Korea's Braille Guideline: Voluntary, but Settled at the Container

What is the signal?

On 20 October 2026 the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety issued a press release titled "MFDS explains detailed methods for braille and other markings on cosmetics" and distributed its guideline on braille labelling for cosmetics. The issuing office is the Cosmetics Policy Division. According to trade outlet Cosin, the guideline was prepared to encourage braille and audio and sign-language video conversion code markings on cosmetic containers or packaging, and to standardise how they are shown. It builds on a rule, effective 1 July 2025, that allows braille or an audio and sign-language video conversion code to be shown alongside the statutory information printed on a container or package. A draft went through a comment period that closed on 31 August.

The content falls into roughly three groups: general matters such as scope and applicability; the basic principles, specifications, methods, placement, content and proofreading of braille marking; and matters concerning the audio and sign-language video conversion code. One premise matters above all. According to the draft content reported by Cosmorning, every cosmetic may carry braille or a conversion code, so the marking is voluntary in principle. The same coverage noted criticism that although existing law already permits braille alongside the product name, it remains optional in practice. In other words, this document does not create a new obligation; it standardises how to do it legibly when you choose to.

Industry reaction mixes welcome with difficulty. The reaction carried in Cosin's coverage was that cosmetic container sizes vary so widely that actual application is hard. One comment noted that household goods are large enough to have the space, while cosmetics still have to find some way to do it, and that e-label routes therefore have to be used actively. Policy is moving the same way: the MFDS is pursuing changes to the items printed on cosmetic containers and packaging and the standardisation of online provision based on its e-label pilot, with a model in which only key items are printed in large type and detailed product information is reached by QR code. Separately, in the National Assembly, lawmaker Kim Ye-ji has sponsored a bill that would make braille and audio and sign-language codes mandatory on cosmetic containers.

A note on the limits of this reading. This article was verified through searches narrowed to each source's official domain in an environment where direct page fetching is blocked. We did not open the attachments to the MFDS press release, so the numeric dot specifications and the detailed scope of application have to be confirmed against the original guideline. The method, placement and proofreading points below come from trade coverage on the day of release, and because the guideline is advisory in nature it should not be read as a legal obligation. Whether the mandatory-marking bill has passed is also unconfirmed. We could not confirm whether the rule allowing small-volume cosmetics to omit some printed items also applies to braille, so a brief built around small containers should raise that question first.

1. What goes into braille is the product name

The first misunderstanding is about what has to be in braille. Read it as the full ingredient list or the expiry date and it fits on no container at all. According to the draft content reported by Cosmorning, the item marked in braille on a cosmetic is the product name. Where space is short, only part of the product name may be shown. Beyond that, the phrase for functional cosmetics and the directions for use may be shown minimally.

That allowance comes with a condition: products for different areas of the body, such as a shampoo and a body wash, must remain distinguishable. In practice that single line turns into a naming rule. For a brand releasing several items in one line, a structure where product names are identical at the front and diverge only at the end will not be distinguishable once shortened into braille. Conversely, if the body area or the format sits near the front of the name, a few characters are enough to tell items apart.

So this item is settled at naming, a stage earlier than package design. For a line that will carry braille, write down when fixing the names how many leading characters have to remain for an item to be distinguishable from its siblings. Raise that question for the first time at the design-concept stage and you are reversing an already-approved product name to fit braille.

It is also worth settling the temptation to add more. Being allowed to include directions for use does not create the space for them. Braille area grows linearly with character count, and the principal display panel is already occupied by the logo and the volume statement. Fix the priority order as product name, then the functional-cosmetic phrase, then directions for use, and cut where the area runs out.

• Whether the braille content was limited to the product name
• Whether a shortened product name still differs from others in the line
• Whether the body area or format sits near the front of the name
• Whether the braille content priority was fixed before design concepts

2. Moulding or a sticker is decided by the container material

There is more than one way to apply braille. According to Cosin, the guideline recommends moulding, embossing, stickers or braille tags, applied per minimum sales unit. Punched relief braille is preferred, while plastic tubes, thin film pouches and film casings are directed toward stickers, braille tags or clear embossing.

Translate that into a schedule and a fork appears. Moulding the braille means engraving it into the container tooling, and tooling is grouped by container rather than by product. Choose moulding and every product name sharing that container has to be final before the mould is cut. A sticker or braille tag attaches during labelling, so the naming deadline can move later, but one more label means added unit cost and an added application step.

Material also limits method. Put punched relief into a thin film pouch or a tube that flexes and the dot height may not survive filling, or it may affect the seal. That is the natural way to read why the guideline points this material group toward stickers, braille tags and clear embossing. Ask for "which braille methods are possible on this material" as a line item when you request container proposals and you will not have to ask again later.

The per-minimum-sales-unit recommendation bites hardest on gift sets and refills. If you release singles alongside sets, the set outer can itself be a minimum sales unit, and a refill pouch sold separately is another. Count the scope in sales units rather than SKUs, and put that number into the component quotation first.

• Whether you chose between moulding, embossing, stickers and braille tags
• If moulding, whether product names are final before tooling
• Whether container suppliers were asked which methods suit each material
• Whether singles, set outers and refills were all counted as sales units

3. Placement is the top of the display panel, never overlapping text

The placement rule is simple but has real design consequences. According to Cosin, braille is marked at the top of the principal display panel as a principle, and in the upper right where left and right are distinguishable. Braille and the code are placed together with the printed text, but must not overlap it.

"Upper right" frequently collides with where the logo sits. So the display-panel layout of any item carrying braille has to be revisited starting from the logo. A line that centred its logo at the top now has to move it left or down, and that change affects the visual consistency of the whole line rather than one item. That is also why braille is hard to pilot on a single item.

The non-overlap condition affects printing too. Lay relief over printed characters and the dots may read by hand while the type breaks to the eye. Arrange the type to avoid the braille instead and the usable area of the display panel shrinks. On a panel already carrying the volume, the functional-cosmetic phrase and the brand name, you are simultaneously deciding which elements move to the back panel or the carton.

In practical order: braille should appear in the design brief as a condition, not an option. Giving the designer numbers — how many millimetres to leave clear in the upper right, how many characters go in that area — is faster than laying braille over a concept you have already approved.

• Whether a braille area is left clear in the upper right of the display panel
• Whether the logo and volume statement were checked against it before concepts
• Whether the braille area size and character count were given as numbers
• Whether you decided where displaced printed items move to

4. A pre-launch proofread adds a step to the process

The guideline includes a proofreading item. According to Cosin, a review by a braille transcriber and proofreader before launch is recommended. It is a recommendation, but in practice this one line creates a new cell in the schedule.

There are two places it belongs. One is before tooling or label data is released, to confirm that the braille data itself was converted correctly. The other is after physical samples exist, to confirm that dot height and spacing actually read by hand. Skip the first and incorrect braille is cut into a mould; skip the second and you ship a product whose data is right but which cannot be read.

Korean braille does not map syllable for syllable, so conversion gets particularly awkward in product names mixing Roman letters, numbers or symbols. For naming that combines an English brand name with a Korean product name, or that carries a numeric concentration, allow more time for the review. This too is a cost that can be reduced at the naming stage.

Put cost and responsibility in the contract as well. If it is not settled whether the brand, the container supplier or the label supplier prepares and checks the braille data, and who pays when a proofread finds an error that requires a mould revision, that becomes the point where the schedule stops. A mould revision is a different unit of cost from reprinting a label.

• Whether braille data review precedes tooling and label release
• Whether a physical check of dot height and spacing is a separate step
• Whether conversion difficulty for mixed-script names was accounted for
• Whether liability for mould revisions after a braille error is in the contract

5. For a small container the answer may be the code, not braille

The difficulty the industry raised most is area. The reaction carried in Cosin's coverage was that cosmetic container sizes vary so widely that actual application is hard, alongside the comment that household goods are large enough to have the space while cosmetics still have to find some way. The conclusion drawn was that e-label routes have to be used actively.

This is where it matters that the guideline does not cover braille alone. The underlying rule permits braille or an audio and sign-language video conversion code, and the guideline carries the code's marking as a separate section. So the choice is not whether to add braille but which of braille, the code, or both. For an item with a narrow display panel — a 10 ml ampoule, a mascara — the code may be the realistic answer.

The e-label connection sits on the same line. Based on its pilot, the MFDS is pursuing changes to the items printed on cosmetic containers and packaging and the standardisation of online provision, with a model in which only key items are printed in large type and detailed product information is reached by QR code. Coverage summarising Korea's 2026 cosmetic policy changes also described showing an e-label QR together with braille or an audio and sign-language video conversion code. Free up room for one code on a small panel and you reduce both the braille area problem and the information-volume problem.

A code, though, creates operational work the moment you add it. The page it points to has to stay live for the life of the product, and when the ingredient list or the expiry statement changes, that page has to change too. Once a range grows to dozens of items without a named owner for this, codes with dead links stay on containers. What to write down when you choose a code is not a design decision but a person.

• Whether braille, the code, or both was chosen for each item
• Whether items with narrow display panels were classified separately
• Whether an owner and update procedure exist for the page behind the code
• Whether ingredient or expiry changes trigger a page update

The first question for the brief

Instead of writing "review braille marking", add one more line: how many items in this range will carry braille, and what are their container materials? Settle the material and the possible methods narrow to moulding, embossing, stickers or braille tags; settle the method and the deadline for final product names is settled with it.

The second thing to write is the unit. Count in minimum sales units rather than SKUs. A single, a gift-set outer and a refill pouch can each be a unit, and that number is the denominator for your component quotation and your proofreading schedule. Quote by SKU and sets and refills come back later as added cost.

The last is the choice itself. Write down per item whether it takes braille, the audio and sign-language video conversion code, or both — and for every item taking a code, write the name of the person who will maintain that page. Braille ends at the mould and the label; a code has to stay alive for as long as the product sells.