Data Compression Books

This book breaks ground even now in the 21st Century!

There's not a day that goes by - and I mean this literally -
that I do not use this book to break ground - and I mean that figuratively.
Wait - no, I mean that literally, too, come to think about it, if one
considers the as-yet-untilled fertile loam of consciousness the ground
through which this slender tome "turns the soil..." When seedling theory
raises a tentative monocotyledon into the light of possibility, it quickly
wellsprings into that cornucopia however you spell it of brilliant
whatchamacallit - information theory or simply the plain old everyday
garden variety GENIUS that we have come to expect of Peter D. Johnson,
boy inventor.

More, Professor Johnson, MORE!!!

I read a lot of books on Compression, but this is indeed the best one I ever bought. I love this book and read it frequently.

I am a gradute student in computer science and I have read a lot of books on this subject, including 1- Digital Image Compression, by Weidong Kou, 2- The Data Compression Book, by Mark Nelson, 3- JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard, by Pennebaker. I have also browsed few other books on this subject, but one thing I can say for sure, that this is the best book ever written on the subject of Compression. It explains the information theory and data Compression in the best possible way, with best examples. Once read, you will never forget the algorithms. I just love this book, and read it every once in a while.

The authors of this well balanced textbook succeed admirably well in teaching the subject to the union of students in math and in cs, and to engineers. The danger with subjects that cut accross fields is that they might appeal to the intersection of audiences involved rather than to the much larger union. The authors seem to be at home with all the types of readers, they realize that the lingo and the aim is different for the different and diverse groups of students. Indeed, the tools of information theory, data compression, and arithmetic coding are widely used in science. While the mathematical parts of the subject is old[Shannon, Kolmogorov..., measurements of information, entropy, channel capacity], the applications are still going strong, with new things coming out at a fast rate right up to the present. So the emphasis in the book on data and image compression is very appropriate. There is even a JPEGtool user's guide in the appendix.

I have used WinZip for a number of years but I never knew that it could do 1/2 the stuff that this book points out. For example, WinZip can create files that can actually unzip themselves. It can also protect your ZIP files with passwords and even test file integrity to make sure your ZIP files are not corrupt. One thing I really like is that it turns out you can set up your anti-virus program to scan the contents of ZIP files to make sure that they do not contain any viruses before you open them. On top of that the author does a really good job of keeping things short and sweet and yet making sure that everything is explained as much as it needs to be. I'll give this one 2 thumbs up!

Zip files can be easily opened and organized by those who understand the basics of managing them, and this covers the standard WinZip software which is usually used in the process. Beginners as well as those already familiar with WinZip will find Jerry Lee Ford's Book Of WinZip to be an invaluable guide to the program's useful, often hidden features; from file compression types and upgrading to modifying archives or printing a contents list. An invaluable guide to a popular, much-used program.

Ever have to send someone several files and rather than send them one at a time you want to send them as one complete file? You think that some sort of compression utility would be the answer but are not sure of which one. Well after 13 years and trying just about all of them I found WinZip to be the best and this book is an extremely helpful resource to making sure you are using WinZip to the maximum potential.

With only 160 pages you might think that everything you need to know couldn't possibly be in this book, think again. As the pages unfold you'll be amazed as to how much and how much detail is actually included.

With a starting point of the basics of WinZip you begin to find out what exactly can be done. Then comes the wizard, either the classic mode or the wizard mode to you the choice of how to handle the files you are working with.

From there you'll find out how to work with virus software, setting passwords and for those still in the DOS age you to have the option to work on the command line. The book has included a number of keyboard shortcuts that should make things easier for everyone.

I like the outline at the beginning of each chapter to let you know what is being covered. I also was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the step-by-step instructions with screen shots to help you along the easy. Overall this may be the one go to reference for all of the WinZip questions you have.

This book, written by several of data broadcast specification authors, is The Definitive Work on the ATSC Data Broadcast specification.

If you are an implementer of data broadcasting, you need exactly two things: a copy of the specification and a copy of this book.

I highly recommend this book to all those who develop or maintain data broadcasting systems.

The good point is that it is not at all a replication of the specification (though a true copy of the A/90 spec is added as an appendix). The concepts are clear, progressive and sufficiently illustrated.

Chapter 3 alone tells you most you need to know about MPEG-2 Systems standard. I gained extra insight from it even after I had studied the original 13818-1 spec.

I found this book to be a great resource for the engineering and design fundamentals that relate to the question "how is all that data formatted and organized in digital television broadcasting?" The MPEG-2 Systems Standard is one of the foundations of digital television. If you're interested in how MPEG-2 really works at the system level, you'll find this book an excellent resource. The chapter on MPEG Transport by itself is worth the price of the book, but it also does a great job explaining another arcane MPEG-2 Standard, Digital Storage Media Command and Control (DSM-CC). It turns out DSM-CC is very useful in data broadcasting, but if you were to pick up the IEC standard itself and try to make sense of it, you'd find it very challenging.

Even though broadcasters have not started transmitting data along with digital television, this book sets the framework for understanding how it will be done. It's written by those experts in the field who actually designed the standard, so you know the information is accurate.

What can I say about this book? It's the best material about Error Control, that you can find nowhere......... Try it, and I hope that this book will help you

What can I say about this book? It's the best material about Error Control, that you can find nowhere......... Try it, and I hope that this book will help you

Dr. Wicker has a rare gift: a genius who can write!

College-level collections strong in either science or computer science - into the intermediate studies levels - will want to add MATHEMATICS OF DIGITAL IMAGES: CREATION, COMPRESSION, RESTORATION, RECOGNITION to their collections. These three elements are key to digital imaging - and the math needed to carry out all these components are explored in a textbook which offers both theory and practical applications and exercises. College-level courses will want to consider this as a classroom text on the subject, but specialty libraries will also find it a popular pick for advanced self-study.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is quite academic in tone, but practical in content. It is more of a math book that uses imaging in its examples than a book about imaging that uses math as a tool. It does a good job of starting from the beginning in any mathematical topic it explains, going through an explanation of the theory including proofs, and almost always showing at least one imaging example to explain each mathematical topic. Exercises are included, but these are not generally proofs in the classical sense. Instead, you may be asked to draw a diagram or image proving a theorem, or be asked to explain how a particular image proves a theorem. Answers to selected exercises are in the back of the book. Because this book has such good explanations on subjects such as the SVD and information theory, it might be useful to students that are not that interested in imaging simply because the analogies made to imaging make the mathematical theory quite clear. However, the last two parts of this six part book are very much aimed at those who are interested in image processing. I notice that the table of contents is not shown here, so I do that next:

Part I - THE PLANE
1. Isometries
Introduction; Isometries and their sense; The classification of isometries
2. How Isometries combine
Reflections are the key; Some useful compositions; The image of a line of symmetry; The dihedral group; Appendix on groups;
3. The seven braid patterns
Constructing braid patterns
4. Plane patterns and symmetries
Translations and nets; Cells; The five net types;
5. The 17 plane patterns
Preliminaries; The general parallelogram net; The centered rectangular net; The square net; The hexagonal net; Examples of the 17 plane pattern types; Scheme for identifying pattern types;
6. More plane truth
Equivalent symmetry groups; Plane patterns classified; Tilings and Coxeter Graphs; Creating plane patterns;

Part II - MATRIX STRUCTURES
7. Vectors and matrices
Vectors and handedness; Matrices and determinants; Further products of vectors in 3-space; The matrix of a transformation; Permutations and proof of determinant rules;
8. Matrix algebra
Introduction to eigenvalues; Rank and some ramifications; Similarity to a diagonal matrix; The Singular Value Decomposition;

Part III - Here's to Probability
9. Probability
Sample spaces; Baye's Theorem; Random variables; A census of distributions; Mean inequalities;
10. Random Vectors
Random Vectors; Functions of a random vector; The ubiquity of normal/Gaussian vectors; Correlation and its elimination;
11. Sampling and inference
Statistical inference; The Bayesian approach; Simulation; Markov Chain Monte Carlo

Part IV- Information, Error, and belief
12. Entropy and coding
The idea of entropy; COdes and binary trees; Huffman text compression; Huffman code redundancy; Arithmetic codes; Prediction by partial matching; LZW Compression; Entropy and minimum description length;
13. Information and error correction
Channel capacity; Error-correcting codes; Probabilistic decoding; Bayesian nets in computer vision;

Part V- Transforming the Image
14. The Fourier Transform
The DFT; The CFT; DFT connections;
15. Transforming Images
The Fourier Transform in two dimensions; Filters; Deconvolution and image restoration; Compression
16. Scaling
Nature, fractals, and compression; Wavelets; The Discrete Wavelet Transform; Wavelet relatives

Part VI - See, Edit, and Reconstruct
17. B-Spline Wavelets
Splines from boxes; The step to subdivision; The wavelet subdivision; The wavelet formulation; Band matrices for finding Q,A, and B; Surface wavelets;
18. Further methods
Neural networks; Self-organizing nets; Information Theory revisited; Tomography

This well edited collection of the most critical and state-of-the-art models in both asset-level and portfolio credit models is a must have for any serious practitioner in the credit markets.
The subjects range from simple loan scoring approaches to complex CDO portfolio rating approaches and span every asset and approach in-between.
An excellent reference for credit risk managers and portfolio managers alike.

The book is probably the best technical reference on lossless compression ever published. All aspects of the book deserve kudos. It contains up to the date and to the point professional coverage of a wide field presented with an exceptional clarity. The balance between practical and theoretical aspects is excellent.

The book is mostly self-contained thanks to the intro part on the basics of information and complexity theory. The intro, despite its modest size, is superior to many dedicated textbooks. The other three main parts discuss compression techniques, applications and standards. The chapters are written by different authors and, as can be expected, are not all equal in terms of depth or practical applicability. However, all of them provide a list of well selected references, which compensate for some of the shorter chapters. The editors and the authors did a great job on delivering the text which is quite uniform in style, highly informative and yet very readable and digestible throughout the entire book.

Most methods are explained with enough details to start your own research or implementation. Whenever possible the authors compare different methods with tables and graphs. Thus, before a reader jumps into coding, (s)he can make an intelligent choice. (This, btw, comes from my personal experience. The next day after arrival the book helped me to find a better replacement for an inhouse method of encoding.)

Practitioners will also appreciate discussion of patent issues and possible workarounds, when applicable.

Bottom line - this is one of the most useful technical books I bought. A must have for anyone working with data compression.

The book is comprehensive, profound and systemic. If the contents are synthesized completely, the book will be very perfect.

Found the book very helpfull in writing batch files to backup my my data. Has all the utilities necessary on the cd.

This is one of those books that only gets a new edition when the author has something genuinely new to say, and this third edition of Sayood's excellent introduction to data compression is no exception. This particular edition is different from the second mainly in that there is a new chapter on audio compression that includes a description of the mp3 algorithm. Also there is additional information on the new video coding standards as well as the new facsimile standards.

As to the target audience for this book, if you are tasked with designing hardware or software implementations of data compression algorithms and you have some background in either electrical engineering or computer science, then this is a good book from which to learn and then to practice what you learn via some very good exercises. Some prior knowledge of information theory and random processes wouldn't hurt either. There is also an abundance of examples that are sprinkled throughout the book to illustrate concepts as they are presented. The author's approach in each chapter is to explain each concept in as an accessible manor as possible, present relevant equations, and then work an example using what has just been presented.

The book presents the mathematical preliminaries in chapter 2, and chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to coding algorithms which include Huffman coding, arithmetic coding, Golumb-Rice codes, and Tunstall codes. Chapters 5 and 6 describe many of the popular lossless compression methods and their applications. These methods include LZW, BWT, and DMC. Chapter 7 describes various lossless image compression algorithms such as JBIG as well as their applications. Chapter 8 discusses the mathematical background of lossy compression standards. Chapters 9 and 10 concentrate on quantization since it is the basis of most lossy compression schemes. Chapter 11 discusses differential encoding techniques such as DPCM and delta modulation. Included is a discussion of the CCITT G.726 standard.

Chapter 12 is the third and final chapter dedicated to mathematical foundations. It is meant to prepare the reader for the chapters on transform, subband, and wavelet based methods that encompass the following three chapters. The JPEG standard is covered in chapter 13, the CCITT G.722 standard in chapter 14, and the EZW, SPIHT, and JPEG2000 standards are covered in chapter 15. Chapter 16 focuses on audio compression and includes descriptions of the various MPEG audio compression schemes including mp3. Chapter 17 switches gears somewhat and covers techniques in which the data to be compressed is analyzed and a model is produced. This model is then used to synthesize the data and is quite useful in speech compression. Chapter 18 deals with video compression and diverges from the book's central theme of dealing with techniques rather than applications. The chapter discusses the H.261 standard as well as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 standards.

The website for the book, found at the publisher's site, contains a large number of C programs dealing with compression. I haven't tried to use any of these yet, so I can't speak to their validity.

This book has all the ingredients for a great textbook. It provides good theoratical background without going into unnecessary details, gives lot of discussion about applications, provides great exercise problems, and above all it has outstanding examples that makes some of the difficult concepts easy to understand.

Data compression needs a lot of background in information theory and other areas specific to speech, image processing etc. It is impossible to give a rigourous theoratical treatment of all of those in one volume. A strong point of this book is that it gives you just enough background on a variety of topics - without making the whole book obscure. In that respect, it is very application and implementation oriented. It is in fact what it says it is: A very good "INTRODUCTION to Data Compression"

The best thing about this book is the coverage and organization of the material. Sayood covers a wide variety of compression topics without getting into the nitty gritty details of them all. Thats why its an "Introductory" book. This book is a valuable resource for those who want to know the basics of various compression techniques and can be used as a starting point for further details. Some topics like arithmetic coding are covered in more detail than others. The book is also organized nicely with mathematical foundations provided as and when necessary.

The book is one of the clearest I have read as a text book. Why cant everybody write like this?? There is very good flow throughout the text.

Only complaint is the software. It looks the software has not kept pace with the book itself. Some additional software has to be added (for Transform coding, for instance), and some references in the text book to the software are incorrect. If the accompanying software is upgraded, as it should be, I will rate this book a clear 5-star.

Amazon claims that this is "the definitive guide". I have to agree with them because this book is the only broad grey pages introduction to data compression that I have been able to find, and it is very well written.

If you are only casually interested in data compression this book is not for you.

If you are interested in adding compression to your application and your data falls into a common category, sound, video, text ect this book is probably not for you. You should look to the open source community or buy an off the shelf product.

But if your data is odd or unique like say telemtry data (I'm sure there are other examples I just can't think of any) and you need to design a compression scheme for your data this book is "the only" book for you.

If you want to begin research into data compression and you are a newbie this book is a must have.