Braille vs i-mode Emoji
点字 / iモード絵文字
Both sit in Symbol Systems, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Braille
A tactile writing system Louis Braille designed at fifteen, giving every letter a two-by-three cell of dots. Sizing that cell to a single fingertip is a rare case of ergonomics and typography arriving at the same answer.
i-mode Emoji
One hundred and seventy six pictographs that tell faces, weather and things apart using only the placement of dots on a twelve by twelve grid. Shigetaka Kurita drew them for NTT DOCOMO's i-mode, and MoMA holds the original set.
| Braille | i-mode Emoji | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1824– | 1998-1999 |
| Family | Symbol Systems | Symbol Systems |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | The 2x3 dot cell / Dimensions fit to the fingertip / Left-to-right tactile reading / The materiality of embossing | Figures fitted to a twelve by twelve grid / Shapes made of mass rather than of line / Set inline at the size of a letter / Faces, weather and symbols at one coarseness |
| Best used for | Adding touch readable text beside signage and wayfinding panels · Giving print or packaging an identifier that does not rely on sight | Designing signs that must read at the size of a letter as one set on a coarse grid · Telling state by a figure instead of a word where only a few dots can be lit |
| Type | Dot diameter and spacing follow the standard, never adjusted for looks | Built from masses of dots rather than lines, sized to sit inline at the height of the text |
| Composition | Set below or beside the print, with room for a finger to travel | The coarse grid fixed first, every figure told apart inside that one cell |
| Material | Materials that hold dot height, no coating that rounds the domes | Faces, weather and things held at one coarseness, dots reduced to the limit where they still read apart |
| Caution | Shrinking or tightening the dots to tidy the look drops them below the resolution of a fingertip, and nobody can read them. | Chasing fine detail inside the grid clogs the dots, and at the size of the text the figure no longer says what it is. |