title: Base 64 encode vs loading an image file
body: <p>So I am working on something in php where I have to get my images from a sql database where they will be encoded in base64. The speed of displaying these images is critical so I am trying to figure out if it would be faster turn the database data into an image file and then load it in the browser, or just echo the raw base64 data and use:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQ..." /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Which is supported in FireFox and other Gecko browsers.</p>
  
  <p>So to recap, would it be faster to transfer an actual image file or the base64 code. Would it require less http request when using ajax to load the images?</p>
  
  <p>The images would be no more than 100 pixels total.</p>