> better encoding (4 bytes into 5 characters instead of 3 into 4) Todd, Shouldn't it be possible to encode 13 bytes in 16? I count 94 characters on my keyboard. lg(94) is just over 6.5. You should be able to encode 6.5 bits per character. I'm positive this is doable, but I can't think at the moment how to do it. -- --Jay, jay.krell@cornell.edu