.. module:: email.encoders
   :synopsis: Encoders for email message payloads.


When creating :class:`Message` objects from scratch, you often need to encode
the payloads for transport through compliant mail servers. This is especially
true for :mimetype:`image/\*` and :mimetype:`text/\*` type messages containing
binary data.

The :mod:`email` package provides some convenient encodings in its
:mod:`encoders` module.  These encoders are actually used by the
:class:`MIMEAudio` and :class:`MIMEImage` class constructors to provide default
encodings.  All encoder functions take exactly one argument, the message object
to encode.  They usually extract the payload, encode it, and reset the payload
to this newly encoded value.  They should also set the
:mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header as appropriate.

Here are the encoding functions provided:


.. function:: encode_quopri(msg)

   Encodes the payload into quoted-printable form and sets the
   :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header to ``quoted-printable`` [#]_.
   This is a good encoding to use when most of your payload is normal printable
   data, but contains a few unprintable characters.


.. function:: encode_base64(msg)

   Encodes the payload into base64 form and sets the
   :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header to ``base64``.  This is a good
   encoding to use when most of your payload is unprintable data since it is a more
   compact form than quoted-printable.  The drawback of base64 encoding is that it
   renders the text non-human readable.


.. function:: encode_7or8bit(msg)

   This doesn't actually modify the message's payload, but it does set the
   :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header to either ``7bit`` or ``8bit`` as
   appropriate, based on the payload data.


.. function:: encode_noop(msg)

   This does nothing; it doesn't even set the
   :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header.

.. rubric:: Footnotes

.. [#] Note that encoding with :meth:`encode_quopri` also encodes all tabs and space
   characters in the data.

