If I don't do that, my expected result is not at all what I expect. I am basically comparing the output of your encode function with the output of STRCONV(string,13) in VFP 7.0 and up. If I do the STRCONV(string,1) before, the result is very close, but not quite the same, which gives me a fuzzy image when that data is decoded on the website that I'm sending it to.