Lossy compression
lossy
Adjective
1. characterized by or causing dissipation of energy
(antonym) lossless
lossy
<
algorithm> A term describing a data
compression algorithm which actually reduces the amount of information in the data, rather than just the number of bits used to represent that information. The lost information is usually removed because it is subjectively less important to the quality of the data (usually an
image or
sound) or because it can be recovered reasonably by
interpolation from the remaining data.
MPEG and
JPEG are examples of lossy compression techniques.
Opposite:
lossless.
(1995-03-29)
(c) Copyright 1993 by Denis Howe
Lossy compression
...any process for compressing an image file that causes the file, once uncompressed to differ from the original appearance of the image file. Many lossy compression file formats look very similar to the uncompressed file, as the information that is discarded is often not easy to identify visually" (Vogt O'Connor 1999:49).
lossy