Index Braille embossers are now compatible with trendy braille display. After popular customer demand for compatibility between the two world leading blind products, Index Braille embossers and HIMS notetakers, Index Braille has now developed a Windows CE driver to support such compatibility for the V4 embosser line.
Simply download the Index Windows CE driver, connect the HIMS notetaker to the Index embosser via USB connection and you may begin embossing notes from your notetaker; it's that easy!
Additional Printer Drivers
You may also use your Index embosser with nearly all prominent operating systems, even the latest Windows 8 and Mac supported computers all free of charge!
Index Braille currently also has printer drivers supporting modern Windows operating systems such as Windows 7, Windows 8, XP and Vista, as well as, MAC OS X printer drivers for Apple computers.
How to:
All Index Braille embossers require a printer driver for proper functioning as any printer may require. Index Braille printer drivers are available for Windows and Mac OS X free of charge and downloadable from the Index Braille website.
Please install the Index Braille printer driver before connecting the embosser to the computer by following the printer driver installation wizard.
Operating systemPrinter Driver
Windows XP, Vista, 7 , 8 - 32 Bit Index Driver 7 (32bit)
Index Braille has been working on the development of the new Acoustic Hoods for Index Braille embossers. The design is created and inspired by Skapa Design Agency, the same industrial designers as the 5x internationally renowned design winner, Index Braille Box.
We at Index wanted to give our social media follows the first opportunity for a sneak peek of the new beautifully crafted Acoustic Hoods V4 for the Basic-D and Everest-D Index braille embossers.
Both of the Acoustic Hoods will be completely mounted and ready-to-use. NEW to the Acoustic Hoods will be smaller, lower noise volumes offering over a 90% noise reduction of braille printing and a unique paper cutting mechanism all for a great low price.
The paper cutting mechanism is a completely new feature to the acoustic hood / cabinet market; no competitive product offers this as of today. Simply slide the handle with attached blade to cut the paper where desired. Easy as that.
Other exciting features include:
stable paper feeding and collecting
efficient cooling system
smaller in dimension and weight
sleek design
lower noise levels
affordable price
The Index Braille Acoustic Hoods V4, for Everest-D and Basic-D are a cost effective improvement for environments in which low noise is appreciated; for example schools, government agencies, offices, hospitals and more.
Watch for our release date and get your orders in early. Contact us and inquire your order today!
Just around the corner the Index Braille exhibition schedule is jam packed with exciting trade shows and conferences surfacing the entire globe. With over 20 exhibitions scheduled, you are sure to see Index Braille embossers in your region sometime soon.
For a list of both Index factory events and distributor events worldwide you may visit the Index Braille Events Page.
Index will include a full demonstration of the V4 embosser line; Basic-D, Everest-D and Braille Box. Also being shown is the combination of Index Braille embossers and the Tactile View Design Software to create high resolution tactile graphs and diagrams!!
Index Braille has not always been a success from the start. Featured in the Technology Companies (Teknikföretagen) magazine is the article and interview; "Points of Light in the Darkness," an article and journey of the company Index Braille and for owner and CEO, Björn Löfstedt since it's start in the early 1980s.
His mother became blind when he was just nine years old, for Björn Löfstedt this was a life shocker and took a number of years to come over. Behind such a tragedy became inspiration. Today his company, Index Braille, is close to having 70 percent of the world market for braille embossers, but to have market shares is not the first incentive, his dream is to offer a larger number of visually impaired individuals the opportunity to read and write.
There is no one else in the world that can produce equally equip braille printers for a better price, but the road there has been long and challenging.
In the beginning the problem was to simply get a product that worked. This is something that took longer time and devoured more money than planned. A few years after the company started, in the beginning of the 1980s, bankruptcy was close by, to survive the company needed to develop and sell assorted blindness products.
Come the beginning of the 1990s, Index was able to present its first modern printer, the Everest. Everest was unique when launched: sheet fed, double sided braille embossing, speech interface, modern design and available for a lower price than competitors. Today this braille printer is still one of Index's main products. By the end of the 90s the companies economy looked upward, the braille printers had come out into the market and sales figures were decent. Today Index concentrates only on the manufacturing of Index Braille printers in which have climbed to world leaders and inside of the fourth generation embosser line.
For Mr. Löfstedt it is important to be able to be proud of what he is doing. This overall encouragement is to do good things for the visually impaired and do something to affect their lives positively. His goal is to increase literacy among the blind community.
Only 20 percent of all visually impaired individuals in Western Europe and the USA can read, corresponding numbers for sighted persons is 97 percent.
The Visually Impaired Foundation here in Sweden states on their website that the right to learn braille is not guaranteed within Swedish law, sadly this is reflected in a number of countries world wide. It is therefore likely that any one individual who may loose their vision, risks becoming illiterate.
Löfstedt's views are that there is no difference between visually impaired and sighted persons needs in mainstream society. Everyone must be able to read and write, otherwise it is difficult to move forward, gain independence and find a job. It would be as if in ordinary schools they would state that we no longer need to read and write, we can watch TV and videos instead. Simply said, literacy is important, no matter where the digital era takes us.
It is the living society's failure that everyone is unable to learn to read and write. To read and write is the basis of prosperity, on both a personal level and for a society as a whole.
Index Braille exports to over 70 countries every year world wide. Currently, the largest market is South America. In South America, braille is like gold. If you have braille this shows that your region is progressive and accomplished.
Braille Box, Index Braille's largest and most advanced braille embosser has won a number of world renowned design awards. Never in history has a product with in the blindness industry won such attractive awards, so this is exciting, says Löfstedt. "For me design and construction are the same thing; stylish design, a product that is sensible to use and includes a valuable user interface."
A single character includes up to 6 or 8 elevated dots within a braille cell. By combining the points (dots) in difference sequences, one can build 63 different characters, and by combining these characters one may build on diversity from there. At Index, the embosser heads include 13 solenoids (hammers), in which 7 negatively charged and 6 are positively. Those in which are negative emboss on one side of the paper, meanwhile the positive solenoids emboss on the other side of the page.
With consideration of Index Braille's placement in the world market, foreign visitors often are surprised by the size of the company. In Gammelstad, Sweden, just outside of Luleå only 12 people steer this world leader. In the beginning of the 1980s whenever a printer worked, celebration was in order in which included cake. Today Index manufactures 40-50 braille embossers daily, and cake only comes after we have managed to produce more than over 1300 Basic-D V4 embossers to Brazil in just a few short months.
