Editing Human-readable medium and data (section)

{{Short description|Presentation of data for humans to read}}
{{refimprove|date=March 2010}}
[[Image:EAN-13-ISBN-13.svg|thumb|220px|[[International Standard Book Number|ISBN]] represented as [[European Article Number|EAN-13 bar code]] showing both human-readable and machine-readable data]]

In [[computing]], a '''human-readable medium''' or '''human-readable format''' is any encoding of [[data]] or [[information]] that can be naturally read by [[human]]s, resulting in '''human-readable data'''. It is often encoded as [[ASCII]] or [[Unicode]] text, rather than as [[binary file|binary]] data. 

In most contexts, the alternative to a human-readable representation is a ''[[machine-readable format]]'' or [[machine-readable medium|medium]] of data primarily designed for reading by electronic, mechanical or optical devices, or [[computer]]s. For example, [[Universal Product Code]] (UPC) [[barcode]]s are very difficult to read for humans, but very effective and reliable with the proper equipment, whereas the strings of [[Numerical digit|numerals]] that commonly accompany the label are the human-readable form of the barcode information. Since any type of data encoding can be parsed by a suitably programmed computer, the decision to use binary encoding rather than text encoding is usually made to conserve storage space. Encoding data in a binary format typically requires fewer [[byte]]s of storage and increases efficiency of access (input and output) by eliminating format [[parsing]] or conversion.

With the advent of standardized, highly structured [[markup language]]s, such as [[XML|Extensible Markup Language]] (XML), the decreasing costs of data storage, and faster and cheaper [[data communication]] networks, compromises between human-readability and machine-readability are now more common-place than they were in the past. This has led to [[humane markup language]]s and modern [[configuration file]] formats that are far easier for humans to read.
In addition, these structured representations can be [[data compression|compressed]] very effectively for transmission or storage.

Human-readable protocols greatly reduce the cost of debugging.<ref>{{cite IETF|rfc=3339|title=Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps|section=5.2|sectionname=Human Readability|date=2002}}</ref>

Various organizations have standardized the definition of human-readable and machine-readable data and how they are applied in their respective fields of application, e.g., the [[Universal Postal Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upu.int/document/2005/an/cep_gn_ep_4-1/src/d011_ad00_an09_p00_r00.doc|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716234547/http://www.upu.int/document/2005/an/cep_gn_ep_4-1/src/d011_ad00_an09_p00_r00.doc|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-07-16|title=OCR and Human readable representation of data on postal items, labels and forms|publisher=Universal Postal Union}}</ref>

Often the term ''human-readable'' is also used to describe shorter names or strings, that are easier to comprehend or to remember than long, complex syntax notations, such as some [[Uniform Resource Locator]] strings.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://plone.org/products/plone/features/3.0/existing-features/human-readable-urls
|title=Human-readable URLs
|publisher=Plone Foundation
|access-date=2009-10-01
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305045500/http://plone.org/products/plone/features/3.0/existing-features/human-readable-urls
|archive-date=2010-03-05
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

Occasionally "human-readable" is used to describe ways of encoding an arbitrary integer into a long series of English words.
Compared to decimal or other compact [[binary-to-text encoding]] systems,
English words are easier for humans to read, remember, and type in.<ref>{{cite IETF|rfc=1751|title=A Convention for Human-Readable 128-bit Keys}}</ref>