Software Architect's Handbook

File compression

Files that you transmit, such as images, video, or audio, can have high rates of redundancy. When a web page is downloaded, images might account for the majority of the bytes being downloaded. These types of files should be compressed to save storage space and increase transfer speed.

There are various tools and algorithms that can be used to compress different file formats. Among the choices you can make, depending on your needs, is whether to use a lossless or a lossy compression algorithm.