Encoding
Encode text to Base85 (Ascii85)
Base85 Encode converts text into Ascii85, the Adobe encoding that writes every four input bytes as five printable characters drawn from ! to u. Text is encoded as UTF-8 first, so accented letters and other non-ASCII input round-trip cleanly. Output is the bare Ascii85 character stream: no <~ ~> wrappers are added, and a run of four zero bytes becomes !!!!!, never the z shorthand. PostScript and PDF use this exact mapping for their ASCII85Decode streams, so encoded output survives documents and messages that reject raw bytes. Encoding grows the text by 25 percent (the price of staying fully printable) and a final partial group of one to three bytes emits two to four characters.
How to use Base85 Encode
- Open Base85 Encode in the Toolbox101 app.
- Paste or type the text to encode:
Man(with the trailing space) is the classic Adobe test, encoding to9jqo^. - Read the
Outputbox: five Ascii85 characters for every four input bytes, drawn only from!throughu. - Click
Copyto place the encoded string on your clipboard and paste it where a text-safe payload is needed.
Worked example
Base85 Encode returns the output below for this input.
Input
Man Output
9jqo^Check it yourself: open Base85 Encode and enter the same input.
Frequently asked questions
Does the encoder add the <~ ~> delimiters or use the z shorthand?
No. Output is the bare Ascii85 character stream: the encoder never wraps results in <~ ~> and never emits z for a run of zero bytes: a zero group becomes !!!!!, like any other four-byte group. PDF and PostScript blocks carry the <~ ~> delimiters on the outside; the companion Base85 Decode accepts a wrapped block if you paste one.
What is Ascii85 and how does Base85 work?
Ascii85 is the Adobe variant of Base85: every four bytes of input become five characters from the printable range ! to u. That mapping is what PostScript and PDF use for ASCII85Decode content streams, which is why Ascii85 makes binary-safe content readable and pasteable.
What is the difference between Ascii85 and Z85?
Both are Base85 flavors, but they use different alphabets. Ascii85 draws from ! to u and comes from Adobe PostScript and PDF. Z85 is the ZeroMQ variant, whose alphabet avoids quotes and backslashes so output can sit inside source code. The same bytes encode differently, so match the decoder to the alphabet the encoder used.
Can it encode characters beyond plain ASCII?
Yes. Input is converted to UTF-8 bytes before encoding, so accented letters and other non-ASCII characters are handled like any other bytes. café survives an encode followed by a decode unchanged, which is what you expect from a byte-level encoding.
Is Ascii85 output larger than the input?
Yes. Ascii85 writes 5 characters for every 4 bytes, so output runs about 25 percent larger than the original text. That overhead is the trade for restricting output to printable ASCII so it can travel through PostScript and PDF content streams unchanged. It is an encoding, not compression or encryption.
Use Base85 Encode now
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded.