I was looking for a better way to output mysql tables in console, and came across the following gem:

mysql> pager less -SFX
mysql> SELECT * FROM sometable;

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/924729/mysql-select-many-fields-how-best-to-display-in-terminal

So an ugly output like this:

Was transformed into a nice looking output like this:

Another option is to add \G at the end of your command. This will change the output just for that command, without changing the default output.

mysql> SELECT * FROM sometable\G;