How-To Geek

I'm looking for an image format converter, but before you point to the standard converters, like .png to .jpg or .gif to .ico, let me point out that the format I want to convert from is machine language.

I have an old email archived, and it has an image shown in the form "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZQAAAEqCAIAAAC9ZzHyAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA . . ." (that's what I'm calling "machine language", though that may not be correct . . . but you get the point).

I know that particular image is a color photo. What I would like to do is take that "code" and convert it back to an image format, like .jpg or .png, so that I can view it.

I have a vague memory that I ran across something like that one time, but if I do a Google search on "image converter" all I get is the standard stuff that converts those .jpg to .png and .gif to .ico and such. That's not what I'm looking for.

And if I do a Google search on "binary images" all I get is stuff about black and white and pixels for two colors and such. So that's not it either.

Does the animal I'm looking for exist?

(BTW, my OS is Ubuntu, so Windows graphics editors are out. Well . . . I guess I can somehow manipulate it over to my Windows VM if I have to, but I'd prefer something in Ubuntu.)

Hi Bob, what i understand is that you have something like this:

And you want to change it to something like this:

I'm probably wrong, but anyway :)

It was archived with the TB "ImportExportTools" extension, which does not archive attachments, but rather puts them in-line with that "lettercode". I archived it in plain text, so unfortunately I cannot resave it in .eml format. Besides, even if I could it would no longer have the attached image anyway.

@ SarahJames,

I think it's a matter of finding some sort of software that will decode the thing. As I said, I remember finding a web site that would do that. Instead of "image converter" I probably should have said "Decoder".

@ Hatryst,

No, that isn't it, but thanks for trying. As I said in my OP, it is just lines and lines of some kind of code (probably mislead people when I said "machine language". I think it's more like "uuencoded" or "binhexed". It is not ASCII art.

I found some on line base64 decoders, and a few I can download to my local machine. 'Sperimenting right now.

Actually, a base64 decoder is built right into Ubuntu, so it was under my nose the whole time. That one is not a GUI however, so I have to play with the command line a little.

Just looking at them all and seeing what is the easiest to use.

Interesting . . . I went from famine to feast.

Yes, they all work.