Base64

Base64 encoding makes it possible to send all kinds of data via Internet email.

If the internet is the information highway, then the path for email is a narrow ravine. Only very small carts can pass.

The transport system of email is designed for plain ASCII text only. Trying to send text in other languages or arbitrary files is like getting a truck through the ravine.

How Does the Big Truck go Through the Ravine?

Base64 encoding makes it possible to send all kinds of data via Internet email.Base64 Base 64encoding makes it possible to send all kinds of data via Internet email.

If the internet is the information highway, then the path for email is a narrow ravine. Only very small carts can pass.

The transport system of email is designed for plain ASCII text only. Trying to send text in other languages or arbitrary files is like getting a truck through the ravine.

How Does the Big Truck go Through the Ravine?

Then how do you send a big truck through a small ravine? You have to take it to pieces on the one end, transport the pieces through the ravine, and rebuild the truck from the pieces on the other end.

The same happens when you send a file attachment via email. In a process known as encoding the binary data is transformed to ASCII text, which can be transported in email without problems.

On the recipient's end, the data is decoded and the original file is rebuilt.

One method of encoding arbitrary data as plain ASCII text is Base64. It is one of the techniques employed by the MIME standard to send data other than plain text.