Drawing Braille Characters with GDI

(Try using the table below to decipher this!)

Introduction

Not too long ago(while reading Code by Charles Petzold, which I recommend), I became particularly interested in Braille code. I decided it was time for me to write a little application in Visual Basic, which I later ported over to C# for this article(To Do). The book goes on to describe, how in Braille Code, that each symbol is represented by 6 binary values. The layout of a Braille symbol is as follows:

Knowing that either each one of the 6 cells is going to be either darkened or invisible, you can deduce two possible values for a cell: Either darkened, or invisible, meaning either on or off, or 1 or zero. This means that each cell is binary in nature. Since we know that there are 6 cells, and in the picture above each cell has a number corresponding to that cells' position, we can also easily represent a Braille symbol using a binary string of ones and zeros.

Below is a picture that shows how the cell positions in a binary symbol relate to the bit positions in a binary string.

Braille to Binary Table

The following is a table that shows the binary representation for each Braille symbol. *Please note that this table does not cover shorthand Braille code.

A	100000	I	010100	Q	111110	Y	101111	7	011011	)	011111	\	110011	@	000100
B	110000	J	010110	R	111010	Z	101011	8	011001	*	100001	[	010101	^	000110
C	100100	K	101000	S	011100	1	010000	9	001010	<	110001	/	001100	_	000111
D	100110	L	111000	T	011110	2	011000	0	001011	%	100101	+	001101	"	000010
E	100010	M	101100	U	101001	3	010010	&	111101	?	100111	#	001111	.	000101
F	110100	N	101110	V	111001	4	010011	=	111111	:	100011	>	001110	;	000011
G	110110	O	101010	W	010111	5	010001	(	111011	$	110101	'	001000	,	000001
H	110010	P	111100	X	101101	6	011010	!	011101	]	110111	-	001001		000000

Example Code(Visual Basic)

Knowing all of this, we can create a simple program that will draw these symbols using GDI.

In order to keep things less complicated, I have extracted the main function(ToBraille) from my example, and I will explain that via in-code comments. At the end of this article you will find a link that leads you to the entire project that I created.

C#Visual Basic

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using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication2
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
                private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            this.BackgroundImageLayout = ImageLayout.None;
            this.BackgroundImage = ToBraille("hello World", 10, Color.Black, Color.White, true, this);
        }
        private static Bitmap ToBraille(string text, int fontSize, Color backColor, Color foreColor, bool drawBlanks, Control parent)
        {
            string[] lines = {
		};
            int dotSize = fontSize - 2;
            int pad = dotSize / 2;
            int characterWidth = (fontSize * 2) + (pad * 2);
            int characterHeight = (fontSize * 3) + (pad * 2);
            Color crColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255, 0);
            Color lfColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255, 255);
            Color unknownColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 255);
            try
            {
                lines = text.Split(new string[] { "\r\n", "\n" }, StringSplitOptions.None);
            }
            catch
            {
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1, 1);
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
                g.Clear(parent.BackColor);
                return bm;
            }
            Size maxSize = new Size(0, lines.Count() * characterHeight);
            foreach (string line in lines)
            {
                if ((line.Length * characterWidth) > maxSize.Width)
                    maxSize.Width = (line.Length * characterWidth);
            }
            List<Image> images = new List<Image>();
            Bitmap finalBM = null;
            try
            {
                finalBM = new Bitmap(maxSize.Width, maxSize.Height);
            }
            catch
            {
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1, 1);
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
                g.Clear(parent.BackColor);
                return bm;
            }
            Graphics finalG = Graphics.FromImage(finalBM);
            finalG.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None;
            finalG.Clear(backColor);
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text))
                return finalBM;
            foreach (char s in text.ToLower())
            {
                string keyCode = string.Empty;
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(characterWidth, characterHeight);
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
                int x = 0;
                int y = -fontSize;
                string s3 = s.ToString();
                g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;
                g.Clear(backColor);
                switch (s3)
                {
                    case "a":
                        keyCode = "100000";
                        break;
                    case "b":
                        keyCode = "110000";
                        break;
                    case "c":
                        keyCode = "100100";
                        break;
                    case "d":
                        keyCode = "100110";
                        break;
                    case "e":
                        keyCode = "100010";
                        break;
                    case "f":
                        keyCode = "110100";
                        break;
                    case "g":
                        keyCode = "110110";
                        break;
                    case "h":
                        keyCode = "110010";
                        break;
                    case "i":
                        keyCode = "010100";
                        break;
                    case "j":
                        keyCode = "010110";
                        break;
                    case "k":
                        keyCode = "101000";
                        break;
                    case "l":
                        keyCode = "111000";
                        break;
                    case "m":
                        keyCode = "101100";
                        break;
                    case "n":
                        keyCode = "101110";
                        break;
                    case "o":
                        keyCode = "101010";
                        break;
                    case "p":
                        keyCode = "111100";
                        break;
                    case "q":
                        keyCode = "111110";
                        break;
                    case "r":
                        keyCode = "111010";
                        break;
                    case "s":
                        keyCode = "011100";
                        break;
                    case "t":
                        keyCode = "011110";
                        break;
                    case "u":
                        keyCode = "101001";
                        break;
                    case "v":
                        keyCode = "111001";
                        break;
                    case "w":
                        keyCode = "010111";
                        break;
                    case "x":
                        keyCode = "101101";
                        break;
                    case "y":
                        keyCode = "101111";
                        break;
                    case "z":
                        keyCode = "101011";
                        break;
                    case "1":
                        keyCode = "010000";
                        break;
                    case "2":
                        keyCode = "011000";
                        break;
                    case "3":
                        keyCode = "010010";
                        break;
                    case "4": 
                        keyCode = "010011";
                        break;
                    case "5":
                        keyCode = "010001";
                        break;
                    case "6":
                        keyCode = "011010";
                        break;
                    case "7":
                        keyCode = "011011";
                        break;
                    case "8":
                        keyCode = "011001";
                        break;
                    case "9":
                        keyCode = "001010";
                        break;
                    case "0":
                        keyCode = "001011";
                        break;
                    case "&":
                        keyCode = "111101";
                        break;
                    case "=":
                        keyCode = "111111";
                        break;
                    case "(":
                        keyCode = "111011";
                        break;
                    case "!":
                        keyCode = "011101";
                        break;
                    case ")":
                        keyCode = "011111";
                        break;
                    case "*":
                        keyCode = "100001";
                        break;
                    case "<":
                        keyCode = "110001";
                        break;
                    case "%":
                        keyCode = "100101";
                        break;
                    case "?":
                        keyCode = "100111";
                        break;
                    case ":":
                        keyCode = "100011";
                        break;
                    case "$":
                        keyCode = "110101";
                        break;
                    case "]":
                        keyCode = "110111";
                        break;
                    case "\\":
                        keyCode = "110011";
                        break;
                    case "[":
                        keyCode = "010101";
                        break;
                    case "/":
                        keyCode = "001100";
                        break;
                    case "+":
                        keyCode = "001101";
                        break;
                    case "#":
                        keyCode = "001111";
                        break;
                    case ">":
                        keyCode = "001110";
                        break;
                    case "'":
                        keyCode = "001000";
                        break;
                    case "-":
                        keyCode = "001001";
                        break;
                    case "@":
                        keyCode = "000100";
                        break;
                    case "^":
                        keyCode = "000110";
                        break;
                    case "_":
                        keyCode = "000111";
                        break;
                    case "\"":
                        keyCode = "000010";
                        break;
                    case ".":
                        keyCode = "000101";
                        break;
                    case ";":
                        keyCode = "000011";
                        break;
                    case ",":
                        keyCode = "000001";
                        break;
                    case " ":
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None;
                        g.Clear(backColor);
                        images.Add(bm);
                        continue;
                    //'\r' is carriage return.
                    //'\n' is new line.
                    case "\r":
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None;
                        g.Clear(Color.White);
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, crColor);
                        images.Add(bm);
                        continue;
                    case "\n":
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None;
                        g.Clear(Color.White);
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, lfColor);
                        images.Add(bm);
                        continue;
                    default:
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None;
                        g.Clear(Color.White);
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, unknownColor);
                        images.Add(bm);
                        continue;
                }
                foreach (char s2 in keyCode.ToCharArray())
                {
                    y += fontSize;
                    if (y > (fontSize * 2))
                    {
                        y = 0;
                        x += fontSize;
                    }
                    if (s2 == "1".ToCharArray()[0])
                    {
                        g.FillEllipse(new SolidBrush(foreColor), new Rectangle(new Point(x + pad, y + pad), new Size(dotSize, dotSize)));
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if (drawBlanks)
                        {
                            g.DrawEllipse(new Pen(new SolidBrush(foreColor)), new Rectangle(new Point(x + pad, y + pad), new Size(dotSize, dotSize)));
                        }
                    }

                }
                images.Add(bm);
            }
            int left = -images[0].Width;
            int top = 0;
            foreach (Bitmap Image in images)
            {
                Color color = Image.GetPixel(0, 0);
                if (color == crColor)
                {
                    left = -Image.Width;
                    top += Image.Height;
                    continue;
                }
                else if (color == lfColor)
                {
                    continue;
                }
                else if (color == unknownColor)
                {
                    //    MsgBox("unknown!")
                    continue;
                }
                left += Image.Width;
                if ((left + Image.Width) > maxSize.Width)
                {
                    left = 0;
                    top += Image.Height;
                }
                Point location = new Point(left, top);
                finalG.DrawImage(Image, location);
            }
            return finalBM;
        }
    }
}

Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Option Infer Off
Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        'make sure our layout doesn't tile or stretch
        Me.BackgroundImageLayout = ImageLayout.None
        'get a braille image for our string
        Dim TurnThisStringIntoBraille As String = "hello world"
        Me.BackgroundImage = ToBraille(TurnThisStringIntoBraille, 10, Me.BackColor, Color.Black, True, Me)
    End Sub
    Private Shared Function ToBraille(ByVal text As String, ByVal fontSize As Integer, ByVal backColor As Color, ByVal foreColor As Color, ByVal drawBlanks As Boolean, parent As Control) As Bitmap
        'Create an array for holding all of our carriage return de-limited lines
        Dim lines() As String = {}
        'This will calculate the size of each cell in the braille symbol, subracting 2 because of each surrounding pixel
        Dim dotSize As Integer = fontSize - 2
        'This will calculate the space inbetween braille symbols, which should be the same size as a dot, therefore
        'we only take half(one half for each symbol to add up to a whole)
        Dim pad As Integer = dotSize \ 2
        'This calculates the width of the braille symbol
        Dim characterWidth As Integer = fontSize * 2 + (pad * 2)
        'this calculates the height of the braille symbol
        Dim characterHeight As Integer = fontSize * 3 + (pad * 2)
        'These colors are later passed as symbol carriage return data
        Dim crColor As Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255, 0)
        Dim lfColor As Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255, 255)
        Dim unknownColor As Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 255)
        'We attempt to get all of the lines in the text
        Try
            lines = text.Split(CChar(vbCr))
        Catch ex As Exception
            'if an error occurs, this means there is nothing to translate
            'to braille, so we return a single pixeled bitmap
            Dim bm As New Bitmap(1, 1)
            Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bm)
            g.Clear(parent.BackColor)
            Return bm
        End Try
        'This calculates the width of the final bitmap
        Dim maxSize As New Size(0, lines.Count * characterHeight)
        For Each line As String In lines
            If (line.Length * characterWidth) > maxSize.Width Then maxSize.Width = (line.Length * characterWidth)
        Next
        'This list of images will be a list of bitmaps containing each braille symbol needed to construct
        'the final bitmap
        Dim images As New List(Of Image)
        'This will be the bitmap that is returned by the function
        Dim finalBM As Bitmap
        Try
            'We attempt to create a new bitmap
            finalBM = New Bitmap(maxSize.Width, maxSize.Height)
        Catch ex As Exception
            'If an error occurs, we know that translating
            'to braille is not possible
            Dim bm As New Bitmap(1, 1)
            Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bm)
            g.Clear(parent.BackColor)
            'Therefore, we just return a one pixeled bitmap
            Return bm
        End Try
        'Get the graphics object from the final bitmap
        Dim finalG As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(finalBM)
        'Set to no anti-aliasing, because all of the anti-aliasing
        'will be performed within the creation of the individual
        'braille symbols
        finalG.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None
        'Clear final bitmap
        finalG.Clear(backColor)
        'If the text is blank, return the blank bitmap... Final check
        If text = "" Then Return finalBM
        'Iterate each character in the string of text
        For Each s As String In text
            'Create a variable for holding our binary string
            Dim keyCode As String = String.Empty
            'Create a bitmap for each braille character(We calculated the size earlier)
            Dim bm As New Bitmap(characterWidth, characterHeight)
            'Get the graphics object from the current symbol's bitmap
            Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bm)
            'For each iteration, create an x and a y object
            'This cooridinate will be modified 
            'for drawing each cell in the braille symbol(total of 6 cells)
            Dim x As Integer = 0
            Dim y As Integer = -fontSize 'This starts at -fontsize because it will be
            'incremented before it is used the first time, therefore when it increments the first time, it will be exactly zero
            'We do all of our anti-aliasing when we draw each symbol
            g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias
            'Clear our symbol's bitmap
            g.Clear(backColor)
            'Get a binary string/braille keycode for the current character
            Select Case s.ToLower
                Case "a" : keyCode = "100000"
                Case "b" : keyCode = "110000"
                Case "c" : keyCode = "100100"
                Case "d" : keyCode = "100110"
                Case "e" : keyCode = "100010"
                Case "f" : keyCode = "110100"
                Case "g" : keyCode = "110110"
                Case "h" : keyCode = "110010"
                Case "i" : keyCode = "010100"
                Case "j" : keyCode = "010110"
                Case "k" : keyCode = "101000"
                Case "l" : keyCode = "111000"
                Case "m" : keyCode = "101100"
                Case "n" : keyCode = "101110"
                Case "o" : keyCode = "101010"
                Case "p" : keyCode = "111100"
                Case "q" : keyCode = "111110"
                Case "r" : keyCode = "111010"
                Case "s" : keyCode = "011100"
                Case "t" : keyCode = "011110"
                Case "u" : keyCode = "101001"
                Case "v" : keyCode = "111001"
                Case "w" : keyCode = "010111"
                Case "x" : keyCode = "101101"
                Case "y" : keyCode = "101111"
                Case "z" : keyCode = "101011"
                Case "1" : keyCode = "010000"
                Case "2" : keyCode = "011000"
                Case "3" : keyCode = "010010"
                Case "4" : keyCode = "010011"
                Case "5" : keyCode = "010001"
                Case "6" : keyCode = "011010"
                Case "7" : keyCode = "011011"
                Case "8" : keyCode = "011001"
                Case "9" : keyCode = "001010"
                Case "0" : keyCode = "001011"
                Case "&" : keyCode = "111101"
                Case "=" : keyCode = "111111"
                Case "(" : keyCode = "111011"
                Case "!" : keyCode = "011101"
                Case ")" : keyCode = "011111"
                Case "*" : keyCode = "100001"
                Case "<" : keyCode = "110001"
                Case "%" : keyCode = "100101"
                Case "?" : keyCode = "100111"
                Case ":" : keyCode = "100011"
                Case "$" : keyCode = "110101"
                Case "]" : keyCode = "110111"
                Case "\" : keyCode = "110011"
                Case "[" : keyCode = "010101"
                Case "/" : keyCode = "001100"
                Case "+" : keyCode = "001101"
                Case "#" : keyCode = "001111"
                Case ">" : keyCode = "001110"
                Case "'" : keyCode = "001000"
                Case "-" : keyCode = "001001"
                Case "@" : keyCode = "000100"
                Case "^" : keyCode = "000110"
                Case "_" : keyCode = "000111"
                Case """" : keyCode = "000010"
                Case "." : keyCode = "000101"
                Case ";" : keyCode = "000011"
                Case "," : keyCode = "000001"
                Case " "
                    'If it is a space, we just add a blank bitmap to our list of images
                    g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None
                    g.Clear(backColor)
                    images.Add(bm)
                    'Skip to the next iteration
                    Continue For
                Case vbCr
                    'If it is a carriage return, we 
                    'set the first pixel to our special carriage return color
                    'Later we will check that first pixel....
                    g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None
                    g.Clear(Color.White)
                    bm.SetPixel(0, 0, crColor)
                    images.Add(bm)
                    'Skip to the next iteration
                    Continue For
                Case vbLf
                    'If it is a line feed, we 
                    'set the first pixel to our special line feed color
                    'Later we will check that first pixel....
                    g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None
                    g.Clear(Color.White)
                    bm.SetPixel(0, 0, lfColor)
                    images.Add(bm)
                    'Skip to the next iteration
                    Continue For
                Case Else
                    'If it is an unknown character, we 
                    'set the first pixel to our special unknown color
                    'Later we will check that first pixel....
                    g.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None
                    g.Clear(Color.White)
                    bm.SetPixel(0, 0, unknownColor)
                    images.Add(bm)
                    'Skip to the next iteration
                    Continue For
            End Select
            'If we made it to this point, we were able to successfully translate the
            'character to a braille keycode/binary string
            'We will now iterate through each bit in that binary string
            'Meaning a total of 6 iterations(one per braille cell)
            For Each s2 As String In keyCode.ToString
                'We increment y(up and down) by the fontsize(cell size)
                'On the first iteration, this will bring y to a value of 0, before we use it
                y += fontSize
                'when the first column of cells is drawn,
                'y will reset, and x will increment
                'We draw in this direction because 
                'of the layout of the braille symbol's cells
                If y > (fontSize * 2) Then
                    y = 0 : x += fontSize
                End If
                'Determine an action based
                'on the current bit's value
                If s2 = "1" Then
                    'We will fill an ellipse if the bit is ON
                    g.FillEllipse(New SolidBrush(foreColor), _
                      New Rectangle(New Point(x + pad, y + pad), _
                      New Size(dotSize, dotSize)))
                Else
                    'We will either draw a hollow circle if the bit is OFF,
                    'or we will no draw anything at all, based on if the drawBlanks option is on or off.
                    If drawBlanks Then
                        g.DrawEllipse(New Pen(New SolidBrush(foreColor)), New Rectangle(New Point(x + pad, y + pad), New Size(dotSize, dotSize)))
                    End If
                End If

            Next
            'Now that we have finished drawing our braille symbol, we will add it to our list of images
            images.Add(bm)
        Next
        'The left and top variables will be a cooridinate system for drawing each of our pre-drawn braille symbols 
        'to our final bitmap
        'again, we start left negative, because left will increment by the width
        'of an image before it accessed, therefore the first increment will bring it to zero
        Dim left As Integer = -images(0).Width
        Dim top As Integer = 0
        'iterate for each image in the list of images
        For Each Image As Bitmap In images
            'get the color of the first pixel in each braille symbol
            'looking for special information about that symbol that we made earlier
            Dim color As Color = Image.GetPixel(0, 0)
            Select Case color
                Case crColor
                    'If the color indicates that the image is a carriage return,
                    'we increment our cooridinate system
                    left = -Image.Width : top += Image.Height
                    'we then skip to the next iteration without drawing the carriage return to
                    'our bitmap
                    Continue For
                Case lfColor
                    'Since usually a carriage return is accomponied by a line feed,
                    'this means we already incremented our cooridinate system,
                    'therefore we do not increment our cooridinate system, and
                    'instead we just skip to the next iteration without drawing the line feed to our final bitmap
                    Continue For
                Case unknownColor
                    'we skip this symbol all together, because we don't know what it is.
                    '    MsgBox("unknown!")
                    Continue For
                Case Else
            End Select
            'if iteration makes it to this step, this means that the symbol is a valid character symbol
            'so we increment our cooridinate system
            left += Image.Width
            If (left + Image.Width) > maxSize.Width Then
                left = 0 : top += Image.Height
            End If
            'we now create a new point object using our cooridinate system
            Dim location As New Point(left, top)
            'now we draw the symbol's image to the final bitmap
            finalG.DrawImage(Image, location)
        Next
        'once all symbols are drawn to the final bitmap, we return the final bitmap
        Return finalBM
    End Function
End Class

using System; 
using System.Collections.Generic; 
using System.ComponentModel; 
using System.Data; 
using System.Drawing; 
using System.Linq; 
using System.Text; 
using System.Threading.Tasks; 
using System.Windows.Forms; 
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D; 
namespace WindowsFormsApplication2 
{ 
    public partial class Form1 : Form 
    { 
        public Form1() 
        { 
            InitializeComponent(); 
        } 
                private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 
        { 
            this.BackgroundImageLayout = ImageLayout.None; 
            this.BackgroundImage = ToBraille("hello World", 10, Color.Black, Color.White, true, this); 
        } 
        private static Bitmap ToBraille(string text, int fontSize, Color backColor, Color foreColor, bool drawBlanks, Control parent) 
        { 
            string[] lines = { 
        }; 
            int dotSize = fontSize - 2; 
            int pad = dotSize / 2; 
            int characterWidth = (fontSize * 2) + (pad * 2); 
            int characterHeight = (fontSize * 3) + (pad * 2); 
            Color crColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255, 0); 
            Color lfColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255, 255); 
            Color unknownColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0, 255); 
            try 
            { 
                lines = text.Split(new string[] { "\r\n", "\n" }, StringSplitOptions.None); 
            } 
            catch 
            { 
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1, 1); 
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm); 
                g.Clear(parent.BackColor); 
                return bm; 
            } 
            Size maxSize = new Size(0, lines.Count() * characterHeight); 
            foreach (string line in lines) 
            { 
                if ((line.Length * characterWidth) > maxSize.Width) 
                    maxSize.Width = (line.Length * characterWidth); 
            } 
            List<Image> images = new List<Image>(); 
            Bitmap finalBM = null; 
            try 
            { 
                finalBM = new Bitmap(maxSize.Width, maxSize.Height); 
            } 
            catch 
            { 
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(1, 1); 
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm); 
                g.Clear(parent.BackColor); 
                return bm; 
            } 
            Graphics finalG = Graphics.FromImage(finalBM); 
            finalG.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None; 
            finalG.Clear(backColor); 
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text)) 
                return finalBM; 
            foreach (char s in text.ToLower()) 
            { 
                string keyCode = string.Empty; 
                Bitmap bm = new Bitmap(characterWidth, characterHeight); 
                Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bm); 
                int x = 0; 
                int y = -fontSize; 
                string s3 = s.ToString(); 
                g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias; 
                g.Clear(backColor); 
                switch (s3) 
                { 
                    case "a": 
                        keyCode = "100000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "b": 
                        keyCode = "110000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "c": 
                        keyCode = "100100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "d": 
                        keyCode = "100110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "e": 
                        keyCode = "100010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "f": 
                        keyCode = "110100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "g": 
                        keyCode = "110110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "h": 
                        keyCode = "110010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "i": 
                        keyCode = "010100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "j": 
                        keyCode = "010110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "k": 
                        keyCode = "101000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "l": 
                        keyCode = "111000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "m": 
                        keyCode = "101100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "n": 
                        keyCode = "101110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "o": 
                        keyCode = "101010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "p": 
                        keyCode = "111100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "q": 
                        keyCode = "111110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "r": 
                        keyCode = "111010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "s": 
                        keyCode = "011100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "t": 
                        keyCode = "011110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "u": 
                        keyCode = "101001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "v": 
                        keyCode = "111001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "w": 
                        keyCode = "010111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "x": 
                        keyCode = "101101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "y": 
                        keyCode = "101111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "z": 
                        keyCode = "101011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "1": 
                        keyCode = "010000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "2": 
                        keyCode = "011000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "3": 
                        keyCode = "010010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "4":  
                        keyCode = "010011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "5": 
                        keyCode = "010001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "6": 
                        keyCode = "011010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "7": 
                        keyCode = "011011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "8": 
                        keyCode = "011001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "9": 
                        keyCode = "001010"; 
                        break; 
                    case "0": 
                        keyCode = "001011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "&": 
                        keyCode = "111101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "=": 
                        keyCode = "111111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "(": 
                        keyCode = "111011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "!": 
                        keyCode = "011101"; 
                        break; 
                    case ")": 
                        keyCode = "011111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "*": 
                        keyCode = "100001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "<": 
                        keyCode = "110001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "%": 
                        keyCode = "100101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "?": 
                        keyCode = "100111"; 
                        break; 
                    case ":": 
                        keyCode = "100011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "$": 
                        keyCode = "110101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "]": 
                        keyCode = "110111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "\\": 
                        keyCode = "110011"; 
                        break; 
                    case "[": 
                        keyCode = "010101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "/": 
                        keyCode = "001100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "+": 
                        keyCode = "001101"; 
                        break; 
                    case "#": 
                        keyCode = "001111"; 
                        break; 
                    case ">": 
                        keyCode = "001110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "'": 
                        keyCode = "001000"; 
                        break; 
                    case "-": 
                        keyCode = "001001"; 
                        break; 
                    case "@": 
                        keyCode = "000100"; 
                        break; 
                    case "^": 
                        keyCode = "000110"; 
                        break; 
                    case "_": 
                        keyCode = "000111"; 
                        break; 
                    case "\"": 
                        keyCode = "000010"; 
                        break; 
                    case ".": 
                        keyCode = "000101"; 
                        break; 
                    case ";": 
                        keyCode = "000011"; 
                        break; 
                    case ",": 
                        keyCode = "000001"; 
                        break; 
                    case " ": 
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None; 
                        g.Clear(backColor); 
                        images.Add(bm); 
                        continue; 
                    //'\r' is carriage return. 
                    //'\n' is new line. 
                    case "\r": 
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None; 
                        g.Clear(Color.White); 
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, crColor); 
                        images.Add(bm); 
                        continue; 
                    case "\n": 
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None; 
                        g.Clear(Color.White); 
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, lfColor); 
                        images.Add(bm); 
                        continue; 
                    default: 
                        g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.None; 
                        g.Clear(Color.White); 
                        bm.SetPixel(0, 0, unknownColor); 
                        images.Add(bm); 
                        continue; 
                } 
                foreach (char s2 in keyCode.ToCharArray()) 
                { 
                    y += fontSize; 
                    if (y > (fontSize * 2)) 
                    { 
                        y = 0; 
                        x += fontSize; 
                    } 
                    if (s2 == "1".ToCharArray()[0]) 
                    { 
                        g.FillEllipse(new SolidBrush(foreColor), new Rectangle(new Point(x + pad, y + pad), new Size(dotSize, dotSize))); 
                    } 
                    else 
                    { 
                        if (drawBlanks) 
                        { 
                            g.DrawEllipse(new Pen(new SolidBrush(foreColor)), new Rectangle(new Point(x + pad, y + pad), new Size(dotSize, dotSize))); 
                        } 
                    } 
 
                } 
                images.Add(bm); 
            } 
            int left = -images[0].Width; 
            int top = 0; 
            foreach (Bitmap Image in images) 
            { 
                Color color = Image.GetPixel(0, 0); 
                if (color == crColor) 
                { 
                    left = -Image.Width; 
                    top += Image.Height; 
                    continue; 
                } 
                else if (color == lfColor) 
                { 
                    continue; 
                } 
                else if (color == unknownColor) 
                { 
                    //    MsgBox("unknown!") 
                    continue; 
                } 
                left += Image.Width; 
                if ((left + Image.Width) > maxSize.Width) 
                { 
                    left = 0; 
                    top += Image.Height; 
                } 
                Point location = new Point(left, top); 
                finalG.DrawImage(Image, location); 
            } 
            return finalBM; 
        } 
    } 
}

Screen Shot of Example Project:

Summary

Braille code can be represented as binary code, and translated to a symbol using GDI

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Summary

At declaration, taking extra consideration into selecting a numeric datatype may be beneficial, and help to reduce unnecessary memory consumption.

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