Kompressiooni

Kompressiooni is a term that generally refers to the act or process of reducing the size of something, most commonly data. In computing, this is achieved through various algorithms that identify and eliminate redundancy within a file or data stream. The goal is to create a smaller representation that can be stored or transmitted more efficiently. When the data is needed, a decompression process is applied to restore it to its original form. There are two main types of kompressiooni: lossless and lossy.

Lossless kompressiooni is used when preserving the exact original data is critical. Algorithms like ZIP or GZIP work by finding repeating patterns and representing them more compactly, ensuring that every bit of the original data can be recovered upon decompression. This is essential for text files, executable programs, and archival purposes where any alteration would render the data unusable.

Lossy kompressiooni, on the other hand, achieves higher compression ratios by discarding some information that is deemed less perceptible to human senses. This is commonly used for multimedia files such as images (JPEG), audio (MP3), and video (MPEG). While the decompressed file is not identical to the original, the differences are often subtle enough that the user experience is not significantly impacted. This trade-off between file size and perfect fidelity makes lossy kompressiooni ideal for streaming and general media consumption. The effectiveness of kompressiooni is measured by its compression ratio, which is the ratio of the original file size to the compressed file size.