Compression Of Digital Files

• The digital encoding of sound, images and, especially, video produces large data files
• The average file size of a 500-page text document created in plain-text format in Microsoft Word is 1.8 MB, whereas a simple 30-second-long video may be 186 MB
• Such large files create important constraints in that they require a lot of storage space, it is more laborious to transfer the data across storage media, and transmission across computer networks such as the internet takes longer
• Compression


  Taking the original digital file and converting it into a new file that uses considerably fewer bits without significantly degrading the quality of the original content
• Compression is a way to reduce the number of bits used in encoding the data, so we can save on the memory needed to store the data and also increase the speed of transfer
• Compression ratio


  The ratio between the uncompressed file size and compressed file size
• The higher the compression ratio is, the less storage space would be needed for the resulting compressed file
• Types of compression


  • Lossy
  • Lossless