Less is more with Data Compression!

Less is more with Data Compression!

DATA, the word itself contains so much of frazzledness, as data is the only subject which has so many processes, types etc like, preserving data, storing data, processing data, comparing data, extracting data, compressing without loss etc, which sounds tedious and fuzzy.

And it also gives abstraction of being HUGE in size. Preserving the huge amount data without loss of information is the biggest difficulty an individual/organisation faces. Large data may contain large no. of files, photos, documents which are useful.

The problem now arises for storing of this huge data without any loss! The loss may include loss in a bit of image, or loss of any important information from any file etc.

The question comes here is ” How the loss of information can occur in any electronically stored data?”

The answer for this may confuse or amuse you; the loss occurs while cleaning data, processing data or conversion of data eternally done in everyday tasks that use data.

This loss in data is harmful as the chunk of information is lost which may be important. Then what about images? How the loss occurs in images? The answer for this is, ” the bits of images are lost which makes it blur or sometimes stretched or partly lost the image.”

To store data without loss of data and quality, DATA COMPRESSION becomes a boon. Data Compression is ” art of reducing the size of file/document by reducing bits of a document without harming the quality”. This compressed data is used to store with less storage space and is also helpful during transmission of data.

 

 

It is the most useful method for storing the large amount data and for transmitting data. there are various techniques used for compression of data which are beneficial and efficient. Some examples of compressed data file are WinZip, RAR files, a .zip file, Tape Archive etc.

Data Compression Techniques include two major types of compression:
Lossy Compression
Lossless Compression

Lossy Compression is when the compression includes some loss of data during compression and when re-compression, 100% original data is not obtained. Examples of lossy compression are JPEG image compression, MPEG video compression, audio compression etc.It also yields a much higher compression ratio than that of lossless compression.

Some Advantages of Lossy Compression are:

  • Useful for smaller files
  • Quicker to send, store
  • Easy transfer
  • Cheaper as compared to lossless techniques.

Disadvantages include:

  • Low-resolution data
  • Editable data is discarded
  • 100% original data is not obtained
  • Low-quality printing of data

Lossless Compression is when the user gets 100% original data quality is obtained during re-compression is done.Examples of lossless compression are PNG compression, PDF compression, GIF etc.It has lower compression rate.

Some Advantages of Lossless Compression are:

  • Useful for large files
  • Exact data is restored after re-compression
  • High-quality data

Disadvantages include:

  • Compression ratio is low
  • Transfer time is high
  • Decoding is difficult

These Data compression techniques are both useful in their own ways. The important thing to notice is that the data quality must be maintained and Compressing the data is fruitful as it has many advantages.Using Data Compression the large data can be stored with lesser space, as it is said: “Less is More” ; is what one needs.

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