Any Luck creating Tactile Graphics?

APH Products Monarch
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Hello!
I have been trying to figure out how to create my own graphics both in Word and also in TactileView. I have not had any luck. In the pilot training papers it states that you can use Tactile View. That is what I am most familiar with.

  1. I was wondering if anyone has had luck with this and is working on writing up a tutorial.
  2. Once you have created the graphic are you moving it to the Monarch via flash drive?
  3. I missed out in the training when they said the teacher would be able to “draw” on their computer and so that the student could them have the the tactile graphic. Do you have to connect the computer via the scrppy or do you just put the Monarch into a terminal mode (I haven’t seen a terminal mode) or how is this done? If it needs to be in terminal mode, does the computer have to have a screen reading software? I am a braillist so my computer has the TactileView and Word but does not have a screen reading software.
    Thanks for your feedback!
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Take a look at this post.

Here are some files to get you started.

1 Like
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My project is to create some tactile graphics that work clearly within the Monarch’s screen (for science). I thought that I had heard I could do it within TSS, but those do not work. So, I am still working on this as well. I will tell you, however, that to try and view them on the Monarch after creating them on my laptop, I am using a flash drive.

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I think you can use TSS and safe as a PDF to make them work. That’s what I was planning to do.

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Unfortunately, TSS doesn’t work for the Monarch because the files are only print-ready and don’t have data that saves in a PDF or other picture-document format. MS Word works very well; you can also try TactileView, Canva, PowerPoint, Paint, and Firebird Suite. We are still experimenting to find the best formats.

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  1. I have had luck with this and I am writing a tutorial :grinning: I will be happy to take your suggestions for things to include.
  2. Once you have created your files, are you then saving them as PDFs, transferring them to the Monarch via USB drive, and opening them there?
  3. We are still experimenting with this, but “drawing” on the computer means using the computer to create the graphic, not the Monarch (hopefully one day that will be a possibility). In other words, if you have a touch-screen computer or other device, you may be able to draw a graphic by hand using a 3-point line or greater, then save it as a PDF file on a USB drive and open it for viewing on the Monarch. I am interested to know if you try this, whether it is successful for you, and if it doesn’t, to work with you and find a way for it to succeed.

Would you send me the files that you are trying now to view on the Monarch? I would like to take a look. You can post them here or you can email them to jwheeler@aph.org - both the originals and the PDFs would be awesome if you wouldn’t mind.

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I’ve been using Adobe Illustrator to create tactile graphics for several years. I created this file and saved as a pdf to test out on the Monarch. It’s a middle school floor map. Some of the lines display a little jagged and a couple are partially missing on the Monarch even though they look straight on the pdf, I’m working on figuring this out. The braille looks good.
LPMS map monarch.pdf (181.8 KB)

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This looks great! Which braille font did you use to get it to display without the outline of the blank dots in a cell?

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Thank you! This should help. I’m sure I’ll be back with questions.

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Thanks for this!

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Sorry it took long to reply, I use Braille 29 font with Illustrator.

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I use Inkscape which is a free graphic editor that you can download. I make my graphic and then save it as a .pdf. I then move it to the Monarch via a flash drive.