{"id":1505,"date":"2014-01-05T17:39:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/file-compression\/"},"modified":"2014-01-05T17:39:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T17:39:00","slug":"file-compression","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/892\/file-compression","title":{"rendered":"File Compression"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Does File Compression Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

File compression is a data compression method in which the logical size of a file is reduced to save disk space for easier and faster transmission over a network or the Internet. It enables the creation of a version of one or more files with the same data at a size substantially smaller than the original file.<\/p>\n

File compression is also known as file zipping.<\/p>\n

Techopedia Explains File Compression<\/span><\/h2>\n

File compression is enabled through a file or data compression software that creates a compressed version of each processed file. Typically, file compression works by scanning an entire file, identifying similar or repetitive data and patterns and replacing duplicates with a unique identifier. This identifier is usually much smaller in size than the original word and consumes less space. Thus, the size of the compressed file is considerably smaller.<\/p>\n

Although there is no exact measurement of the actual reduced size of the compressed file, file compression reduces a file’s size by 50 to 90 percent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Does File Compression Mean? File compression is a data compression method in which the logical size of a file is reduced to save disk space for easier and faster transmission over a network or the Internet. 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