How to convert Bitmap to a Base64 string?

Question

I'm trying to capture the screen and then convert it to a Base64 string. This is my code:

Rectangle bounds = Screen.GetBounds(Point.Empty); Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(bounds.Width, bounds.Height);  using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap)) {    g.CopyFromScreen(Point.Empty, Point.Empty, bounds.Size); }  // Convert the image to byte[] System.IO.MemoryStream stream = new System.IO.MemoryStream(); bitmap.Save(stream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp); byte[] imageBytes = stream.ToArray();  // Write the bytes (as a string) to the textbox richTextBox1.Text = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(imageBytes);  // Convert byte[] to Base64 String string base64String = Convert.ToBase64String(imageBytes); 

Using a richTextBox to debug, it shows:

BM6�~

So for some reason the bytes aren't correct which causes the base64String to become null. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Answer 1

I found a solution for my issue:

Bitmap bImage = newImage;  // Your Bitmap Image System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(); bImage.Save(ms, ImageFormat.Jpeg); byte[] byteImage = ms.ToArray(); var SigBase64= Convert.ToBase64String(byteImage); // Get Base64 

Answer 2

The characters you get by doing System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(imageBytes) will (almost certainly) contain unprintable characters. This could cause you to only see those few characters. If you first convert it to a base64-string, then it will contain only printable characters and can be shown in a text box:

// Convert byte[] to Base64 String string base64String = Convert.ToBase64String(imageBytes);  // Write the bytes (as a Base64 string) to the textbox richTextBox1.Text = base64String;