Although issuing the Ziegler in both New York Point and braille met the needs of most blind readers, there were still some people who were most familiar with a reading system dating back to the 1830's known as Boston Line Type, or simply Line Type. This was based on the shapes of print letters and was easy for sighted people to read, not so easy for the blind, even though the hard-to-detect curved shapes of such letters as "o" and "e" were modified to incorporate angles (so that "o" was almost diamond shaped). Always mindful for readers' needs, Walter Holmes wanted to make it easy for them to become familiar with either New York Point or braille. To this end, he gave the key to these raised-dot codes in line type letters of the alphabet on the cover of each issue. Because sighted people could readily read Line Type, they could also guide the blind person in learning one of the dot-based codes. Each issue was therefore, in fact, produced in three embossed reading systems.

Braille was officially adopted as the standard reading system in 1932, but that did not mean the immediate end of New York Point. As late as 1937, there were still 2,000 New York Point subscribers, though by then those who preferred braille numbered 9,000. Indeed, the New York Point edition was discontinued only in 1963, when its readership had dwindled to 300.

There was also a Moon Type edition, begun in 1934 to serve the needs of people who lost their eyesight in later years and found it difficult to learn a dot-based code. Moon Type, invented by a blind man in England, was easier to recognize because it was based on the shapes of print letters. It took up far more space than braille, and this edition invariably consisted of an abridged version of the braille edition.

When braille readers complained to Walter Holmes that the New York Point edition used contractions, and therefore contained more material than the braille issue (which without cuts would require 15 more pages than New York Point) he listened. As early as 1908, he introduced space-saving contractions into the braille edition too. As a financially independent publisher, he could avoid all the intense controversy surrounding raised-dot codes, and even when Standard English Braille was accepted throughout the English-speaking countries in the 1930's, (it is now known as contracted braille) he continued to use a hybrid version that has more contractions than Grade 1-1/2, but fewer than Grade 2. Because of his continual contact with large numbers of blind people, he was well aware that many readers could not make the transition to the more highly contracted code.

The various grades of braille differ in the number of contractions used to save space. For example, "can" is represented by the single letter "c", "people" by "p", and "very" by "v"; there are also contractions for frequently occurring suffixes such as "ing." Full Grade 2 was not adopted by the magazine until some years after Holmes's death.