How to convert image to base64 using PHP

The script below will use PHP to convert image to base64:

Optionally, to display the image using converted base64 data:

Below is more detailed information on the conversion process with notes and alternative methods for converting image to base64 data and display it.

The main purpose of converting image to base64 data is to be able to transmit and store image data from binary format to ASCII format. This way, we can display, or transfer the image data easier in text format.

Another minor benefit of using base64 image format is to be able to display the image on webpages using its base64 data in text format, without having to load the image file. Therefore, the number of HTTP request is recuded.

Although so, the actual data transmission using the image’s base64 data is actually more than the binary file itself. The converted base64 format’s amount of data will be always bigger than the original binary format by around 33%.

In conclusion, the benefit mostly only applies to small, tiny images (eg. icons) that would save the amount of requests to a webpage.

The primary steps to convert an image to base64 is:

• Get the image file content
• Convert it to base64 data

There is various ways to get the image file content.

This is the basic method to extract file contents.

Please note that, there would be web hosting disabled the file_get_contents() for security purposes. In that case, we have two more options.

This is another safe method to get image content that won’t be blocked on most web hosting.

Usually, there are two ways we wanted to display the image in base64 format:

• As <img> tag
• Using PHP to output as a standalone image

We can display the image in <img> tag by passing the base64 data as this format:

Where:

• {$image_mime_type} is the mimetype of the image, eg. image/png for png format, image/jpeg for jpeg/jpg format.
• {$base64_data} is the extracted base64 data from the image.

For example, with png image format:

Using this method will have the php page to display the page as if it’s displaying an image file.

The guide on how to convert image to base64 using PHP is now over. We hope you could understand its benefit, drawback of converting and displaying image as base64, and make good use of it in your projects.