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ASCII85/Base85

Encode and decode ASCII85 (Base85), a binary-to-text encoding used in PDF and PostScript. 25% more efficient than Base64.

Mode

Encode to ASCII85

About ASCII85/Base85

ASCII85 is a form of binary-to-text encoding that uses 85 printable ASCII characters. It's more efficient than Base64, producing output that's about 25% smaller. Commonly used in PDF and PostScript files.

Advantages

  • Efficiency: 25% smaller than Base64
  • Printable: Uses only printable ASCII (33-117)
  • PDF/PostScript: Native format in these files
  • Compression: Special handling for all-zero/space groups

Variants

  • Adobe: Original, uses <~ ~> delimiters
  • btoa: Unix utility variant
  • Z85: ZeroMQ variant (different alphabet)
  • RFC 1924: IPv6 addresses (rarely used)
Encoding: Every 4 bytes → 5 ASCII characters
Example: "Hello" → <~87cURD]i~>
Shortcuts: "z" = 4 zero bytes, "y" = 4 space bytes (ASCII 32)

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