What is Base_16b ?

Base_16b is an open specification and open source implementation of a binary encoding using a special-purpose Unicode script.

What is it for ?

As with any generic binary encoding, Base_16b can be used to represent binary data in a textual format suitable for document based applications such as the web.

Base_16b is not designed to be necessarily human-readable.

Given its superior information per character density, initial applicability might be toward character-contrained, data rich use cases.

How well does it perform ?

Base_16b's optimum information density per character is nearly three times better than for Base64. More detailed performance data is available.

What are the trade-offs ?

The project's aim is to improve on existing encoding schemes, such as Base64 (6 bits per character), whilst maintaining standards compliance and promoting inter-operability with existing systems.

Although there are over one million Unicode characters (suggesting 20 bits), it is not feasible to encode using all these characters. Base_16b encodes binary data using a specified subset of Unicode's Private User Areas. We call this the Asyntactic script. The Asyntactic script can be used to encode up to 17 bits of data per character.