Understanding Base32, Base58, and Base85

You've probably heard of Base64 encoding—it's widely used to embed images directly into CSS or to send binary data in JSON payloads. But what about Base32, Base58, and Base85? 🤔

What is Base Encoding?

Base encoding is a way to represent binary data using a limited set of printable ASCII characters. The number (64, 32, 58) represents how many unique characters are in that specific alphabet.

The Different Bases

• Base64: Uses A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, and /. It is the most common, but the inclusion of + and / makes it unsafe to use directly in URLs without escaping.
• Base32: Uses A-Z and 2-7. It is case-insensitive, making it perfect for human-readable codes (like two-factor authentication backup codes). However, it takes up more space than Base64.
• Base58: Originally created for Bitcoin! It uses the same characters as Base64, but removes ambiguous characters like 0 (zero), O (capital o), I (capital i), and l (lowercase L) to prevent human errors when copying cryptocurrency addresses.
• Base85 (Ascii85): Uses 85 characters. It is extremely efficient, packing 4 bytes of binary data into just 5 ASCII characters. It is commonly used in PDF files to compress binary streams.

Use our Base Encoders tool to easily convert your strings between all of these different standards!