Moon type

-

The Moon alphabet ( also Moon font or Moon code ) is a 1845 developed by William Moon writing system for the blind. The Braille consists of characters in the form of geometric symbols. For individuals who are blind in the course of their lives, it is especially easy to learn because many of the symbols are similar to the letters of the alphabet. It is read by scanning Moon font with your fingers, to write the writing is not very suitable.

Construction

The Moon font consists of phonetic symbols in the form of geometric symbols. The entire alphabet consists of nine characters whose meaning is given by their direction. Punctuation is represented by other symbols, for example by points.

Letters

Digits

The digits 1 to 9 and 0 correspond to the letters A to J, preceded by a start character.

History and Use

Since William Moon much money was available, the Moon alphabet spread rapidly. In England were still other forms of relief font distributed, and it was convincing until the Braille was accepted. In the blind were allowed to decide for themselves which one - assuming they dominated at least three systems - presented by the braille for testing. In some countries, the Moon alphabet is used even today, especially for Späterblindete and disabled children come separately printed books used.

Books in the Moon alphabet had a special feature: the line can be in Boustrophedon alternately from left to right and read from right to left, so you do not have to take the side of the finger. With this form of relief font blind could indeed learn to read in a short time, but fluent reading could not be reached. In 1990, the case was abolished in two directions in the UK, the Moon writing is now read from left to right.

In modern character set of the Moon consist of letters and characters by means of dotted lines shown. It makes use of a grid of 5 × 5 points ( Dotty Moon ). Special printer can print characters tactile detectable in foil or paper, so that computer texts can be read after printing.