verlustlos

Verlustlos is a German adjective and adverb meaning lossless or without loss of information. In technical contexts it describes methods, formats, or processes that allow the original data to be perfectly reconstructed after processing, storage, or transmission. By contrast, lossy approaches sacrifice some information to achieve greater compression or simplicity.

In data compression, lossless algorithms reduce file size without any information loss. Common examples include DEFLATE (used in ZIP and PNG), LZW, and Huffman coding. File formats that employ lossless compression include ZIP, PNG, and audio formats such as FLAC and ALAC. In imaging, PNG uses lossless compression for image data, while formats like JPEG use lossy compression. In video and other media, lossless codecs exist but are typically used in archival or professional workflows due to larger file sizes.

Etymology and usage notes: the term derives from the German words Verlus t (loss) and los (without), yielding a phrase that literally means without loss. In German-language technical writing, verlustlos is the standard descriptor for information-preserving processes, as opposed to verlustbehaftet or verlustbehaftete Kompression, which denote lossy compression.

See also: lossless compression, lossy compression, lossless audio, lossless image, Verlus tbehaftet.