yEnc encoded string of a blob is larger than base64

Question

yEnc is a binary-to-text encoding scheme for transferring binary files in messages... yEnc's overhead is often (if each byte value appears approximately with the same frequency on average) as little as 1–2%,1 compared to 33–40% overhead for 6-bit encoding methods like uuencode and Base64.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YEnc

I use this lib for yEnc encode https://www.npmjs.com/package/simple-yenc

What I am doing wrong.
This browser test encode image to string

/** @param {Blob} img */
const test = img => {
    // yEnc
    img.arrayBuffer()
        .then(arrayBuffer => console.log(dynamicEncode(new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer))));

    // base64
    const reader = new FileReader();
    reader.onloadend = () => console.log(reader.result);
    reader.readAsDataURL(img);
};

yEnc string is 5.5 MB
base64 string is 4.7 MB

My goal is to store image in JSON.

You should probably provide a sample input that demonstrates this issue. Since yEnc works by escaping certain values while leaving others intact, perhaps your input just happens to have a large population of those particular symbols that are escaped, but this is just guesswork on my part. — 500 - Internal Server Error
– 500 - Internal Server Error, Commented Oct 30 at 18:42

user1167761 · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-31 15:14:41Z

0

As I understand, yEnc don't work with UTF-8.

It is not really binary-to-text though, it is more "binary to binary which can pass through common NNTP servers/clients as long as common encodings like latin1 are used" The last part is critical - yEnc is incompatible with more complex encodings like UTF-8, which is why it is completely useless today.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34680371

answered Oct 31 at 15:14

user1167761

4034 silver badges18 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

yEnc encoded string of a blob is larger than base64

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related