Data URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are a scheme that allows you to embed small files inline in documents, like HTML or CSS. Instead of linking to an external resource, the data for the resource is directly included in the URL itself. The typical format is data:[<mediatype>][;base64],<data>. For images, this means the entire image file can be part of the URL string.

Base64 encoding is a common method for converting binary data (like images) into a sequence of printable ASCII characters. This is essential for Data URLs because URLs themselves must be text-based. Base64 encoding takes every three bytes of binary data and represents them as four ASCII characters. This process increases the data size by approximately 33%, but it ensures the data can be safely transmitted and embedded in text-based contexts.

PixelString allows you to easily generate these Base64-encoded Data URLs from your image files (Serialization) or take an existing Data URL and render the image it represents (Deserialization).