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

High Efficiency: 25% overhead vs 33% for Base64

PDF Standard: The native encoding used inside PDF files

Compression: Supports 'z' (nulls) and 'y' (spaces) shorthand

Privacy: 100% Client-side processing

Bidirectional: Encode and Decode instantly

Adobe Compatible: Fully compatible with Adobe's implementation

Large Data: Efficient for larger binary blobs

Best & Efficient: The best efficient Ascii85 tool for PDF developers

Shareable LinksShare Ascii85 encoded/decoded strings. (Limit: 5KB)

Who is this for?

PDF Analysis

Decoding binary streams extracted from PDF files to view their content.

PDF streamPostScriptAdobeBinary embedding

Data Compression

Encoding data for transmission where bandwidth is tighter than Base64 allows.

Efficient encodingBandwidth savingData transfer

Steganography

Hiding data in plain text using non-obvious encoding.

Hidden dataObfuscationText hiding

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 World

Output

<~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)

Frequently Asked Questions

What are <~ and ~>?

These are the standard delimiters used by Adobe to mark the start and end of an Ascii85 string. I include them by default.

What does 'z' mean?

If the data has four null bytes (00 00 00 00) in a row, Ascii85 compresses them to a single 'z' character to save space.

Is it better than Base64?

It's more efficient (smaller output), but it uses characters like quote marks and backslashes that can be tricky in some systems. Base64 is safer; Ascii85 is smaller.