System vs RTFC, what's that all about?

By inforover, 26 February, 2025

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

When looking at the available braille tables for my iPhone or iPad, I see two seemingly identical options—one labeled “RTFC” and the other “System.”

What’s the difference between RTFC and System?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
When would I use one over the other?

So many questions, yet so few answers on Apple’s support pages.

Options

Comments

By Chris on Monday, March 3, 2025 - 21:50

Apple Accessibility would be best qualified to answer this question, so try sending them an email. Someone told me system uses tables from Duxbury, but I don't know if this is true. Since Apple makes the software, they should be able to answer, unless it's classified as "proprietary information" or some such nonsense. I have no idea what RTFC is. If you find out, let us know.

By TJT 2001 on Monday, March 3, 2025 - 21:50

There are actually three sets of braille tables available for Unified English Braille. They are identified as System, Liblouis and RTFC.

The System tables are created by Duxbury Systems. They are the most accurate for forward- and back-translation for most languages.

The Liblouis tables are open-source. There have been recent efforts to increase the accuracy of their UEB tables, but the System tables are still slightly more accurate.

The RTFC tables are created by a German company. They apparently provide quite good support for German, but the quality of their UEB tables are lacking compared to the System and Liblouis tables.

VoiceOver provides braille tables from these and other organisations because each organisation creates braille tables for languages not supported by others.

I encourage you to experiment with the tables available, but I think you'll be most satisfied with the System tables.

By Bingo Little on Monday, March 3, 2025 - 21:50

Subject line says it all. Liblouis is all very well but you'll get some inaccurate translations from time to time. RTFC's a non-starter for UEB - you really will get weird translations with that one. The system table, on the other hand, is very good indeed. I always use it. I know more and more software is going down the Liblouis route but dear old duxbury's the gold standard for me. bingo won't settle for less.