Compression and compression types

• Compression is the process of making a file size smaller. This may be advantageous as it allows more data to be stored on the disk, and files may also be transferred more quickly. There are two primary methods that are used to compress files stored on a computer system; these are lossy and lossless.
• Lossless compression


  Uses an algorithm that compresses data into a form that may be decompressed at a later time without any loss of data, returning the file to its exact original form.
• Lossy compression


  A technique that compresses the file size by discarding some of the data. The technique aims to reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored.