About the Quoted-Printable Encode
Quoted-printable is one of the two content transfer encodings for email. Unlike Base64, it leaves printable ASCII as-is, so an English message stays readable, and escapes only the bytes that need it as =XX hexadecimal. This tool encodes the UTF-8 bytes of your text that way, soft-wraps lines at 76 characters with a trailing = as the standard requires, and protects trailing spaces.
Three characters get escaped wherever they appear. The = sign itself becomes =3D, since it introduces every escape, and a space or tab at the end of a line becomes =20 or =09, because mail servers are allowed to strip trailing whitespace in transit. Everything else from ! to ~ stays literal, which is why an English paragraph passes through almost untouched while a German one picks up a scattering of escapes.
It is the right choice for text that is mostly ASCII with occasional accented characters, where Base64 would obscure the whole message and add a third to its size for no benefit. Email headers and bodies both use it. The Quoted-Printable Decode tool reverses it, and Base64 Encode is the encoding to switch to when the payload is binary or written largely in a non-Latin script.
How to use
- Paste the text.
- Copy the quoted-printable output.
- Use it as an email body or header value.
Common questions
- When is quoted-printable better than Base64?
- For mostly-ASCII text, because it stays readable and adds little size. Base64 suits binary or heavily non-ASCII content.
- What is the = at the end of a line?
- A soft line break: it tells the reader the line continues, keeping lines within the 76-character limit.
- Are trailing spaces handled?
- Yes. A space at the end of a line is encoded as =20 so it is not stripped in transit.