Base64 is a widely used encoding method that converts binary data into ASCII strings. This encoding was initially designed for email systems to ensure the safe transmission of binary data in systems that can only process text data. Today, Base64 encoding is widely applied in various Internet applications and data processing scenarios, such as embedding image data in HTML or CSS, or transmitting small files in web applications.
The working principle of Base64 is to divide binary data into 6-bit units and then convert each 6-bit unit into one of the 64 printable characters. Since each 6-bit can only represent 64 different values, it is called Base64. Data encoded in this way is slightly larger than the original binary data but can be safely transmitted in text systems without errors due to special characters or inconsistent encoding.