[Alpine-info] Printing emails with UTF-8

[Mike Miller]

On Tue, 22 Nov 2011, Peter Gantner wrote:


> Just adding to the list of suggestions of "text"-to-postscript filters:

>

> There is also u2ps at http://u2ps.berlios.de/, like a2ps but supports 

> UTF-8 so all the recode pipes can be saved in the various scripts.


Bottom line: I can't get u2ps to handle a challenging UTF-8 text file, but 
muttprint does a very nice job...

I would like to see some test results.  A couple of years ago we had a 
nice thread about UTF-8, and we've had it again more recently.  It's 
tricky to get everything set up correctly (the right terminal, the right 
font, the right Alpine settings, the right system settings, etc.).  To 
test that we had it working, we used this UTF-8 encoded sample plain-text 
file:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/examples/UTF-8-demo.txt

I once sent it to the list so that others could see it in incoming mail 
and know that they could read it:

http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/pipermail/alpine-info/2009-March/001824.html

As you can see there, the mail-to-html translation gets the characters 
quite well but not the alignment.  In alpine, for me everything looks 
right (possibly a few characters don't show up).  In my web browser there 
are some alignment problems, but it isn't terrible (I'm using 
chromium-browser right now, but I think Firefox did better).

I am resending that text file below so that all of you can look at it in 
Alpine, or try to print it out and see how you do.

Anyway, what I'd really like to find is a way to translate that 
UTF-8-demo.txt file to postscript and have it look right.  I tried using 
u2ps and could not get a good result.  Muttprint printed to the printer 
when I tried to make a file, so maybe the muttprint man page is not 
correct in claiming that the -p option overrides the system settings. But 
muttprint did a great job printing the UTF-8-demo.txt file.  I couldn't 
capture the postscript in a file, but it printed it and the printout is 
actually quite nice.  The alignment is perfect for math and boxes and the 
only things obviously missing are Thai and Amharic, but that might be 
because of my printer.

Mike



UTF-8 encoded sample plain-text file
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Markus Kuhn [ˈmaʳkʊs kuːn] <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/> — 2002-07-25


The ASCII compatible UTF-8 encoding used in this plain-text file
is defined in Unicode, ISO 10646-1, and RFC 2279.


Using Unicode/UTF-8, you can write in emails and source code things such as

Mathematics and sciences:

   ∮ E⋅da = Q,  n → ∞, ∑ f(i) = ∏ g(i),      ⎧⎡⎛┌─────┐⎞⎤⎫
                                             ⎪⎢⎜│a²+b³ ⎟⎥⎪
   ∀x∈ℝ: ⌈x⌉ = −⌊−x⌋, α ∧ ¬β = ¬(¬α ∨ β),    ⎪⎢⎜│───── ⎟⎥⎪
                                             ⎪⎢⎜⎷ c₈   ⎟⎥⎪
   ℕ ⊆ ℕ₀ ⊂ ℤ ⊂ ℚ ⊂ ℝ ⊂ ℂ,                   ⎨⎢⎜       ⎟⎥⎬
                                             ⎪⎢⎜ ∞     ⎟⎥⎪
   ⊥ < a ≠ b ≡ c ≤ d ≪ ⊤ ⇒ (⟦A⟧ ⇔ ⟪B⟫),      ⎪⎢⎜ ⎲     ⎟⎥⎪
                                             ⎪⎢⎜ ⎳aⁱ-bⁱ⎟⎥⎪
   2H₂ + O₂ ⇌ 2H₂O, R = 4.7 kΩ, ⌀ 200 mm     ⎩⎣⎝i=1    ⎠⎦⎭

Linguistics and dictionaries:

   ði ıntəˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtık əsoʊsiˈeıʃn
   Y [ˈʏpsilɔn], Yen [jɛn], Yoga [ˈjoːgɑ]

APL:

   ((V⍳V)=⍳⍴V)/V←,V    ⌷←⍳→⍴∆∇⊃‾⍎⍕⌈

Nicer typography in plain text files:

   ╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • ‘single’ and “double” quotes         ║
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • Curly apostrophes: “We’ve been here” ║
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • Latin-1 apostrophe and accents: '´`  ║
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • ‚deutsche‘ „Anführungszeichen“       ║
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • †, ‡, ‰, •, 3–4, —, −5/+5, ™, …      ║
   ║                                          ║
   ║   • ASCII safety test: 1lI|, 0OD, 8B     ║
   ║                      ╭─────────╮         ║
   ║   • the euro symbol: │ 14.95 € │         ║
   ║                      ╰─────────╯         ║
   ╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

Combining characters:

   STARGΛ̊TE SG-1, a = v̇ = r̈, a⃑ ⊥ b⃑

Greek (in Polytonic):

   The Greek anthem:

   Σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν κόψη
   τοῦ σπαθιοῦ τὴν τρομερή,
   σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν ὄψη
   ποὺ μὲ βία μετράει τὴ γῆ.

   ᾿Απ᾿ τὰ κόκκαλα βγαλμένη
   τῶν ῾Ελλήνων τὰ ἱερά
   καὶ σὰν πρῶτα ἀνδρειωμένη
   χαῖρε, ὦ χαῖρε, ᾿Ελευθεριά!

   From a speech of Demosthenes in the 4th century BC:

   Οὐχὶ ταὐτὰ παρίσταταί μοι γιγνώσκειν, ὦ ἄνδρες ᾿Αθηναῖοι,
   ὅταν τ᾿ εἰς τὰ πράγματα ἀποβλέψω καὶ ὅταν πρὸς τοὺς
   λόγους οὓς ἀκούω· τοὺς μὲν γὰρ λόγους περὶ τοῦ
   τιμωρήσασθαι Φίλιππον ὁρῶ γιγνομένους, τὰ δὲ πράγματ᾿
   εἰς τοῦτο προήκοντα,  ὥσθ᾿ ὅπως μὴ πεισόμεθ᾿ αὐτοὶ
   πρότερον κακῶς σκέψασθαι δέον. οὐδέν οὖν ἄλλο μοι δοκοῦσιν
   οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγοντες ἢ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, περὶ ἧς βουλεύεσθαι,
   οὐχὶ τὴν οὖσαν παριστάντες ὑμῖν ἁμαρτάνειν. ἐγὼ δέ, ὅτι μέν
   ποτ᾿ ἐξῆν τῇ πόλει καὶ τὰ αὑτῆς ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς καὶ Φίλιππον
   τιμωρήσασθαι, καὶ μάλ᾿ ἀκριβῶς οἶδα· ἐπ᾿ ἐμοῦ γάρ, οὐ πάλαι
   γέγονεν ταῦτ᾿ ἀμφότερα· νῦν μέντοι πέπεισμαι τοῦθ᾿ ἱκανὸν
   προλαβεῖν ἡμῖν εἶναι τὴν πρώτην, ὅπως τοὺς συμμάχους
   σώσομεν. ἐὰν γὰρ τοῦτο βεβαίως ὑπάρξῃ, τότε καὶ περὶ τοῦ
   τίνα τιμωρήσεταί τις καὶ ὃν τρόπον ἐξέσται σκοπεῖν· πρὶν δὲ
   τὴν ἀρχὴν ὀρθῶς ὑποθέσθαι, μάταιον ἡγοῦμαι περὶ τῆς
   τελευτῆς ὁντινοῦν ποιεῖσθαι λόγον.

   Δημοσθένους, Γ´ ᾿Ολυνθιακὸς

Georgian:

   From a Unicode conference invitation:

   გთხოვთ ახლავე გაიაროთ რეგისტრაცია Unicode-ის მეათე საერთაშორისო
   კონფერენციაზე დასასწრებად, რომელიც გაიმართება 10-12 მარტს,
   ქ. მაინცში, გერმანიაში. კონფერენცია შეჰკრებს ერთად მსოფლიოს
   ექსპერტებს ისეთ დარგებში როგორიცაა ინტერნეტი და Unicode-ი,
   ინტერნაციონალიზაცია და ლოკალიზაცია, Unicode-ის გამოყენება
   ოპერაციულ სისტემებსა, და გამოყენებით პროგრამებში, შრიფტებში,
   ტექსტების დამუშავებასა და მრავალენოვან კომპიუტერულ სისტემებში.

Russian:

   From a Unicode conference invitation:

   Зарегистрируйтесь сейчас на Десятую Международную Конференцию по
   Unicode, которая состоится 10-12 марта 1997 года в Майнце в Германии.
   Конференция соберет широкий круг экспертов по  вопросам глобального
   Интернета и Unicode, локализации и интернационализации, воплощению и
   применению Unicode в различных операционных системах и программных
   приложениях, шрифтах, верстке и многоязычных компьютерных системах.

Thai (UCS Level 2):

   Excerpt from a poetry on The Romance of The Three Kingdoms (a Chinese
   classic 'San Gua'):

   [----------------------------|------------------------]
     ๏ แผ่นดินฮั่นเสื่อมโทรมแสนสังเวช  พระปกเกศกองบู๊กู้ขึ้นใหม่
   สิบสองกษัตริย์ก่อนหน้าแลถัดไป       สององค์ไซร้โง่เขลาเบาปัญญา
     ทรงนับถือขันทีเป็นที่พึ่ง           บ้านเมืองจึงวิปริตเป็นนักหนา
   โฮจิ๋นเรียกทัพทั่วหัวเมืองมา         หมายจะฆ่ามดชั่วตัวสำคัญ
     เหมือนขับไสไล่เสือจากเคหา      รับหมาป่าเข้ามาเลยอาสัญ
   ฝ่ายอ้องอุ้นยุแยกให้แตกกัน          ใช้สาวนั้นเป็นชนวนชื่นชวนใจ
     พลันลิฉุยกุยกีกลับก่อเหตุ          ช่างอาเพศจริงหนาฟ้าร้องไห้
   ต้องรบราฆ่าฟันจนบรรลัย           ฤๅหาใครค้ำชูกู้บรรลังก์ ฯ

   (The above is a two-column text. If combining characters are handled
   correctly, the lines of the second column should be aligned with the
   | character above.)

Ethiopian:

   Proverbs in the Amharic language:

   ሰማይ አይታረስ ንጉሥ አይከሰስ።
   ብላ ካለኝ እንደአባቴ በቆመጠኝ።
   ጌጥ ያለቤቱ ቁምጥና ነው።
   ደሀ በሕልሙ ቅቤ ባይጠጣ ንጣት በገደለው።
   የአፍ ወለምታ በቅቤ አይታሽም።
   አይጥ በበላ ዳዋ ተመታ።
   ሲተረጉሙ ይደረግሙ።
   ቀስ በቀስ፥ ዕንቁላል በእግሩ ይሄዳል።
   ድር ቢያብር አንበሳ ያስር።
   ሰው እንደቤቱ እንጅ እንደ ጉረቤቱ አይተዳደርም።
   እግዜር የከፈተውን ጉሮሮ ሳይዘጋው አይድርም።
   የጎረቤት ሌባ፥ ቢያዩት ይስቅ ባያዩት ያጠልቅ።
   ሥራ ከመፍታት ልጄን ላፋታት።
   ዓባይ ማደሪያ የለው፥ ግንድ ይዞ ይዞራል።
   የእስላም አገሩ መካ የአሞራ አገሩ ዋርካ።
   ተንጋሎ ቢተፉ ተመልሶ ባፉ።
   ወዳጅህ ማር ቢሆን ጨርስህ አትላሰው።
   እግርህን በፍራሽህ ልክ ዘርጋ።

Runes:

   ᚻᛖ ᚳᚹᚫᚦ ᚦᚫᛏ ᚻᛖ ᛒᚢᛞᛖ ᚩᚾ ᚦᚫᛗ ᛚᚪᚾᛞᛖ ᚾᚩᚱᚦᚹᛖᚪᚱᛞᚢᛗ ᚹᛁᚦ ᚦᚪ ᚹᛖᛥᚫ

   (Old English, which transcribed into Latin reads 'He cwaeth that he
   bude thaem lande northweardum with tha Westsae.' and means 'He said
   that he lived in the northern land near the Western Sea.')

Braille:

   ⡌⠁⠧⠑ ⠼⠁⠒  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹⠰⠎ ⡣⠕⠌

   ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠒ ⠞⠕ ⠃⠑⠛⠔ ⠺⠊⠹⠲ ⡹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠝⠕ ⠙⠳⠃⠞
   ⠱⠁⠞⠑⠧⠻ ⠁⠃⠳⠞ ⠹⠁⠞⠲ ⡹⠑ ⠗⠑⠛⠊⠌⠻ ⠕⠋ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠃⠥⠗⠊⠁⠇ ⠺⠁⠎
   ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠃⠹ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠛⠹⠍⠁⠝⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠅⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠥⠝⠙⠻⠞⠁⠅⠻⠂
   ⠁⠝⠙ ⠹⠑ ⠡⠊⠑⠋ ⠍⠳⠗⠝⠻⠲ ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑ ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠊⠞⠲ ⡁⠝⠙
   ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑⠰⠎ ⠝⠁⠍⠑ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠛⠕⠕⠙ ⠥⠏⠕⠝ ⠰⡡⠁⠝⠛⠑⠂ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠁⠝⠹⠹⠔⠛ ⠙⠑
   ⠡⠕⠎⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠏⠥⠞ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠙⠁⠝⠙ ⠞⠕⠲

   ⡕⠇⠙ ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

   ⡍⠔⠙⠖ ⡊ ⠙⠕⠝⠰⠞ ⠍⠑⠁⠝ ⠞⠕ ⠎⠁⠹ ⠹⠁⠞ ⡊ ⠅⠝⠪⠂ ⠕⠋ ⠍⠹
   ⠪⠝ ⠅⠝⠪⠇⠫⠛⠑⠂ ⠱⠁⠞ ⠹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠏⠜⠞⠊⠊⠥⠇⠜⠇⠹ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠃⠳⠞
   ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲ ⡊ ⠍⠊⠣⠞ ⠙⠁⠧⠑ ⠃⠑⠲ ⠔⠊⠇⠔⠫⠂ ⠍⠹⠎⠑⠇⠋⠂ ⠞⠕
   ⠗⠑⠛⠜⠙ ⠁ ⠊⠕⠋⠋⠔⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇ ⠁⠎ ⠹⠑ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠑⠌ ⠏⠊⠑⠊⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠊⠗⠕⠝⠍⠕⠝⠛⠻⠹
   ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠞⠗⠁⠙⠑⠲ ⡃⠥⠞ ⠹⠑ ⠺⠊⠎⠙⠕⠍ ⠕⠋ ⠳⠗ ⠁⠝⠊⠑⠌⠕⠗⠎
   ⠊⠎ ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠎⠊⠍⠊⠇⠑⠆ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠍⠹ ⠥⠝⠙⠁⠇⠇⠪⠫ ⠙⠁⠝⠙⠎
   ⠩⠁⠇⠇ ⠝⠕⠞ ⠙⠊⠌⠥⠗⠃ ⠊⠞⠂ ⠕⠗ ⠹⠑ ⡊⠳⠝⠞⠗⠹⠰⠎ ⠙⠕⠝⠑ ⠋⠕⠗⠲ ⡹⠳
   ⠺⠊⠇⠇ ⠹⠻⠑⠋⠕⠗⠑ ⠏⠻⠍⠊⠞ ⠍⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠗⠑⠏⠑⠁⠞⠂ ⠑⠍⠏⠙⠁⠞⠊⠊⠁⠇⠇⠹⠂ ⠹⠁⠞
   ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

   (The first couple of paragraphs of "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens)

Compact font selection example text:

   ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ /0123456789
   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz £©µÀÆÖÞßéöÿ
   –—‘“”„†•…‰™œŠŸž€ ΑΒΓΔΩαβγδω АБВГДабвгд
   ∀∂∈ℝ∧∪≡∞ ↑↗↨↻⇣ ┐┼╔╘░►☺♀ fi�⑀₂ἠḂӥẄɐː⍎אԱა

Greetings in various languages:

   Hello world, Καλημέρα κόσμε, コンニチハ

Box drawing alignment tests:                                          █
                                                                       ▉
   ╔══╦══╗  ┌──┬──┐  ╭──┬──╮  ╭──┬──╮  ┏━━┳━━┓  ┎┒┏┑   ╷  ╻ ┏┯┓ ┌┰┐    ▊ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
   ║┌─╨─┐║  │╔═╧═╗│  │╒═╪═╕│  │╓─╁─╖│  ┃┌─╂─┐┃  ┗╃╄┙  ╶┼╴╺╋╸┠┼┨ ┝╋┥    ▋ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
   ║│╲ ╱│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╿ │┃  ┍╅╆┓   ╵  ╹ ┗┷┛ └┸┘    ▌ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
   ╠╡ ╳ ╞╣  ├╢   ╟┤  ├┼─┼─┼┤  ├╫─╂─╫┤  ┣┿╾┼╼┿┫  ┕┛┖┚     ┌┄┄┐ ╎ ┏┅┅┓ ┋ ▍ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
   ║│╱ ╲│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╽ │┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▎
   ║└─╥─┘║  │╚═╤═╝│  │╘═╪═╛│  │╙─╀─╜│  ┃└─╂─┘┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▏
   ╚══╩══╝  └──┴──┘  ╰──┴──╯  ╰──┴──╯  ┗━━┻━━┛  ▗▄▖▛▀▜   └╌╌┘ ╎ ┗╍╍┛ ┋  ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█
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