Base64 to image converter
Base64 encoding and decoding
Base64 encoding and decoding is a process of transforming binary data to ASCII (American Standard for Information Interchange) format and vice versa. This algorithm is also capable of converting images or sound files into an ASCII string. The characters Base64 encoding generates comprises Latin letters, digits, plus, and slash.
Base64, also known as Privacy enhanced Electronic mail (PEM), is also used in the email encryption process. The Base64 receives input in the form of 8-bit bytes. After processing input data from left to right, it organizes the data in 24-bit sets. It, then, treats these 24-bit groups as four concatenated 6-bit groups.
In the end, each 6-bit group modifies to a single character in the Base64 alphabet. In case of input less than 24-bits, it adds zeros to the right to form a 6-bit set. The decoding process is exactly the opposite of the encoding process. Just like binary data, Base64 encoded data is also not readable for humans.
What is base64 used for?
Some medium only accepts data in text format, i.e. MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), JSON and XML, to ensure that the data remain intact during transport. It, in turn, requires Base64 encoding.
A few years ago, when the concept of mailing was introduced, it was purely text-based. There was no functionality of media attachments there. So, there was a high chance of data corruption in sending data in binary format over the internet.
Binary data comprises null characters, which in some computer programming languages like C and C++ exhibit the end of the character string. So, transmitting binary data in a raw state, including Null bytes, stops a file from being fully read and results in corrupt data.
For reliable data transmission, the Base64 encoding technique was coined. The encoding method transforms binary data into an ASCII form. The decoding technique converts the encoded data back to binary form.
Developers also use this procedure to encode images within source code to avoid its dependency on external resources or files. In other words, the Based64 string can be used in place of an URL in the img tag src attribute in HTML files. In other instances, it is used alongside JavaScript data URI.
It is also used in cryptography to exchange keys.
What can you do with the Base64 image converter?
The purpose of Base64 encoded images is to embed image data within other formats like HTML or CSS. If developers include images in Base64 format in an HTML code, the browser will not make an extra web request to fetch the image file because of the embedding of the image in the HTML document.
A Base64 presentation of an image is larger than a separate image. The encoded string gets very long for large images.
If you are a front-end website developer and working on an image-heavy website, you can convert the website images to Base64 online to eliminate the need for an additional round trip that the browser require for each of the files.
Convert Base64 to image online
To decode Base64 to image form, paste the ASCII code or encoded text in the text field, and press submit to generate results. You can download the image in the following file format, i.e. PNG, JPG, WEBP, or GIF.
Covert image to Base64 online
FreeNerdTools also provides an image to base64 encoder.
What image formats are supported by our tool?
It supports images in JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF, and SVG formats. You don't have to go through any installation process to use this tool. Moreover, you can also use it on your smartphone. It is 100% free and secure.
Is base64 image faster?
No doubt, Base64 is quite an efficient and quick way for image encoding, but it enhances the file size. It, in turn, increases the downloading time, CPU overhead, caching issues, server response time, and bandwidth utilization.
It is helpful in some aspects and hurtful in others. Before going with Baase64 images, you have to decide which factors are important to you or are worthwhile using them.
Convert base64 to binary
In case you need to convert a Base64 string to binary form (0 and 1), you can use our free Binary Converter tool. Just copy and paste your string and press submit to generate results in binary.