Similarly, csexp atoms are binary (consisting of a length prefix followed by totally arbitrary "bytes"), while XML is designed to be human-readable (while arguably less so than JSON or YAML) so arbitrary bytes in XML must be encoded somehow (for example, a bitmapped image can be included using base64). This means that storing large amounts of non-readable information in uncompressed XML takes more space; on the other hand, it will survive translation between alternate character sets (including transmission through network hosts that may apply differing character sets, line-end conventions, etc.).