Pharmaceutical Artwork Braille –
from Pharma Design

Pharmaceutical artworks & packaging design –
Specialists in providing pharmaceutical packaging artworks for the pharmaceutical sector

Pharmaceutical artwork outsourcing

Braille requirements for pharmaceutical labelling

From 30 October 2005 new requirements for Braille to appear on the labelling and in the patient information leaflet of all medicines were introduced under Article 56(a) of Council Directive 2001/83/EC (as amended).

Implementation of Braille in pharmaceutical artwork files

As part of our quality assurance at Pharma Design, we implement the application of Braille to recommended criteria and legislations:
The Braille is applied to a separate layer in the artwork file. The specific colour used to represent the Braille text is not used in any other place in the document. The Braille message is also reproduced in regular type outside the line of the embossing die for visual verification (as demonstrated in the above diagram).

The Braille fonts we use comply with the Marburg Medium specification, which has been recommended by the European Commission for use on pharmaceutical packages and labels. The Marburg Medium font specification means the fonts are set to a font size of 10mm and the leading (line spacing) is also set to 10mm. This is the absolute required size at 100% and cannot be scaled due to the Braille letter (size of Braille cell) standard.

External Links and Resources

• European Commission - Article 56(a) of Council Directive 2001/83/EC (as amended) [external PDF]
• RNIB - Pharmaceutical Braille Help [external link]
• MHRA - Braille on labelling and in patient information leaflet of all medicines [external PDF]
• ECMA - Braille on Folding Cartons [external link]
• European Blind Union - Pharmaceutical labelling [external link]
• Tiresias - Braille Labelling of Medicines [external link]

If you have any further questions regarding the application of Braille or if you are interested in updating your artworks to include Braille, please do not hesitate to contact us today on:
+44 (0)2392 873 400 or email us and find out how we can help.