Difference Between Lossy Compression and Lossless Compression

Lossy compression and Lossless compression are the two terms widely categorised under data
compression methods. The major difference between Lossy compression and Lossless compression is
that lossy compression produces a close match of the data after decompression whereas lossless creates
exact original data. Data Compression is a method of lessening the size of the data without significant
loss of information.

Content: Lossy Compression Vs Lossless Compression

1. Comparison Chart

2. Definition

3. Key Differences

4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR
LOSSY COMPRESSION LOSSLESS COMPRESSION
COMPARISON

Basic Lossy compression is the family of Lossless compression is a group of data

data encoding method that utilizes compression algorithms that permits the

imprecise estimates to represent the original data to be accurately rebuilt from

content. the compressed data.

Algorithm Transform coding, DCT, DWT, fractal RLW, LZW, Arithmetic encoding, Huffman

compression, RSSMS. encoding, Shannon Fano coding.

Used in Images, audio and video. Text or program, images and sound.
 BASIS FOR
LOSSY COMPRESSION LOSSLESS COMPRESSION
COMPARISON

Application JPEG, GUI, MP3, MP4, OGG, H- RAW, BMP, PNG, WAV, FLAC, ALAC etc.

264, MKV, etc.

Data-holding More Less as compared to lossy method

capacity of the

channel

Definition of Lossy Compression

The Lossy compression method eliminates some amount of data that is not noticeable. This technique
does not allow a file to restore in its original form but significantly reduces the size. The lossy
compression technique is beneficial if the quality of the data is not your priority. It slightly degrades the
quality of the file or data but is convenient when one wants to send or store the data. This type of data
compression is used for organic data like audio signals and images.

Lossy Compression Technique

 Transform coding– This method transforms the pixels which are correlated in a representation
into disassociated pixels. The new size is usually lesser than the original size and reduces the
redundancy of the representation.

 Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)– This is the most vastly used image compression technique.
JPEG process centres around DCT. DCT process divides the images into distinct parts of
frequencies. In the quantization step, where compression basically occurs least important
frequencies are rejected. And the critical frequencies are retained so that the image can be
obtained in the decompression process. The reconstructed image could contain some distortion.

 Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)– It provides a location of time and frequencies

simultaneously and can be utilized in decomposing a signal into component wavelets.

Definition of Lossless Compression

The Lossless compression method is capable of reconstituting the original form of the data. The quality
of the data is not compromised. This technique allows a file to restore its original form. Lossless
compression can be applied to any file format can improve the performance of the compression ratio.

Lossless Compression Technique

 Run Length Encoding (RLE)– This technique reduces the frequency of repeating symbols in a
string by using a special marker at the beginning of the symbol.
  Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW)– This technique also works similar to RLE technique and searches for
the repeating strings or words and stores them in variables. It then uses a pointer at the place of
the string, and the pointer points the variable in which string is stored.

 Huffman Coding– This technique handles data compression of ASCII characters. It constructs a
full binary tree for various symbols after computing the probability of each symbol and place it in
descending order.

Key Differences Between Lossy Compression and Lossless Compression

1. Lossy compression removes non-useful part of the data, that is undetectable while lossless
compression reconstructs the exact data.

2. Lossless compression can reduce the size of data at low extent. On the other hand, lossy
compression can decrease the size of the file to a greater extent.

3. The quality of the data degrades in case of lossy compression whereas lossless doesn’t degrade
the quality of the data.

4. In the lossy technique, the channel accommodates more data. Conversely, channel holds a
smaller amount of data in case of lossless technique.
Conclusion:

Lossy compression can achieve a high level of data compression as compared to lossless compression.
Lossless compression doesn’t degrade the quality of data, in contrast, lossy degrades the quality of the
data. The lossy technique cannot be implemented in all types of the file because it works by removing
some part of data (redundant) which is not possible in case of text.

PDF compression is a handy way of reducing the bulky size of a PDF file to make it more compatible for
certain tasks like printing, uploading or sharing by email.

However, there are different types of compression depending on what they do and these are known as
lossy and lossless compression! Well, how do you know are PDF files lossy or lossless?

In short, lossless compression means that there is no information lost during the compression which is
what makes PDF files different from other file formats because they are mostly lossless. A lossless
compression is also when the file can be uncompressed and have the uncompressed file looking exactly
like it did before any compression!

On the other hand, JPG images, for example, are lossy because when they are compression, they lose
data and quality when compressed.

There are benefits to both lossy and lossless compression and both have different uses depending what
you need.

For example, lossless compression is really great for maintaining quality. Your PDF files and the images
in them will always look the same as when you started, but your file might not be compressed enough for
your needs with the file still being relatively bulky.
Lossy compression is different because it decides how much of an image’s data can be thrown away or
not. The end result is that you have a similar image, but not an exact one. Lossy images tend to me a lot
smaller than the original lossless image.

Lossless PDF compression reorganizes your document’s data and stories it more effectively but never
compromises the document’s vital information.

Lossless compression has the main focus of saving you space, but never losing important details.

Lossless compression reduces a file’s size with no loss of quality. The resulting files are typically much
larger than image and audio files compressed with lossy compression.

Lossy PDF Compression

PDF lossy compress is most commonly used when the user needs to compress multimedia data that
consists of video, audio and still images.

Lossy file compression results in lost data and quality from the original version. The “lossyness” of an
image file may show up as jagged edges or pixelated areas. In audio files, the lossyness may produce a
watery sound or reduce the dynamic range of the audio.

Because lossy compression removes data from the original file, the resulting file often takes up much less
disk space than the original. A file that uses greater compression will take up less space, but may not look
or sound as good as a less compressed file.

Lossy compression is generally used for video and sound, where a certain amount of information loss will
not be detected by most users.

Online PDF Compressor

Our PDF Manager tool helps you to compress your PDF files by lossless compression. This means that
you can choose the level of compression you want before you reduce the file size, so that you don’t have
to sacrifice on quality.

With Tweak PDF Manager, you can just upload your documents through the drag and drop feature or
straight from Dropbox.

Then you can choose between extreme compression, recommended compression or less compression.
All have different levels of compression and quality, so you can perfectly suit your needs.

And then, just like that, you have a compressed PDF file ready for download in a lossless. There are a
large number of online, free PDF extractors and decompressors that you can use to regain your original
file once more.

Without compromising information, data or quality, your PDF file will take up much less space on your
computer’s drive.

You can visit our Tweak PDF Manager with the sidebar, and find easy access our compression features.