To encode binary data that needs to be stored or transmitted in a text format, but where the original data is not necessarily text. Since Base64 encoded data is made up of printable ASCII characters, it can be easily included in text documents without any issues. To include small images in text documents, such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript files. Base64 encoding reduces the size of the data by about 33%, which can be useful when transmitting data over a network or storing it on a disk.

To encode data for storage or transmission in a way that is more efficient than storing or transmitting the data in its raw binary form. This is useful because some systems, such as email, can only handle text data and not binary data. To represent binary data in a text format that can be easily transmitted over networks or stored in a text file. There are a few main reasons why Base64 encoding is used − There are also many online tools and libraries available for encoding and decoding Base64 data. In Java, the 64 class provides Base64 encoding and decoding functions. For example, in Python you can use the b64encode function from the base64 module to encode data, and the b64decode function to decode it. Many programming languages have built-in support for Base64 encoding. For example, a 500KB image file will be about 675KB when base64 encoded. It is possible to easily decode base64 encoded data, so it should not be used to protect sensitive information.īase64 encoding increases the size of the data by about 33%. This is important because some systems (such as email) can only handle text data and not binary data.īase64 encoding is not a secure method of encoding data. One reason Base64 encoding is used is because it can represent any binary data in a text format that consists only of printable ASCII characters.

For example, an image file might be base64 encoded and included in an HTML file as text, or a base64 encoded certificate might be stored in a text configuration file.

Here are a few more things about Base64 encoding −īase64 encoding is often used to represent binary data in a text format that can be easily transmitted over networks or stored in a text file. It is mainly used to encode data for transmission over networks or to store data in a text format. The characters used are A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, and /.įor example, the letter 'A' in Base64 is represented as 'QQ=', and the word 'hello' is encoded as 'aGVsbG8='.īase64 encoding is not a secure way to encrypt data, because it can be easily decoded. There are 64 characters in the Base64 'alphabet', which is why it is called Base64. Each group is then represented by a printable ASCII character. To encode data in Base64, the data is first converted to binary data and then broken into groups of 6 bits. It is often used for include small images in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, or anything else text based. Base64 encoding is a way to represent binary data in ASCII text format.

Does base64 encoding reduce size