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How to use Ascii85 Encoder / Decoder

Choose Encode or Decode and paste your text. Encoding produces 5 Ascii85 characters per 4 bytes; use the delimiters option to wrap output in <~ ~> as PostScript/PDF expect.

Frequently asked questions

How is Ascii85 different from Base64?

Ascii85 packs 4 bytes into 5 characters (~25% overhead) versus Base64's 3-into-4 (~33%), so it is more compact. It uses 85 printable ASCII characters starting at '!'.

What is the z shortcut?

A group of four zero bytes is written as a single 'z' instead of five '!' characters, saving space — a standard Adobe optimisation.

What are the <~ and ~> markers?

They delimit an Ascii85 stream in PostScript and PDF. Enable the delimiters option to include them; the decoder strips them automatically.

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