Lossy vs Lossless: Why Your Photos Look Blurry
DefinitionReduces file size by permanently deleting "unimportant" data.
1The Simple Explanation
Lossy compression is like summarizing a book. You get the main idea, but you lose the specific wording. It deletes details the human eye struggles to see to save massive amounts of space.
2Technical Deep Dive
Available in JPG, HEIC, and WebP. It typically uses Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) to approximate color values in blocks (usually 8x8 pixels). High compression settings result in 'blocking artifacts'.
Common Misconceptions
Myth: You can restore quality after saving as JPG. Fact: Once you save a lossy file, that data is gone forever. You can never get it back.