What is PEF?
The Portable Embosser Format (PEF) is an award winning data format for representing braille books, accurately and unambiguously; regardless of language, location, embosser settings, braille code and computer environment. It can be used for braille embossing and archiving anywhere in the world, no matter where nor how it was produced.
PEF builds on XML, Unicode and Dublin Core. Three well known, widely used and reliable technologies.
PEF Features
PEF brings a number of things to braille production:
- Metadata. A PEF file provides information about its contents.
- A braille publishing standard. Since the PEF file format is defined in a publicly available standard, there is never any doubt about how to interpret or use the contents of a PEF file.
- A proper file format for braille. Having a proper file format means, among other things, that file integrity can be tested to detect errors.
- World wide file sharing. Because PEF is specified and the braille representation unambiguous, it can be shared with anyone in the world. For example, braille music is very expensive to produce, but the braille code used in musical notation is the same all over the world. With PEF, this material can be shared in electronic form with anyone.
- Archive safety. Because PEF is specified and the braille representation unambiguous, PEF documents can be safely archived for the future.
- Economy. Publishing and republishing of braille can be achieved quickly and easily because files can be shared across the world, without worrying about embosser settings. Users can become publishers and providers can share resources and reduce costs.