1. mysql> SELECT * FROM posts LIMIT 1;
2. +----+-------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------+--------------+-----------
3. ----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------------+-------------+---------------+-------------+----
4. -----+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+-------------+-------+------------+----
5. -------+----------------+---------------+
6. | ID | post_author | post_date | post_date_gmt | post_content | post_title |
7. post_category | post_excerpt | post_lat | post_lon | post_status | comment_status | ping_status |
8. post_password | post_name | to_ping | pinged | post_modified | post_modified_gmt |
9. post_content_filtered | post_parent | guid | menu_order | post_type | post_mime_type |
10. comment_count |
11. 

12. +----+-------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------+--------------+-----------
13. ----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------------+-------------+---------------+-------------+----
14. -----+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+-------------+-------+------------+----
15. -------+----------------+---------------+
16. 
| 1 | 1 | 2004-01-17 18:17:37 | 2004-01-17 16:17:37 | We'll see what time brings ... | Hello world! | 1
17. | | NULL | NULL | publish | closed | closed | | hello-world
18. | | | 2004-01-17 18:17:37 | 2004-01-17 16:17:37 | | 0 | /?p=1
19. | 0 | post | | 0 |
20. 

21. +----+-------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------+--------------+-----------
22. ----+--------------+----------+----------+-------------+----------------+-------------+---------------+-------------+----
23. -----+--------+---------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+-------------+-------+------------+----
24. -------+----------------+---------------+
25. 1 row in set (0.00 sec)

There is actually a nice solution for this. By default, the command line client uses horizontal mode to display the results of MySQL queries. If you use \G instead of ; or \g at the end of the line, your query result will be displayed in vertical mode, which will look a lot better:

1. mysql> SELECT * FROM posts LIMIT 1\G
2. *************************** 1. row ***************************
3. ID: 1
4. post_author: 1
5. post_date: 2004-01-17 18:17:37
6. post_date_gmt: 2004-01-17 16:17:37
7. post_content: We'll see what time brings ...
8. post_title: Hello world!
9. post_category: 1
10. post_excerpt:
11. post_lat: NULL
12. post_lon: NULL
13. post_status: publish
14. comment_status: closed
15. ping_status: closed
16. post_password:
17. post_name: hello-world
18. to_ping:
19. pinged:
20. post_modified: 2004-01-17 18:17:37
21. post_modified_gmt: 2004-01-17 16:17:37
22. post_content_filtered:
23. post_parent: 0
24. guid: /?p=1
25. menu_order: 0
26. post_type: post
27. post_mime_type:
28. comment_count: 0
29. 1 row in set (0.00 sec)

While vertical output uses a lot more vertical space than the horizontal output, the vertical output is a lot more readable. Now you can probably see what I used as example query. It is actually the first post from this blog. Yes, this blog just got 6 years old ;).

If you want your command line client to use vertical mode by default, you can add vertical to the client section ([client]) of your .my.cnf file. This would look something like this:

1. [client]
2. vertical

The best thing to do is to convert the binary data to a string-based representation, e.g. a hexadecimal form or use a two-way encryption method like Base64. In fact, I recommend to use Base64. The drawback is, that a Base64 representation uses around 35% more space than the original binary representation. For example, in PHP you would do something like this:

1. // Encode binary data
2. $binary = base64_encode($binary);
3.  
4. // Decode binary data
5. $binary = base64_decode($binary);

Update: Changed the example data slightly to accommodate some screen readers, that require a valid feed. Thank you Jan for pointing this out.