Section 12 · Output & Production

Compression Trade-Offs

Definition

The balance between file size and image quality when compressing files for export.

• Lossless compression shrinks a file by storing its data more efficiently, then rebuilds it exactly on opening — nothing is lost. PNG and TIFF are lossless.
• Lossy compression makes files far smaller by permanently discarding detail the eye is less likely to notice. JPG is lossy, and its quality setting controls how much is thrown away.

Why it matters

Every export is a trade-off — too much compression degrades quality, too little creates unwieldy files for the intended use.

Example

A heavily compressed JPEG loading fast on a website but showing visible artifacting when printed large.

Note

Lossy damage accumulates. Each time a JPG is opened, edited, and saved again, it is recompressed and loses a little more — so a JPG should only ever be a final export, never a file you keep working in.

See also

File Types & Export Formats, for which formats are lossy and which are lossless.