Synopsis
Data compression is one of the most important techniques in computing engineering. From archiving data to CD-ROMs and from coding theory to image analysis, many facets of computing make use of data compression in one form or another. This book is intended to provide an overview of the many different types of compression: it includes a taxonomy, an analysis of the most common systems of compression, discussion of their relative benefits and disadvantages, and their most common usages. Readers are presupposed to have a basic understanding of computer science: essentially the storage of data in bytes and bits and computing terminology, but otherwise this book is self-contained. The book divides naturally into four main parts based on the main branches of data compression: run length encoding, statistical methods, dictionary-based methods, and lossy image compression (where in contrast to the other techniques, information in the data may be lossed but an acceptable standard of image quality retained). Detailed descriptions of many of the most well-known compression techniques are covered including: Zip, BinHex, Huffman coding, GIF and many others.
Review
From a review of a previous edition: "A wonderful treasure chest of information; spanning a wide range of data compression methods, from simple text compression methods to the use of wavelets in image compression. It is unusual for a text on compression to cover the field so completely." --Computing Reviews From the reviews of the fourth edition: "A clear presentation of both the principles of data compression and all the important compression methods currently in use. The book is geared towards the nonspecialists. ... can be a valuable reference for researchers with an interest in compression (or compression-related topics), engineers, and applied scientists working on products employing compression technology. ... Overall, the book is an excellent reference on compression principles and methods for anyone with a general background in signal processing or computer science." (Shahram Shirani, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, March, 2008) "The author’s comprehensive and informative presentation of these topics courageously does away with most of the theoretical topics needed to support the concepts – which is most welcomed. ... The text is easy to read... A collection of exercises for each chapter and a solid glossary are included. ...the book is attractive to both the incidental reader (who needs a brief description and no details) and the more thorough one (who may use it for starting a research or teaching project). ... The book’s size is alarmingly large, but appropriate for a complete reference work; it is rightfully titled." (Stefan Robila, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (9), September 2008) "Readers who rely on modern computing for their research and development projects will appreciate that data compression is one of its most important tools. ... this is the fourth edition of this reference text it has obviously served this field well and has been updated to account for the strides that have been made in this field. ... The new edition brings the text references to date and also introduces many new and important topics." (Kybernetes, Vol. 38 (5), 2009)
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