Losslesstiivistyksessä

Losslesstiivistyksessä is a Finnish term that translates to "lossless compression" in English. It refers to a data compression method where no data is lost during the compression and decompression process. This means that the original file can be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed version.

Lossless compression is crucial for applications where data integrity is paramount. Examples include text files, executable programs, and medical images. When a file is compressed losslessly, every bit of the original data is preserved. This is achieved by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy in the data. Algorithms like Huffman coding and Lempel-Ziv variations are commonly used in lossless compression.

Unlike lossy compression, which achieves higher compression ratios by discarding some data that is deemed less perceptible to humans, lossless compression prioritizes exact replication of the original. This typically results in lower compression ratios compared to lossy methods. Therefore, lossless compression is used when the exact content of the data must be maintained, even at the expense of larger file sizes. Common file formats that utilize lossless compression include PNG for images and FLAC for audio.