What is Ascii85 Tool?
Ascii85, also called Base85, is a form of binary-to-text encoding developed by Paul E. Rutter for the btoa utility. It is more efficient than Base64, expanding the data size by only 25% (compared to Base64's 33%). It uses 85 ASCII characters: '!' through 'u'. Ascii85 is widely known for its use in the PostScript and PDF file formats to embed binary data. It supports compression features like replacing four spaces with 'y' and four null bytes with 'z'.
Input Formats
- Plain text
- Ascii85 strings (<~...~>)
- Binary data
Output Results
- Ascii85 string
- Decoded text
- Copy-ready result
Key Features
Who is this for?
PDF Analysis
Decoding binary streams extracted from PDF files to view their content.
Data Compression
Encoding data for transmission where bandwidth is tighter than Base64 allows.
Steganography
Hiding data in plain text using non-obvious encoding.
How to Use
Paste your text or Ascii85 string.
Select 'Encode' to convert to Ascii85.
Select 'Decode' to convert back.
Copy the result.
Examples
Input
Hello WorldOutput
<~87cURD]i,"Ebo80~>Common Errors
- Missing <~ and ~> delimiters (Adobe format requires them)
- Invalid characters (outside ! to u range)
- Confusing 'z' and 'y' exceptions
Code Examples
Python
import base64
encoded = base64.a85encode(b'Hello World')
print(encoded)