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Lossless vs Lossy

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Lossless is a class of data compression that makes data smaller without losing any information.
Lossy is compression that makes data smaller with the loss of some information.

Lossless vs Lossy

Lossless compression looks for patterns in data that allow for a smaller representation of the same data. Such algorithms may handle any data or they may be specific to an application such as audio.
Lossy compression also looks for patterns in data for compression but allows for a representation that drops some information from the original data. It's not safe to lose information unless you know what it is. As such, lossy compression is always specific to an application such as audio or image compression.
Lossless compression produces higher quality results. For example, lossless audio will sound better on high-end audio equipment. Lossy compression produces far smaller files with reasonable quality.
Lossless vs Lossy
Lossless
Lossy
Definition
Compression that makes data smaller without losing any information.
Compression that makes data smaller with the loss of some information.
Benefits
Higher Quality
Conserves resources such as bandwidth and data storage.

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