Image to data URI: one FileReader call, a string split, and the ~33% base64 tax that decides whether to inline

A browser can render an image straight from a string instead of a URL. A data: URI like data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgo… carries the whole file inline as base64 text — paste it into background-image: url(…) or an and there is no separate network request, the bytes travel with your CSS or HTML. I built a tool that turns a dropped image into one, shows a live preview, the full byte math, and a verdict on whether inlining is a good idea. It has no server and no library, because it turns out it do