PGP ASCII Armoring

PGP key files and encrypted files may be saved in a format referred to as ASCII armored. This format is an encrypted representation of a file consisting entirely of printable ASCII (or text-mode only) characters.

Files in this format contain no binary values, and therefore may be easily sent as part of e-mail messages and visually examined using programs like Notepad.

Files saved in this format are approximately 30% larger than their non-armored counterparts. When decrypted, both armored and non-armored files reproduce an identical original.