A Non-Developer’s Guide to Base64 and URL Encoding (And When You Actually Need Them)

You’ve probably seen weird strings full of %20 or long blobs of letters and slashes. That’s encoding. Here’s the plain-English version of what’s going on and how to do it without writing code.

URL encoding in 60 seconds

• URLs can only safely include certain characters (letters, numbers, a few symbols).
• Spaces and special characters get turned into codes like %20.
• Use it when sharing links with spaces, punctuation, or non-Latin characters.

Quick URL encoding steps

1. Copy your text with spaces or accents.
2. Paste into TiniText URL Encode/Decode.
3. Click Encode; copy the safe URL string.
4. If you see a % mess and need it human-readable, click Decode.

Base64 in 60 seconds

• A way to represent binary data (images, files) or text using only safe characters.
• Common in emails, config files, small embedded images, and API payloads.
• Not encryption—just representation.

Quick Base64 steps

1. Paste a short snippet (or tiny image as data) into TiniText Base64 Encode/Decode.
2. Click Encode to get the Base64 string.
3. To read a Base64 string, click Decode and review the output.

Note: Base64 strings get ~33% larger than the original data. Keep payloads small.

Everyday use cases

• Sharing config snippets: Turn JSON with quotes into a single safe string.
• Debugging API calls: Decode Base64 fields in responses to see what’s inside.
• Embedding icons: Tiny SVGs can be Base64-encoded in CSS or HTML for quick prototypes.
• Cleaning URLs: Encode subject lines or search queries so links don’t break.

Where you’ve seen it

• %20 in links is URL encoding.
• Email attachments use Base64 behind the scenes.
• Data URLs like data:image/png;base64,... embed small images.

How TiniText helps

• URL Tools: Encode/decode instantly without touching a terminal.
• Base64 Tools: Encode/decode short snippets to see what’s inside.
• Text Cleaner + Diff: When copying payloads between tools, clean them and compare before/after to avoid mistakes.

Other tools (when you need more)

• Postman or Insomnia for API workflows.
• VS Code with REST client extensions.
• Browser devtools Network tab to inspect requests.

Sources & Further Reading

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/percent-encoding
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Base64
• https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/
• https://www.postman.com/
• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs