richtext(1)                                           richtext(1)

NAME
       richtext - View a richtext document, typically a mail mes-
       sage

SYNOPSIS
       richtext [ -c ] [ -f ] [ -m ] [ -n ] [ -o ] [ -p  ]  [  -s
       charset ] [ -t ] [ file ]

DESCRIPTION
       The richtext program allows users to view "richtext" files
       on an ASCII terminal.  It uses termcap(5) capabilities  to
       highlight  text that is supposed to be bold or italic, and
       to underline text that is supposed to be  underlined.   It
       also implements most of the richtext commands that have to
       do with indentation and  justification,  as  well  as  the
       "excerpt" and "signature" commands.

       Richtext is a very simple markup language for sending rich
       text through the mail.  It is  not  to  be  confused  with
       Microsoft's  RTF  (Rich  Text  Format).  It is part of the
       MIME standard for multimedia Internet mail.

       The richtext program takes  raw  richtext  output  on  its
       standard  input or from a file and produces formatted out-
       put on its standard output, which is assumed to be a  ter-
       minal.   It  is  intended  primarily  for use by the meta-
       mail(1) program.

       The program will also repair the raw input to match up any
       richtext command pairs that are out of order.

OPTIONS
       When  invoked  with no options, richtext expects raw rich-
       text on its standard input, which is corrected,  and  then
       formatted  output  is written on its standard output.  The
       following options can alter that behaviour:

       -a      This option, which is only  available  under  DOS,
               toggles  whether or not to use ANSI mode for high-
               lighting bold, italic, or underlined text.

       -c      This option directs richtext to just  correct  the
               raw  richtext  and  write the corrected version to
               its standard output, without performing  any  for-
               matting.

       -f      This  option  directs  richtext  to  use  termcap-
               derived escape codes for  bold  and  italic  text,
               even if richtext is called in a pipe.

       -m      This  option  directs richtext to interpret '<' in
               multi-byte Japanese and Korean sequences as a real
               less-than  symbol  and not the start of a richtext
               command.  This  is  called  the  ''multi-byte  '<'
               hack''  in the source code.  Primarily this is for
               international variants of richtext.

       -n      This option directs richtext to not do any correc-
               tion to the raw richtext it receives.

       -o      This  option  directs richtext to use overstriking
               for underlining, etc., on terminals where this  is
               the most appropriate behavior.

       -p      This  enables  the  use  of  a pager which reports
               "Press RETURN to go on" after each screen-full  of
               data.   Alternatively, if the environment variable
               MM_USEPAGER is present, then the pager  will  also
               be used.  This option and the environment variable
               have no effect if either standard input  or  stan-
               dard output is redirected.

       -s charset
               This  option directs richtext to use the specified
               default character set  initially  when  processing
               the  text.  Legal values are us-ascii, iso-2022-jp
               and iso-2022-kr.  Any other value will default  to
               us-ascii.

       -t      This  option  directs richtext NOT to use termcap-
               derived escape codes for  bold  and  italic  text,
               even   if   richtext  is  called  in  a  terminal.
               Instead, "*" and "_" will be used to highlight the
               affected text.

X11 Resources
       If  you're  using  the xterm program, you can control what
       font is used for  bold  text  using  the  "xterm*boldFont"
       resource.

SEE ALSO
       metamail(1), mailto(1), termcap(5)

BUGS
       This is a very quick hack, really -- an attempt to provide
       minimal richtext  support  for  an  ASCII  terminal.   The
       author  makes  no  pretense  of having gotten every single
       case right.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c)  1991  Bell  Communications  Research,  Inc.
       (Bellcore)

       Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this mate-
       rial for any purpose and without fee  is  hereby  granted,
       provided  that the above copyright notice and this permis-
       sion notice appear in all copies, and  that  the  name  of
       Bellcore  not be used in advertising or publicity pertain-
       ing to this material without the specific,  prior  written
       permission  of  an  authorized representative of Bellcore.
       BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT  THE  ACCURACY  OR
       SUITABILITY  OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE.  IT IS PRO-
       VIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED  WARRANTIES.

AUTHORS
       Nathaniel S. Borenstein
       Richtext  correction  algorithm and international language
       support by Rhys Weatherley (rhys@cs.uq.oz.au).

                            Release 1                           1