Several manufacturers of braille printers sell computer programs that permit a user to print out graphic images. These proprietary programs are not discussed here. The owner or potential purchaser of a braille printer should contact the dealer or manufacturer for information about such programs. KanSys supplies an inexpensive program, LowRez, that can print graphics files from a PC computer to many braille printers.
There are a few programs available that allow a user to print graphs of functions on braille printers. These programs may be used by blind people and are likely to be useful in advanced math and science. One such program is Graph-it sold by Blazie Engineering. This program runs on their popular Braille Lite note-taker and prints to most popular braille printers. They also sell a PC version.
Sighted computer users can design graphics on almost any computer graphics program and can add Braille through the use of Braille Font packages available from Duxbury, Inc. Prof. Marie Knowlton[6], University of Minnesota, has modified a version of the MacPaint program for the Macintosh to include braille fonts and useful tools for making graphics for blind people. Images made with any of these programs may be transferred to swell paper from which tactile pictures are obtained, as described above.
A recently-introduced program called AudioCAD allows both sighted and blind computer users to design images and print them on swell paper or on braille printers. AudioCAD includes several additional features that are described below in a section on including hidden information in computer files.