Unicode characters in pdflatex output using hexcode without UTF-8 input

Question

I want to use Unicode characters (for Korean language, i.e. Hangul: U+AC00 - U+D7A3; maybe also U+1100 - U+11FF) in the output of latex(/pdflatex) while the LaTeX source file should be coded in 7 bit ASCII as before.

I would like to have something similar to \ding{number} for ZapfDingbats for Unicode selected via its hexcode, something like:

\unicodechar{bc73}

to generate a character. The output should be generated as before:

latex -> dvips -> ps2pdfwr

Until now I have only seen unicode examples using UTF-8 encoding in source code - which is not an option for me - and typically using xelatex (disrupting my book - having problems with the packages I am using). I use TeXLive 2012 (Debian) fully installed (incl. CJK package) under Xubuntu 12.10, so in principle the fonts should be there.

I would really appreciate any answer or at least a hint to the solution - or in worst case a reason why this may not be possible at all.

NEWLY ADDED: Please read the facts above. No comment or answer is even near the question - look at unicode questions here - this question is totally different. No German Umlaute or Eurosign - that's simple. No entering of Unicode chars in the editor or elsewhere, only visible in the output. No XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX.

Just an example to print Hangul characters under conditions given above or a reason why it won't work with latex/pdflatex - please.

Answer 1

Well in theory you can type your whole text in ascii, you only need to know which octets (8-bit-packets) to use:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\begin{document}

Euro (€): ^^e2^^82^^ac

ä: ^^c3^^a4

\end{document}

The main problem is to get the utf8-hex-notation (e282ac) from the unicode name (U+20AC). In theory it can be calculated (and inputenc is doing it when processing \DeclareUnicodeCharacter{20AC}{\texteuro}) but I don't know a simple way to use the inputenc commands to get the values.

This input notation should work with the cjk-package (with utf8-option) too.

With the ucs-package (loaded when you use the option utf8x) you can use the command \unichar. But you should be aware that ucs can clash with some packages, e.g. it is mentioned in the biblatex list of incompatible packages.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\begin{document}
\unichar{"00E4}
\unichar{"20AC}
\end{document}

I have no idea if it would work together with cjk.

cjk offers also some text commands to enter symbols, e.g. \Li4 \chun1. but I don't know if this covers your symbols too.

Answer 2

I think enctex will allow you to do this.

First, write the unicode string in a \message{¾} (for example). Then compile your file, and you will see a multi-byte string on the output — ^^c2^^be in this example.

Now, in the top of your file (or, even better, in a format), type \mubyte \someTeXCommand ^^c2^^be\endmubyte and \mubytein=1.

Compile your file (or your format) with the enc option (it requires ini option too, and LaTeX may require the etex option on top), and all should be fine — hopefully!

I personally keep a list of such encodings in my format, for example to typeset mathematics in unicode or use special characters in text such as “…”