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e are witnessing phenomenal

increases in the use of images
in many different applications.
This is mainly due to: 1) technological advances impacting several
image operations; 2) the availability of
sophisticated software tools for the
manipulation and management, and 3)
the World Wide Web (WWW) providing easy access to a wide range of users.
Typical applications using huge
amounts of images are medical imaging,
remote sensing, entertainment, digital
libraries, distance learning and training
and multimedia.
Digital images require huge
amounts of space for storage and large
bandwidths for transmission. For
example, a single 640 480 pixel color
image using 24 bits/pixel requires close
to one megabyte of space. Despite the
technological advances in storage and
transmission, the demands placed on
the storage capacities and on the bandwidth of communication exceed the
availability. Image compression has
proved to be a viable technique as one
solution response.
Digital images generally contain significant amounts of spatial and spectral
redundancy. Spatial redundancy is due
to the correlation between neighboring
pixel values, and spectral redundancy is
due to the correlation between different
color planes. Image compression (coding) techniques reduce the number of
bits required to represent an image by
taking advantage of these redundancies.
An inverse process called decompression (decoding) is applied to the compressed data to get the reconstructed
image. The objective of compression is
to reduce the number of bits as much as
possible, while keeping the resolution
and the visual quality of the reconstructed image as close to the original image
as possible.
This article gives an overview of the
major image compression techniques.
The decoding steps for most of the coding schemes are quite intuitive and are
usually the reverse of the encoding steps.
The reader is referred to the Read more
about it for the details. In this article,
the terms compression and coding are
used synonymously.

Basics of image
representation
An image is essentially a 2-D signal
processed by the Human Visual System.
The signals representing images are usu-

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2001

ally in analog form. However, for processing, storage and transmission by

computer applications, they are converted from analog to digital form. For display and presentation, however, they
usually need to be in analog form.
In this article, the term image
refers to digital image. A digital
image is basically a 2-dimensional array
of pixels (picture elements). An image
whose pixels have one of only two
intensity levels (black and white) is
called a bi-tonal (or bi-level) image.
Printed text on paper is a common
example of this class of images.
In a continuous-tone image, the
pixels have a range of values. For
example, in a typical gray-scale
image, the pixels could have values in the range [0 - 255], representing different gray levels.
In a typical color image
used for display, each pixel
has three color components
(R, G, B) corresponding to
the three primary colors,
red, green and blue. Each
pixel of a typical color
image to be transmitted has
three components (Y, I, Q),
where Y is the luminance
(brightness) component and
I and Q are chrominance
(color) components. Each
component of (R, G, B) or
(Y, I, Q) requires 8
bits/pixel. Thus, color
images (usually) require 24
bits/pixel. The number of
pixels in each dimension in
an image defines the
images resolutionmore
pixels mean more details are
seen in the image.

Lossy schemes are widely used since the

quality of the reconstructed images is
adequate for most applications. A taxonomy of image compression techniques is
given in Fig. 1.
Practical compression systems and
standards use hybrid coding. This is a
combination of several basic lossy
coding techniques. They include:
a) transform coding and predictive coding, b) subband
coding and transform
coding and c) predictive coding and vector quantization. In
addition, the output

The taxonomy
The image compression techniques
are broadly classified as either lossless or
lossy, depending, respectively, on
whether or not an exact replica of the
original image could be reconstructed
using the compressed image. Lossless
compression is also referred to as
entropy coding. In addition to using the
spatial and spectral redundancies, lossy
techniques also take advantage of the
way people see to discard data that are
perceptually insignificant.
Lossy schemes provide much higher
compression ratios than lossless
schemes. Lossless compression is used
only for a few applications with stringent
requirements such as medical imaging.

of
the
lossy coding scheme is
further compressed using a
lossless coding scheme
such as Huffman or
Arithmetic coding.
Digital Vision Ltd.

Lossless image
compression
In lossless compression techniques,
the original image can be perfectly recovered from the compressed (encoded)
image. These are also called noiseless
[since they do not add noise to the signal

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Lossless Coding Techniques

(Entropy Coding)

Repetitive
Sequence
Encoding
RLE

Statistical
Encoding
Huffman
Arithmetic
LZW

Lossless
Predictive
Coding

Lossy Coding Techniques

(Source Coding)

Bitplane
Encoding

Block
Truncation
Coding

DPCM

Fig. 1 The taxonomy of image compression

(image)], or entropy coding (since they

use statistical/decomposition techniques
to eliminate/minimize redundancy).
Run length encoding. This technique
replaces sequences of identical symbols
(pixels), called runs by shorter symbols.
This technique is usually used as a postprocessing step after applying a lossy
technique to the image and obtaining a
set of data values that are suitably reordered to get long runs of similar values.
Huffman coding. This is a general
technique for coding symbols based on
their statistical occurrence frequencies
(probabilities). The pixels in the image
are treated as symbols. The symbols that
occur more frequently are assigned a
smaller number of bits, while the symbols that occur less frequently are
assigned a relatively larger number of
bits. Huffman code is a prefix code. This
means that the (binary) code of any symbol is not the prefix of the code of any
other symbol. Most image coding standards use lossy techniques in the earlier
stages of compression and use Huffman
coding as the final step.
Arithmetic coding. Like Huffman
coding, this is a statistical technique.
However, instead of coding each symbol
separately, the whole data sequence is
coded with a single code. Thus, the correlation between neighboring pixels is
exploited. Arithmetic coding is based on
the following principle. Given that a) the
symbol alphabet is finite; b) all possible
symbol sequences of a given length are
finite; c) all possible sequences are
countably infinite; d) the number of real
numbers in the interval [0, 1] is uncountably infinite, we can assign a unique
subinterval for any given input
(sequence of symbols). This is the code
(tag) for the input.
The cumulative density function
(CDF) of the symbol probabilities is used
to partition the interval (usually [0, 1])
into subintervals and map the sequence
of symbols to a unique subinterval. This
scheme is well suited to small set of
symbols with highly skewed probabilities of occurrence. Arithmetic coding is
used as the final step in several image
coding applications and standards.
Lempel-Ziv coding. This is based on

Lossy
Predictive
Coding
DPCM
ADPCM
Delta
Modulation

Transform
Coding

Subband
Coding

DFT
DCT
Haar
Hadamard

Subbands
Wavelets

Fractal
Coding

bits in the bit planes are similar. This

makes the individual bit planes
amenable for good compression.
Vector
Quantization

Lossy image compression

All known lossy image compression techniques take advantage of how
we see things. The human visual system is more sensitive to the lower frequencies than to the higher frequencies
in the visual spectrum. Thus, we derive
the (spatial) frequencies of an image and
suitably allocate more bits for those frequency components that have more visual impact. We then allocate less bits, or
even discard, the insignificant components. The resulting image is represented

storing frequently occurring sequences

of symbols (pixels) in a dictionary
(table). Such frequently occurring
sequences in the original data (image)
are represented by just their indices into
the dictionary. This has been used in
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) and
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) file
formats. This scheme has also been used
for compressing half-tone
Prediction/
Entropy
Original
Compressed
images. (HalfTransformation/
Quantization
(Lossless)
Data
Data
Decomposition/
Coding
tone images
are
binary
images that Fig. 2 Outline of lossy image compression
provide the
with fewer bits and reconstructed with a
visual effect of continuous-tone gray
better closeness to the original.
images by using variations of the density
To achieve this goal, one of the folof black dots in the images).
lowing operations is generally perPredictive coding. This is based on
formed: 1) a predicted image is formed.
the assumption that the pixels in images
Its pixels are predicted based on the valconform to the autoregressive model,
ues of neighboring pixel of the original
where each pixel is a linear combination
image, and then a differential (residual)
of its immediate neighbors. The lossless
image is derived (it is the difference
differential pulse code modulation
between the original and the predicted
(DPCM) technique is the most common
image.); 2) a transformed image is
type of lossless predictive coding. In the
derived by applying a transform to the
lossless DPCM scheme, each pixel
original image. This essentially transvalue (except at the boundaries) of the
forms the pixel values to the frequency
original image is first predicted based
domain; 3) the original image is decomon its neighbors to get a predicted
posed into different components (in the
image. Then the difference between the
frequency domain).
actual and the predicted pixel values is
In 1), the dynamic range of the signal
computed to get the differential or
values is reduced; in 2) and 3) a repreresidual image. The residual image will
sentation that is more efficiently coded is
have a much less dynamic range of
derived. In each case, there exits an
pixel values. This image is then effiinverse operation, which yields the origiciently encoded using Huffman coding.
nal image (lossless), when it is applied to
Bit-plane encoding. In this scheme,
the new representation.
the binary representations of the values
However, to achieve compression the
of the pixels in the image are considered.
redundant information the human eye
The corresponding bits in each of the
considers perceptually insignificant is
positions in the binary representation
discarded. This is done using quantizaform a binary image of the same dimention. The new representation has desirsions as the original image. This is called
a bit plane. Each of the bit planes can
able properties. The quantized data has
then be efficiently coded using a lossless
much less variance than the original.
technique.
Entropy coding is then applied to achieve
The underlying principle is that (in
further compression.
most images) the neighboring pixels are
The outline of lossy compression
correlated. That means the values of the
techniques is shown in Fig. 2. Please
neighboring pixels differ by small
note that the prediction-transformationamounts. They can be captured by the
decomposition process is completely
representation of pixel values in gray
reversible. The quantization process (see
code so that the values of neighboring
box) results in loss of information. The

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entropy coding after the quantization

step, however, is lossless. The decoding
is a similar but reverse process: a)
entropy decoding is applied to the compressed data to get the quantized data, b)
dequantization is applied to it, and then
c) the inverse transformation to get the
reconstructed image. (This is an approximation of the original image.)
Major performance considerations of
a lossy compression scheme are: a) the
compression ratio (CR), b) the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) of the reconstructed
image with respect to the original, and c)
the speed of encoding and decoding. The
compression ratio is given by:
CR =

size of uncompressed data

size of compressed data

The PSNR is given by:

PSNR = 20 log10(peak data value/RMSE)

where RMSE is the root mean square

error, given by:
RMSE =

1 N M
Ii, j Ii, j
NM i =1 j =1

where N M is the image size, Ii,j and Ii,j

are values of pixels at (i,j) in the original
and the reconstructed (compresseddecompressed) images, respectively.
Predictive coding. In most images,
there is a high correlation among neighboring pixels. This fact is used in predictive coding. Differential Pulse Code
Modulation (DPCM) is a popular predictive coding technique. The lossy
DPCM is very similar to the lossless
version. The major difference is that in
lossy DPCM, the pixels are predicted
based on the reconstructed values of
certain neighboring pixels. The difference between the predicted value and
the actual value of the pixels is the differential (residual) image. It is much
less correlated than the original image.
The differential image is then quantized
and encoded.
The schematic for lossy DPCM coder
is shown in Fig. 3, along with a thirdorder predictor. (In a third-order predictor, three previous values are used to predict each pixel.) Note that the decoder
has access only to the reconstructed values of (previous) pixels while forming
predictions of pixels. Since the quantization of the differential image introduces
error, the reconstructed values generally
differ from the original values. To ensure
identical predictions at both the encoder
and decoder, the encoder also uses the
reconstructed pixel values in its prediction. This is done by using the quantizer
within the prediction loop. (In essence,

the decoder is built into the encoder).

The design of a DPCM coder
involves optimizing the predictor and the
quantizer. The inclusion of the quantizer
in the prediction loop results in a complex dependency between the prediction
error and the quantization error.
However, the predictor and quantizer are
usually optimized separately, since a
joint optimization is usually complex.
[Under mean-squared error (MSE) optimization criterion, independent optimizations of the predictor and quantizer are
good approximations to the jointly optimized solution.]
Block truncation coding. In this
scheme, the image is divided into nonoverlapping blocks of pixels. For each
block, threshold and reconstruction values are determined. The threshold is
usually the mean of the pixel values in
the block. Then a bitmap of the block is
derived by replacing all pixels whose
values are greater than or equal (less
than) to the threshold by a 1 (0). Then
for each segment (group of 1s and 0s) in
the bitmap, the reconstruction value is
determined. This is the average of the
values of the corresponding pixels in the
original block. The broad outline of
block truncation coding of images is
shown in Fig. 4.

the energy of the original data being concentrated in only a few of the significant
transform coefficients. This is the basis
of achieving the compression. Only
those few significant coefficients are
selected and the remaining are discarded.
The selected coefficients are considered
for further quantization and entropy
encoding. DCT coding has been the most
common approach to transform coding.
It is also adopted in the JPEG image
compression standard. The broad outline
of transform coding of images is shown
in Fig. 5.
Subband coding. In this scheme, the
image is analyzed to produce the components containing frequencies in welldefined bands, the subbands.
Subsequently, quantization and coding is
applied to each of the bands. The advantage of this scheme is that the quantization and coding well suited for each of
the subbands can be designed separately.
The broad outline of transform coding of
images is shown in Fig. 6.
Vector quantization. The basic idea in
this technique is to develop a dictionary
of fixed-size vectors, called code vectors.
A vector is usually a block of pixel values. A given image is then partitioned
into non-overlapping blocks (vectors)
called image vectors. Then for each

Encoder

Third-Order
Predictor

dm
xm

dm

Quantizer

qm

Entropy
Coder

Channel
B

pm
Reconstructor
sm
Predictor

rm

xm
pm
dm
rm
sm

Original Value
Predicted Value
Prediction Error
Reconstructed Value
Quantized, Reconstructed,
Prediction Error

A
Predicted Value of this Pixel:
a.A + b.B + c.C

Fig. 3 Lossy DPCM coding scheme

Divide Original
Image Into Blocks
Determine
Quantization Threshold
and Reconstruction
Level for Each Block

Quantize
Each Block

Bitmap
of Block

Entropy Code:
Bitmap and
Reconstruction
Level

Fig. 4 Outline of block truncation coding of images

Transform coding. In this coding

scheme, transforms such as DFT
(Discrete Fourier Transform) and DCT
(Discrete Cosine Transform) are used to
change the pixels in the original image
into frequency domain coefficients
(called transform coefficients).
These coefficients have several desirable properties. One is the energy compaction property that results in most of

image vector, the closest matching vector

in the dictionary is determined and its
index in the dictionary is used as the
encoding of the original image vector.
Thus, each image is represented by a
sequence of indices that can be further
entropy coded. The outline of the scheme
is shown in Fig. 7.
Fractal coding. The essential idea
here is to decompose the image into seg-

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Quantization
Coefficient Selection:
Zonal/Threshold

Entropy
Coding

Bit Allocation
Divide Image Into
Non-Overlapping
Blocks

Apply Transform
to Each Block

Fig. 5 Outline of transform coding

of images

Group 4 Fax

Image Components
at Different
Frequency Subbands

Original Image
Analysis
SubFilter
Sampling
Bank

Quantization

Entropy
Coding

Fig. 6 Outline of subband coding of images

ments by using standard image processing techniques such as color separation,

edge detection, and spectrum and texture
analysis. Then each segment is looked
up in a library of fractals. The library
actually contains codes called iterated
function system (IFS) codes, which are
compact sets of numbers. Using a systematic procedure, a set of codes for a
given image are determined, such that
when the IFS codes are applied to a suitable set of image blocks yield an image
that is a very close approximation of the
original. This scheme is highly effective
for compressing images that have good
regularity and self-similarity. The broad
outline of fractal coding of images is
shown in Fig. 8.

Image compression
standards
Image compression standards have
been developed to facilitate the interoperability of compression and decompression of schemes across several hardware
platforms, operating systems and applications. Most standards are hybrid systems making use of a few of the basic
techniques already mentioned. The major
image compression standards are Group
3, Group 4, and JBIG (Joint Bi-level
Image Group) for bi-tonal images, and
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
Group) for continuous-tone images. The
most common application that uses compression of bi-tonal images is digital facsimile (FAX).

Group 3 Fax
The image is scanned left-to-right and
top-to-bottom and the runs of each
colorblack and whiteare determined. A run refers to a sequence of con-

used for runs with lengths less than 64.

For runs with length greater than 64, a
make-up code is followed by a terminating code. The make-up codes represent
run lengths of multiples of 64
(64,128,192,...). Tables specifying the
terminating codes and make-up codes for
the white and black runs are provided by
the standard.

secutive pixels of the same value. The

first run on each line is assumed to be
white. Each line is considered to be made
up of 1728 pixels. Thus each line is
reduced to alternating runs of white and
black pixels. The runs are then encoded.
Each end of a line is marked with an
EOL. Page breaks are denoted with two
successive EOLs.
Two types of encodings are used for
run lengthsterminating codes and
make-up codes. Terminating codes are

The Group 4 (G4) fax standard is a

superset of the Group 3 standard and is
backwards compatible with it. The G4
standard is said to use a 2-dimensional
coding scheme. This is because it uses
spatial redundancy in the vertical direction
also by making use of the previous line as
a reference while coding the current line.
Most runs on a line usually lie nearly
directly below a run of the same color in
the previous line. The differences in the
run boundaries between successive lines
are coded. The cases where a line may
have fewer or more lines than the reference lines are suitably handled. The
Group 4 standard generally provides
more efficient compression than Group 3.

JBIG
The Joint Bi-Level Image Group
(JBIG) standard was developed by the

Scalar quantization
Quantization is a process (function) that maps a very large (possibly infinite)
set of values to a much smaller (finite) set of values. In scalar quantization, the
values that are mapped are scalars (numbers). In the context of image coding
and decoding, the range of pixel values say N, is divided into L non-overlapping
intervals, also known as quantization levels.
Each interval i is defined by its decision boundaries (di, di+1). During encoding, the quantizer maps a given pixel value x to a quantization level
l: l = Q(x), such that dl x < d l+1. Each quantization level i has its associated
reconstruction level ri.
During decoding, the (de)quantizer maps a given level l to a reconstruction
pixel value rl = x, x = Q-1 (l). This introduces noise or error in the image (signal)

called quantization error. This is the root mean square value of the x - x.
The essential difference among various types of quantizers is in terms of how
the forward and inverse mappings are defined. These definitions are dictated
according to the number of quantization levels, the decision boundaries and
the reconstruction values. The basic design objective of a quantizer is to minimize
the quantization error, while being computationally simple. The quantizer has a
large impact on the compression ratio and image quality of a lossy scheme.
There are two broad types of scalar quantizersuniform and non-uniform. In
a uniform quantizer of k levels, the range of values is divided into k equally
spaced intervals. The reconstruction values are the mid-points of the intervals.
This is simple to implement but it does not attempt to minimize the quantization
error. A quantizer that takes into account the probability distributions of the pixels in images performs better. Such a quantizer is a non-uniform quantizer,
where the intervals are non-uniform. The most common non-uniform quantizer
is the Lloyd-Max quantizer. For it, the decision boundaries and the reconstruction levels are determined using the probability model of the image pixels such
that the quantization error is minimized.SRS

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International Standards Organization

(ISO) for the lossless compression of
bi-level images. Typically, these are
printed pages of text whose corresponding images contain either black
or white pixels.
JBIG uses a combination of bit-plane
encoding and arithmetic coding. The
adaptivity of the arithmetic coder to the
statistics of the image results in the
improved performance of JBIG. JBIG
also incorporates a progressive transmission mode. This can be used for the
compression of gray-scale and color
images. Each bit plane of the image is
treated as a bi-level image. This provides
lossless compression and enables progressive buildup.

JPEG
The Joint Photographic Experts
Group (JPEG) is a standard developed
for compressing continuous-tone still
images. JPEG has been widely accepted
for still image compression throughout
the industry. JPEG can be used on both
gray-scale and color images. JPEG consists of four modes: lossless, sequential,
progressive and hierarchical. The first
one is a lossless mode and the other
three are lossy modes. The sequential
mode, also called baseline JPEG, is the
most commonly used scheme.
The lossless JPEG mode uses linear
predictive schemes. It provides seven
different predictors. Pixel values (except
those at the boundaries) are predicted
based on neighboring pixels. The residual, which is the difference between the
original and the predicted image, is
encoded using entropy (lossless) coding
such as Huffman or arithmetic coding.
In the baseline JPEG scheme, the
image is divided into non-overlapping
blocks of 8 x 8 pixels. DCT is applied to
each block to obtain the transform coefficients. The coefficients are then quantized using a table specified by the standard, which contains the quantizer step
sizes. The quantized coefficients are then
ordered using a zigzag ordering. The
ordered quantized values are then encoded using Huffman coding tables, specified by the standard.
Progressive JPEG compression is
similar to the sequential (baseline)
JPEG scheme in the formation of DCT
coefficients and quantization. The key
difference is that each coefficient
(image component) is coded in multiple scans instead of a single scan. Each
successive scan refines the image until
the quality determined the quantization

tables are reached.

Hierarchical JPEG compression
offers a progressive representation of a
decoded image similar to progressive
JPEG, but also provides encoded images
at multiple resolutions. Hierarchical
JPEG creates a set of compressed
images beginning with small images,
and continuing with images with
increased resolutions. This process is
also called pyramidal coding.
Hierarchical JPEG mode requires significantly more storage space, but the
encoded image is immediately available
at different resolutions.

Summary

Video and Image Compression

Standards, Kluwer Academic, 1995.
R. J. Clarke, TransformCoding of
Images, Academic Press, London, 1985.
A. Gersho and R.M. Gray, Vector
Quantization and Signal Compression,
Kluwer Academic, 1992.
H-M. Hang and J. W. Woods (Eds.),
Handbook of Visual Communications,
Academic Press, 1995.
A. K. Jain, Image Data
Compression: A Review, Proc. IEEE,
69(3), 1981, pp. 349-389.
W. Kou, Digital Image
Compression: Algorithms and
Standards, Kluwer Academic, 1995.
A.N. Netravali and B.G. Haskell,
Digital Pictures: Representation,
Compression, and Standards (2nd edition), Plenum Press, 1995.
M. Rabbani and P.W. Jones, Digital
Image Compression Techniques, SPIE,
Vol. TT7, 1991.
K. Sayood, Introduction to Data
Compression (2nd edition), MorganKaufmann, 2000.

The generation and use of digital

images is expected to continue at an ever
faster pace in the coming years. The
huge size requirements of images coupled with the explosive increases are
straining the storage capacities and transmission bandwidths. Compression is a
viable way to overcome these bottlenecks.
All the techniques described here are
considered first-genLookup Code Book
Divide Original
eration techniques.
for Closest Match to
Image Into Vectors
The second generation
Each Image Vector
Image
Indices of
of compression techVector
the Closest
Index in
niquesalready
Code Book
Matches in
Code Book
underwayuse a
mode-based approach.
The images are analyzed using image
processing and pattern
Code Book
recognition techniques
to derive high-level Fig. 7 Outline of vector quantization of images
objects. The images

Image Processing
Original
Image

Segments

Color Separation
Edge Detection
Spectrum Analysis
Texture Analysis

Entropy
Coding

Library of Fractals

Lookup

(Iterated Function System)

IFS Codes
IFS: a Set of Contractive
Affine Transformations

Closest
IFS Code
of Original
Image

Affine Transformation:
Combination of Rotations,
Scalings, Translations

Fig. 8 Outline of fractal coding of images

are
then described with well-defined image
models. They are expressible using
much less information than the original
data. The challenge is in devising good
models that achieve good compression
without loss of fidelity.

Read more about it

M. Y. Barnsley and L. P. Hurd,
Fractal Image Compression, A. K.
Peters, 1993.
V. Bhaskaran and K. Konstantinides,

About the author

R. Subramanya obtained his Ph.D. in
Computer Science from George
Washington University, where he
received the Richard Merwin memorial
award from the EECS department in
1996. He received the Grant-in-Aid of
Research award from Sigma-Xi for his
research in audio data indexing in 1997.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of
Computer Science at the University of
Missouri-Rolla.

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