About file compression

In addition to color depth and image resolution, image file size depends upon the file format used to save the file. Some file formats store images as uncompressed data. Other formats use various compression methods and algorithms to reduce file size and preserve image quality.

The best file format to use depends upon the nature of the image data (text or picture), the color depth, and the quality you need.

While working with file formats, it is good to understand which type of compression a format provides:

  • Lossless — A compression method that causes no loss of image data. It reduces file size as much as possible without degrading the image quality.

    Lossless file formats include BMP, PNG, and most flavors of TIFF. PaperPort provides a lossless Best Quality setting for PaperPort Image (.max) files.

  • Lossy — A compression method that discards some of the image data to reduce the file size but sacrifices some image quality. JPEG is a common file format that uses lossy compression.

Setting the compression for PaperPort Image (.max) and PDF files

Click on the PaperPort button, choose PaperPort options About file compression Options, and then click the Advanced tab to set the image quality for new PaperPort Image (.max) files and PDF files that are created during certain operations.

Setting the compression for other image items

You can also set the level of compression for other image items, such as those in the JPEG  format, when you scan or save these files in PaperPort. The higher the number, the lower the compression and the better the image quality. For details, see Setting the quality of scanned items and Converting image items to different formats.

 

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About file compression