adj.resulting in retention of identical data, often via compressionBailey 2006, 175Data compression, however, often affects the nature and format of the archival record, particularly if the compression is a “lossy” rather than a “lossless” process.Bailey 2006, 175, fn. 42“Lossy” compression techniques result in the loss of some of the data. Example formats resulting from this type of compression technique are the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) formats. “Lossless” compression techniques are those in which no data is lost. Examples of lossless formats include PKZIP, Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), and Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).Bushey 2008, 134Another major difference between RAW and JPEG is the use of compression algorithms; RAW can utilize lossless data compression (i.e., original data is compressed and decompressed as exact, identical data) and JPEG utilizes lossy-data compression (i.e., original data is compressed and then decompressed, permanently removing image information.)DPC 2015Lossless Compression A mechanism for reducing file sizes that retains all original data.Fallon, Leventhal, and Vowell 2022, 80Lossless data compression achieves size reduction while maintaining the same amount of information. In the case of an image file, this means that the original resolution of the image is maintained.
