I have some PDFs from animal watch, and I would love to have them display on the monarch. The monarch doesn’t seem to be able to pick up the braille text from the labels, ect. Any suggestions on how to make this monarch- friendly? The link for reference: https://awvis.aphtech.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/California-Condor-UEB-Graphics.pdf
Hello! The Monarch tries to display the braille when I apply the “more detail” filter a few times (dots 46 + space), but the result isn’t legible. This can happen when the Monarch interprets braille as pixels in an image, rather than embedded text. It probably has to do with how the PDF was originally saved.
The best way to fix this is to open the file in a program where the text can be edited, then save the file as a PDF again. This worked for me when I used CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator. Alternatively: convert the file to a Word document in Adobe Acrobat, open it in Word, and save it as a PDF from there.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for your reply! Will the image still come up if it’s saved as a word doc?
With a Word doc, the Monarch will display the text in the word processor, but it will not open a graphic. You’ll need to open Word and go to File → Save As, then select “PDF” from the drop-down menu of file types. A PDF is the only file type I know of that will accurately display images and braille on the tactile viewer. You may find the “Draw With Word for the Monarch” file from this post helpful.
Wonderful! I’m so excited to try this!!
Still didn’t get it. When I open it to edit the text in Adobe, what shoudl I be changing the text to? Right now it says the font is swell braille… is that what needs to be changed?
The documents posted in the Guidance for Creating Good Monarch Graphics professional community will help you in troubleshooting. Braille 29 is the recommended font for creating tactile graphics for the Monarch. If you have not already checked out the Monarch Snapshot: Modifying Levels of Detail in Tactile Viewer video on the APH YouTube channel, that might also help with troubleshooting.
I hope these resources help.
Stephanie
Admittedly, this is hard to do in Adobe or Word because they are not very flexible programs for drawing and don’t always do well with imported files. Braille29, 29-point, is the right font to use for the Monarch, but it is bigger than swell braille, and when you try to change the fonts in Adobe or Word, the graphic elements get pushed around and it is not easy to bring them back correctly. If you have many labels, and some of them are large, as happens in these pictures, it is nearly impossible. The graphic elements (like shapes or lines) don’t always transfer well to the Monarch either, and often have to be adjusted.
I made these graphics Monarch-ready for you - I hope that you and your students will enjoy looking at them there. You are welcome to send me files like this that you have trouble with and I will be glad to adjust them for you.
jwheeler@aph.org
California-Condor-UEB-Graphics for Monarch.pdf (433.3 KB)