prayer.brf"). This really seems to me an enhancement to Chromebook that is practically mandatory, simply to keep up with the standard features of PCs and MACs, both of which can easily render a .BRF file to a normal display screen.
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Feb 21 2018
Request from Chromebook Central Forum: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chromebook-central/WzHOiRcIv50/3xw9W9auCQAJ "there is strong support for fixing this issue clearly articulated in the Facebook 'Braille Transcription' Public Group. This group consists of 628 members, many of whom are certified Braille Transcriptionists working full time in the Braille community. Here is the link to that group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8941942012/ Please see in particular the post there dated Feb 20, 2018 about the need for a Braille font in Google Docs, and notice it has already, 23 hours after being posted, been shared 4 times as well as 'liked' and commented on."
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Feb 21 2018
Also filed an internal bug for the Google Docs team: http://b/73727549
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Feb 23 2018
Below, I list the features of a truly world class solution that would profoundly change the way students learning to be Braille teachers and Braille transcribers and Braille proofreaders, all over the world, would do their work-- all within Google Docs.
1 of 4) The Braille font should show, or have an option to show, very faintly, the dots among the total 6 dots of a Braille character that are not "punched". This is exactly how the "SimBraille" font renders. It eliminates the confusion a sighted reader otherwise has trying to determine whether two adjacent Braille characters indicate (for example), "2,3....2,3,4,5" or "4,5....2,3,4,5". (The former two characters signify the word "bet" while the second two characters signify the ending contraction "tion".
2 of 4) Add an alternate key mapping for the keyboard intended for use with the new (Sim)Braille font. This alternate mapping would follow the convention used by Perky Duck and also used by website "UEBOnline DOT com". Space bar and backspace work as expected. Enter Key functions as carriage-return/line feed. The letters "s,d,f,j,k,l" correspond to the Braille dots "1,2,3,4,5,6" respectively. Most importantly, any combination of the "s,d,f,j,k,l" can be pressed at the same time. So for example, pressing at the same time all of those characters (s,d,f,j,k,l) would result in one Braille character appearing that looks as if it has all 6 dots "punched". As another example, pressing at the same time "s,j" would result in one Braille character appearing that looks as if "3,4" was "punched".
3 of 4) In a perfect world, the Braille student could simply open a .BRF file in Google Docs instead of having to open the .BRF file in a text editor and then copy/paste it into an empty Google Docs document. Similarly, a Braille student could ideally simply save a Braille file within Google Docs and have it default to a file extension of .”BRF”.
4 of 4) Ideally, the Braille font used by Google Docs could have its font size enlarged or decreased the same way any normal font’s size can be changed. This would permit people who are losing their sight and will be blind in the future (but are not yet blind) to learn Braille within Google Docs by setting the Braille font to a very large size. Of course, the original .BRF file must always remain a plain text file without any font size information contained within.
An outstanding advantage of implementation of these 4 suggestions (especially the key mapping) is that it will work without modification in any language in the world (that has a Braille encoding system) that reads from left to right and top to bottom--- as do nearly all languages, including post-WWII Japanese.
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Mar 1 2018
The 3 images attached to this post show what Google Docs needs to do, to support BRF Braille.
However, these 3 images show it being done in Apple Pages, not Google Docs. All Google has to do is modify Google Docs to support SimBraille font the way Apple Pages does.
I don't want to simplify or trivialize this, so let me add for the sake of full disclosure that in the case of Apple Pages it required me to install a 3rd party extension from the Apple App Store into my iPhone and iPad that allowed me to import the SimBraille TTF file (or any other TTF or OTF font) into both devices.
In the case of Google Docs it is imperative that Google provide a free and fully supported Braille font selectable from the Google Docs drop-down list of fonts, and that it will work in Google Docs regardless of what device Google Docs is opened within--- and ideally Google Docs would not require me to rename the .BRF file to .TXT the way I have to when using "Pages" to display Braille.
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Mar 1 2018
Here is image showing how "SimBraille" font is selected in Apple Pages. Google Docs should have a font for "SimBraille" (or equivalent) available in its list of supported, free web-fonts that can be applied to a .BRF file (within Google Docs).
Currently, Google Docs will not even open a .BRF file. In my experience, Google Docs won't open a .TXT file either. What's needed is for Google Docs to be able to open a .BRF file and by default apply the "SimBraille" (or equivalent) font to it.
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Mar 1 2018
This image shows how a Braille .BRF file renders PERFECTLY within pages, rendering formatting the page exactly the way it would render in a real, printed/embossed braille printout. If Google Docs can be fixed to do this too, it would be a fine thing and of great use within the community of Braille transcriptionists and Braille proofreaders and students learning to become teachers of Braille. Note in the image that the "underline" font effect was applied to the document for display purposes only-- an actual embossed printout would not have those lines between rows.
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Mar 6 2018
While waiting for Google Docs (and Chromebook) to support Braille .BRF files (via a Braille font such as the current gold standard "SimBraille" font), I have meanwhile become quite adept at viewing Braille on an iPad. The image below shows how on my iPad (using Apple "Pages" and "SimBraille" font) I can change the font size and the font color of selected Braille characters, words, and passages. These capabilities should certainly be included in the enhancement/bug fix to Google Docs to support .BRL and Braille. |
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Comment 1 by trumbull@chromium.org
, Feb 13 2018