add pef

_posts/2024-05-10-researching-file-formats-37-portable-embosser-format.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Researching file formats 37: Portable Embosser Format"
+date: 2024-05-10 09:00:00 -0500
+tags: [file formats, fdds]
+---
+
+This blog post is part of a series on file formats research. See [this introduction post](https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/blog/2023/08/04/researching-file-formats-library-of-congress-sustainability-of-digital-formats/) for more information.
+
+Update: The official format definition is now online here: [Portable Embosser Format](https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000624.shtml). [Comments welcome](https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/contact_format.shtml) directly to the Library of Congress.
+
+The Portable Embosser Format (PEF) is a document type that represents braille pages in digital form, "accurately and unambiguously; regardless of language, location, embosser settings, braille code and computer environment" ([source]((https://braillespecs.github.io/pef/pef-specification.html))).
+
+Not a lot of info online about this one. It's based on XML and Unicode. There's a [public draft](https://braillespecs.github.io/pef/pef-specification.html) from 2011. There's also several dead or noted-as-unmaintained websites. It was initially developed by the Swedish Library for the Blind and so there's a good bit of usage in Scandinavia, but seems like it never got a lot of uptake in the States.
+
+The challenge of this format was that the online information was so sparse -- you can check out the FDD above to see how I fared when juggling limited information and uptake!