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RFC 959 was written in 1985. We think it deserves better than monospaced plaintext.

Before
w3.org/Protocols/rfc959
3.1.1. DATA TYPES 3.1.1.1. ASCII TYPE This is the default type and must be accepted by all FTP implementations. It is intended primarily for the transfer of text files, except when both hosts would find the EBCDIC type more convenient. The sender converts the data from an internal character representation to the standard 8-bit NVT-ASCII representation (see the Telnet specification). The receiver will convert the data from the standard form to his own internal form. In accordance with the NVT standard, the <CRLF> sequence should be used where necessary to denote the end of a line of text. (See the discussion of file structure at the end of the Section on Data Representation and Storage.) 3.1.1.3. IMAGE TYPE The data are sent as contiguous bits which, for transfer, are packed into the 8-bit transfer bytes. The receiving site must store the data as contiguous bits. The structure of the storage system might necessitate the padding of the file (or of each record, for a record-structured file) to some convenient boundary (byte, word or block). This padding, which must be all zeros, may occur only at the end of the file (or at the end of each record) and there must be a way of identifying the padding bits so that they may be stripped off if the file is retrieved.
After
prettydocs.dev

Data Types

FTP supports four data types that determine how file contents are interpreted during transfer. The type you choose depends on what you're sending and who's receiving it.

A

ASCII

Default type. Text files converted to 8-bit NVT-ASCII. Lines end with CRLF.

I

Image (Binary)

Raw contiguous bits, packed into 8-bit bytes. No conversion. Use for non-text files.

E

EBCDIC

For mainframe-to-mainframe transfers. Rarely used today.

Based on RFC 959, Section 3.1.1

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