Greek font encoding problem (Mail app)

Hello! Greek characters should be fully supported by OS X. At least OS X Yosemite, which is what I am using.

Please try the following:

1/ Make sure all your software is up-to-date by going to "Apple menu > App Store" and then [updates] You don't have to upGRADE right now if you're running something earlier than Yosemite.

2/ Experiment with the following, this might help with other people reading your mails (not with you reading their mails however)

- Open Mail and navigate to the menu: "Mail > Preferences" and then the tab [NEW] The one with a pen and piece of paper.

- Whatever message formatting is set to currently, change it to the other option. For example: if your current setting is "RTF" experiment with "plain text" and visa-versa.

Now, about you receiving wrong characters in your emails, the solution will have to be found in the manner which the original authors sends them. If they are also Apple users you can ask them to do step 2. If they're Windows users, I'm afraid I'm out of my depth.

Greg_Ang wrote:

Some recipients cannot read me mail.

Try adding a Unicode dingbat to your message, like ✉ (you can copy/paste it from here). This will force your email into UTF-8 encoding, which may help (or not).

There's usually nothing you can do at your end about problems with received email other than use webmail instead of Mail.

Mail used to have a menu where you could adjust Text Encoding to fix such problems, but Apple stupidly deleted it a while ago.

Greg_Ang wrote:

It is not always nice (business mail) to add dingbat.

You can make it invisible by giving it the color White.

Business mail users who need a dingbat often put it in their sig.

Greg_Ang wrote:

Thanks, but no luck.

Send me a test message with a short Greek text (and no dingbat), so I can check what encoding is being used (tom at bluesky dot org).

Regarding any sending problems, I need to have an email from you in Greek to see what encoding your system is using. I can't tell anything from copy/pasted stuff in the forum.

Regarding what you receiving, I need you to do View > Message > Raw Source and copy/paste that into a separate email to me. It could be you have a junk font on your system.

PS Regarding what you have received, does this translation make sense?

"

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΗ ΜΟΥ ΚΑΛΗΜΕΡΑ!

ΕΛΑΒΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΠΙΤΑΓΗ ΚΑΙ ΣΟΥ ΤΗ ΣΤΕΛΝΩ ΜΕ COURRIER.

ΣΕ ΠΑΡΑΚΑΛΩ ΘΕΡΜΑ ΕΚΤΥΠΩΣΕ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΕΙΛΕ ΜΟΥ ΥΠΟΓΕΓΡΑΜΜΕΝΗ ΤΗΝ ΕΞΟΦΛΗΤΙΚΗ

ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΗ (ΟΤΑΝ ΤΗΝ ΠΑΡΑΛΑΒΕΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΤΑ) ΓΙΑ ΝΑ ΕΙΜΑΙ ΕΝΤΑΞΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΜΕ ΤΑ

ΤΥΠΙΚΑ ΤΗΣ INTERASCO.

EIMAI ΠΑΝΤΑ ΣΤΗ ΔΙΑΘΕΣΗ ΣΟΥ

ΧΑΙΡΕΤΙΣΜΟΥΣ

ΧΑΡΟΥΛΑ"

If so, it indicates you have a junk non-unicode Arabic font on your system which should be deleted.

Greg_Ang wrote:

What should i do?

Open Character Viewer (edit > special characters). Click on the gear wheel and select Customize. Check the box for Latin. In the middle, select the character Æ. Go to the bottom right and look in the Font Variation pane. Select the one which has Arabic instead of Æ. Look up at the top to find the name of that font. Get rid of it.

Greg_Ang wrote:

I searched but didnt find anything.

Thanks for your advice.

Could you do View > Message > Raw Source on that Arabic message and copy/paste that into a separate email to me?

tom at bluesky dot org