XCON: A Description of Quoted Printable MIME Content Transfer Encoding (323488)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
This article was previously published under Q323488

SUMMARY

An SMTP message that is sent from an Exchange 2000 computer may be encoded in the Quoted-printable Multipurpose Internet Message Extensions (MIME) content type.

MORE INFORMATION

The Quoted printable encoding type is used when the majority of the text or characters in the message body is made up of 7-bit or US-ASCII characters. The algorithm converts non-ASCII characters by using a sequence of two hexadecimal characters preceded by an equal sign (=). The semantics of the Quoted printable encoding is defined in Request for Comments (RFC) 2045.

A Quoted printable message has the following characteristics:
  • You can replace an individual character with its two-digit hexadecimal equivalent by prefixing it with an equal sign.
  • A Carriage Return Line Feed (CRLF) sequence that is used as a line break in the original data must be represented as a CRLF sequence in the Quoted printable encoding.
  • The length of a line is limited to 76 characters with the insertion of "soft line breaks." Soft line breaks are encoded as an equal sign at the end of the line.
  • Trailing white spaces in the original data must be encoded in the final message.

    Quoted printable encoding does not allow white space at the end of a line. Any trailing white space must be removed when you decode the data.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:6/13/2003
Keywords:kbinfo KB323488
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