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The E-mail Interface to RoboBraille

RoboBraille features a comprehensive e-mail based interface with functionality identical to that of the web interface. The e-mail interface can be used for a variety of purposes, including:

  • Using RoboBraille on platforms that do not provide access to the file system, e.g., iOS-based devices.
  • As an efficient alternative to the web-based interface.
  • As an alternative for users who find the web-based interface complicated.
  • Integrating RoboBraille with other systems, such as digital libraries, learning management systems, multi-functional devices, etc.

The e-mail interface to RoboBraille is based on a set of dedicated e-mail accounts for various tasks. To use the e-mail interface, users forward documents to these e-mail accounts. As an example, to convert a PDF document to an MP3 audio file using an American English speech synthesizer, the document is forwarded to american@robobraille.org. Conversion options are specified in the subject field of the e-mail. As an example, to generate an MP3 audio file at the fastest speech rate, write +++ in the subject field of the e-mail.

Below you can click on the topic relevant to you, and quickly be navigated to that section on the page.

Files and File Names

RoboBraille only supports one file attachment per e-mail request. Users should be aware that images in mail signatures are usually converted to file attachments. In such cases, a request to RoboBraille may be rejected as the e-mail will appear to have more than one file attachment. 

The names of file attachments are encoded differently by different mail systems. To ensure that RoboBraille is capable of recognising file names, accented characters and other special characters beyond the ASCII character set should be avoided. 

Unlike the web interface, documents types are not filtered when using the e-mail interface. As a consequence, it is the responsibility of the user to forward only supported document types to particular e-mail accounts. Forwarding unsupported document types will result in error messages.

Usage Statistics

Activities reported in the RoboBraille usage statistics are captured based on (1) the site ID of the web form used to submit the request or (2) the e-mail domain of the submitted request. Since users of the e-mail interface will not include a site ID, only e-mails from registered e-main domains will be included in usage statistics. As an example, if a user at XYZ University (registered e-mail domain xyz.edu) submits requests via the e-mail interface from her e-mail account abc@xyz.edu, it will be included in the usage statistics. If the user submits requests via the e-mail interface from her e-mail account abc@gmail.com, it will not be included in the usage statistics.

MP3 Audio Services

E-mail Accounts

E-mail account Meaning
american American English
arabic Arabic
arabicbilingual Arabic/English Bilingual
britspeech British English
bulgarian Bulgarian
cantoneseChinese, Cantonese
mandarinChinese, Mandarin
taiwaneseChinese, Taiwanese
saraDanish, female
anneDanish, female
carstenDanish, male, distinct pronunciation
vDutch, female
mDutch, male
finnish Finnish
parlefrancais French
deutsch German
grspeech Greek
greenlandic Greenlandic
hungarian_femaleHungarian, female
hungarian_maleHungarian, male
icelandic_femaleIcelandic, female
icelandic_maleIcelandic, male
audio Italian
japanese Japanese
korean Korean
reginaLithuanian, female, older
aisteLithuanian, female, younger
vladasLithuanian, male, older
edvardasLithuanian, male, younger
norwegian Norwegian
mova Polish
textoparavoz Portuguese
romanian Romanian
russian Russian
preberi Slovenian
castellanoSpanish, Castilian
leemeSpanish, Latin American
swedish Swedish
czech_zuzanaCzech, female
czech_ivaCzech, female
slovak_lauraSlovak, female
slovak_melanieSlovak, male
welsh_femaleWelsh, female
welsh_maleWelsh, male

Options

The following options are available.

Option

Meaning

+

Fast rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

++

Faster rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

+++

Fastest rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

-

Slow rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

--

Slower rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

---

Slowest rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice.

All other contents in the subject field, including an empty subject field, will set the speech rate at the default rate of the voice.

Supported Document Types

The following file types can be converted into MP3 audio files: .TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML and .RTF.

Notes

All files are converted to plain text files prior to conversion into MP3. All formatting information and semantic mark-up are consequently removed. Prior to conversion into MP3, all paragraphs are normalised, potentially adding a period (.) at the end of all lines with hard line breaks to ensure proper pausing.

DAISY Audio Services

E-mail Accounts

E-mail account Meaning
daisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English.
danskdaisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Danish.
deutschdaisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in German.
englishdaisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English.
nldaisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Dutch.
pldaisy DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Polish.
newdaisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English.
bulgarian_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Bulgarian.
hungarian_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Hungarian.
romanian_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Romanian.
czech_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Czech.
slovak_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Slovak.
welsh_daisy DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Welsh.
daisymath DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English.

Options

There are no options available for the DAISY Audio Services.

Supported Document Types

The following file types are supported by the daisy, danskdaisy, deutschdaisy, englishdaisy, nldaisy and pldaisy accounts:
.DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML 

The following file types are supported by the newdaisy, bulgarian_daisy, hungarian_daisy and romanian_daisy accounts:
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML 

The following file type is supported by the daisymath account:
.DOCX

Notes

Source documents to be converted by the daisy, danskdaisy, deutschdaisy, englishdaisy, nldaisy and pldaisy accounts must be well-formed, reflecting the semantic structure of the documents. The first element in the document must be a heading at level 1, and the author and title of the document must be set in the meta data of the document.

.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, and .RTF files are converted to .DOCX format prior to conversion by the newdaisy, bulgarian_daisy, hungarian_daisy and romanian_daisy accounts. XML files are not converted but assumed to be in Word 2003 XML format. Missing meta data is added in the conversion process.

Mathematical contents to be converted by the daisymath account must be composed using the MathType plug-in to Word from Design Science.

Accessibility Services

E-mail Accounts

E-mail account Meaning
convert General accessibility conversion with user reply in English.
convert_alt PDF accessibility conversion with user reply in English. See options below for PDF files regarding image over text/text over image.
converteer General accessibility conversion with user reply in Dutch.
converter General accessibility conversion with user reply in Portuguese.
converti General accessibility conversion with user reply in Italian.
convierteme General accessibility conversion with user reply in Spanish.
konverter General accessibility conversion with user reply in Danish.
konvertiere General accessibility conversion with user reply in German.
konwersja General accessibility conversion with user reply in Polish.
potconvert General accessibility conversion with user reply in Greek.
convertbg General accessibility conversion with user reply in Bulgarian.
converthu General accessibility conversion with user reply in Hungarian.
convertro General accessibility conversion with user reply in Romanian.
convertcz General accessibility conversion with user reply in Czech.
convertsk General accessibility conversion with user reply in Slovak.
convertcy General accessibility conversion with user reply in Welsh.
o2pdf Office-to-PDF conversion with user reply in English
dos2win MS-DOS text to Windows text converter.
epub2txt Converts an EPUB e-book to plain text user reply in English.
epub2rtf Converts an EPUB e-book to RTF user reply in English.

Options

The following options are available for accounts (except o2pdf and dos2win):

Option Meaning
doc Word document in DOC format.
docx Word document in DOCX format.
rtf Rich Text File format.
pdf

Tagged PDF. By default, tagged PDF files are returned with the recognised text in a layer on top of the original image. To have the original image placed on top of the recognised text, use the convert_alt email account instead.

pdf – Note handouts with slides as images The original slide is included as an image with the handout notes as accessible text.
xls Excel spreadsheet in XLS format.
xlsx Excel spreadsheet in XLSX format.
csv Comma separated file.
txt Windows text file.
htm HTML file.

Supported Document Types

.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX and .DJV, files can be converted into .DOC., .DOCX, .RTF, .PDF (tagged), .XLS, .XLSX, .CSV, .TXT, .HTM, .EPUB and .MOBI files.

PowerPoint presentations (.PPT, .PPTX) can be converted into .RTF (outline), .HTM and PDF (tagged) files. PowerPoint presentations with handout notes can be converted into PDF (tagged).

Notes

The service is unable to convert protected PDF and Word documents. Such protections must be removed prior to conversion.

When converting from a document format with semantic information to another format that supports semantic information, accessibility features in the source documents are generally retained.

By default, the service returns PDF documents with the recognised text on top of the original image. In some situations, it may produce better visual results if the original image is placed on top of the recognised text. This functionality can be selected as an option (see above). The quality of the text recognition remain the same.

E-book Services

E-mail Accounts

E-mail account Meaning
epub EPUB with user reply in English.
epub_de EPUB with user reply in German.
epubbg EPUB with user reply in Bulgarian.
edpubda EPUB with user reply in Danish.
epubhu EPUB with user reply in Hungarian.
epubro EPUB with user reply in Romanian.
epubcs EPUB with user reply in Czech.
epubsk EPUB with user reply in Slovak.
epubcy EPUB with user reply in Welsh.
mobi MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in English.
mobi_de MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in German.
mobida MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Danish.
mobibg MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Bulgarian.
mobihu MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Hungarian.
mobiro MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Romanian.
mobics MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Czech.
mobisk MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Slovak.
mobicy MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Welsh.
epub3 EPUB3 with user reply in English.
epubwmo

EPUB3 with media overlay, user reply in English.

epub2txt

Converts an EPUB e-book to plain text, user reply in English.

epub2rtf

Converts an EPUB e-book to RTF, user reply in English.

Options

The following options are available for all accounts except epub3 and epubwmo:
Option Meaning
large Move document base line to 16pt.
xlarge Move document base line to 24pt.
huge Move document base line to 40pt.

Supported Document Types

The following file types can be converted into EPUB and MOBI Pocket:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML, .RTF, .LIT, .EPUB and .MOBI

The following file type cam be converted into EPUB3:
.DOCX

The following file types can be converted into EPUB3 with media overlay:
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML

Braille Services

E-mail Accounts

The following accounts are available for Braille transcription:
E-mail account Meaning

ueb_grade1

Unified English Braille Grade 1, 6-dot

ueb_grade2

Unified English Braille Grade 2, 6-dot

banagrade1

American English Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

banagrade2

American English Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot.

820en British English decontractor.
fulltext6

British English Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

fulltext8

British English Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot.

6dot

British English Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot.

8dot

British English Grade 2 Braille ,8-dot.

bulgarian_bralle

Bulgarian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot

820da Danish decontractor.
fuldskrift6

Danish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

fuldskrift8

Danish Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot.

lille6

Danish Grade 2 Braille (reduced), 6-dot.

lille8

Danish Grade 2 Braille (reduced), 8-dot.

sekspunkt

Danish Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot.

ottepunkt

Danish Grade 2 Braille, 8-dot.

braille

French Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

vollschrift

German Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

vollschrift8

German Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot.

kurzschrift

German Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot.

kurzschrift8

German Grade 2 Braille, 8-dot.

hungarian_braille

Hungarian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot

icebraille6

Icelandic Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

icebraille8

Icelandic Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot.

brailleseipunti

Italian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

fullskrift

Norwegian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

kortskrift1

Norwegian Grade 2 Braille (level 1), 6-dot.

kortskrift2

Norwegian Grade 2 Braille (level 2), 6-dot.

brajl

Polish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

textoparabraille

Portuguese Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

romanian_braille

Romanian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot

brailleintegral

Spanish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

czech_braille

Czech Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

slovak_braille

Slovak Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot.

The following accounts are available for file export (character set conversion):
E-mail account Meaning
eksport Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Danish.
exporteer Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Dutch.
export Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in English.
potexport Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in English (for Greek).
eksportiere Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in German.
esporta Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Italian.
zmienbrl Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Polish.
exportar Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Portuguese
The following accounts are available for file partitioning:
E-mail account Meaning
filpart Partition file with user response in Danish.
verdeel Partition file with user response in Dutch.
potpartition Partition file with user response in English (for Greek).
filepart Partition file with user response in English.
dateiaufteilen Partition file with user response in German.
suddividifile Partition file with user response in Italian.
partirficheiro Partition file with user response in Portuguese.

Options

The following options are available for the Braille transcription and/or export accounts:
Option Meaning
logtext5m Log-Text Braille notetaker with old character set.
logtext Log-Text Braille notetaker with old character set.
braillelite Braille Lite with US character set.
braille-lite Braille Lite with US character set.
nacb North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers.
computerbraille North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers.
uscomputerbraille2 North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers.
us437 IBM code page 437.
germanascii German computer ASCII.
german_ascii German computer ASCII.
ibm850 IBM code page 850.
eurobraille EuroBraille.
italianjaws Italian JAWS.
italian_jaws Italian JAWS.
braillenote Braillenote note taker.
braille-note Braillenote note taker.
dbs InterpointElekul at the Danish Association of the Blind.
dbs_elekul InterpointElekul at the Danish Association of the Blind.
ibos_elekul6 InterpointElekul at the Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted
Unicode Unicode Braille (in the 2800-28FF range).
pefXXYYpd Portable Embosser Format. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination. d specifies duplex embossing. p and d are optional.
Canute360p Produces a PEF file formatted for the Canute multi-line Braille device. p specifies pagination and is optional.
nacbXXYYp Produces a formatted Braille document in North American Computer Braille. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional.
UnicodeXXYYp Produces a formatted Braille document in Unicode. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional.
formatXXYYp Formats an existing Braille document in OctoBraille format. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional.
Not all export filters are available for all language options. The following options are available for the file partition accounts:
Option Meaning
File size

The maximum size of each part in bytes. As an example, specifying 50,000 will divide the source document into parts of up to 50000 bytes.

Supported Document Types

The following file formats are supported by the Braille transcription accounts:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML and .RTF

The following file formats are supported by the export accounts:
.TXT

The following file formats are supported by the file partition accounts:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, and .RTF