Encoding italic

[Doug Ewell via Unicode]

I'd like to propose encoding italics and similar display attributes in
plain text using the following stateful mechanism:
 
•	Italics on: ESC [3m
•	Italics off: ESC [23m
•	Bold on: ESC [1m
•	Bold off: ESC [22m
•	Underline on: ESC [4m
•	Underline off: ESC [24m
•	Strikethrough on: ESC [9m
•	Strikethrough off: ESC [29m
•	Reverse on: ESC [7m
•	Reverse off: ESC [27m
•	Reset all attributes: ESC [m
 
where ESC is U+001B.
 
This mechanism has existed for around 40 years and is already supported
as widely as any new Unicode-only convention will ever be.
 
--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org