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Run-Length Encoding

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Run-Length Encoding

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TDelfuego
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Run-length encoding

Run-length encoding (RLE) is a form of lossless data compression in which runs of data (sequences in which
the same data value occurs in many consecutive data elements) are stored as a single data value and count,
rather than as the original run. This is most efficient on data that contains many such runs, for example, simple
graphic images such as icons, line drawings, Conway's Game of Life, and animations. For files that do not
have many runs, RLE could increase the file size.

RLE may also be used to refer to an early graphics file format supported by CompuServe for compressing
black and white images, but was widely supplanted by their later Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). RLE
also refers to a little-used image format in Windows 3.x, with the extension rle, which is a run-length
encoded bitmap, used to compress the Windows 3.x startup screen.

Contents
Example
History and applications
See also
References
External links

Example
Consider a screen containing plain black text on a solid white background. There will be many long runs of
white pixels in the blank space, and many short runs of black pixels within the text. A hypothetical scan line,
with B representing a black pixel and W representing white, might read as follows:

WWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

With a run-length encoding (RLE) data compression algorithm applied to the above hypothetical scan line, it
can be rendered as follows:

12W1B12W3B24W1B14W

This can be interpreted as a sequence of twelve Ws, one B, twelve Ws, three Bs, etc., and represents the
original 67 characters in only 18. While the actual format used for the storage of images is generally binary
rather than ASCII characters like this, the principle remains the same. Even binary data files can be compressed
with this method; file format specifications often dictate repeated bytes in files as padding space. However,
newer compression methods such as DEFLATE often use LZ77-based algorithms, a generalization of run-
length encoding that can take advantage of runs of strings of characters (such as BWWBWWBWWBWW).

Run-length encoding can be expressed in multiple ways to accommodate data properties as well as additional
compression algorithms. For instance, one popular method encodes run lengths for runs of two or more
characters only, using an "escape" symbol to identify runs, or using the character itself as the escape, so that
any time a character appears twice it denotes a run. On the previous example, this would give the following:
WW12BWW12BB3WW24BWW14

This would be interpreted as a run of twelve Ws, a B, a run of twelve Ws, a run of three Bs, etc. In data where
runs are less frequent, this can significantly improve the compression rate.

One other matter is the application of additional compression algorithms. Even with the runs extracted, the
frequencies of different characters may be large, allowing for further compression; however, if the run lengths
are written in the file in the locations where the runs occurred, the presence of these numbers interrupts the
normal flow and makes it harder to compress. To overcome this, some run-length encoders separate the data
and escape symbols from the run lengths, so that the two can be handled independently. For the example data,
this would result in two outputs, the string "WWBWWBBWWBWW" and the numbers (12,12,3,24,14).

History and applications


Run-length encoding (RLE) schemes were employed in the transmission of analog television signals as far
back as 1967.[1] In 1983, run-length encoding was patented by Hitachi.[2][3][4] RLE is particularly well suited
to palette-based bitmap images such as computer icons, and was a popular image compression method on early
online services such as CompuServe before the advent of more sophisticated formats such as GIF.[5] It does
not work well on continuous-tone images such as photographs, although JPEG uses it on the coefficients that
remain after transforming and quantizing image blocks.

Common formats for run-length encoded data include Truevision TGA, PackBits (by Apple, used in
MacPaint), PCX and ILBM. The International Telecommunication Union also describes a standard to encode
run-length-colour for fax machines, known as T.45.[6] The standard, which is combined with other techniques
into Modified Huffman coding, is relatively efficient because most faxed documents are generally white space,
with occasional interruptions of black.

See also
Kolakoski sequence
Look-and-say sequence
Comparison of graphics file formats
Golomb coding
Burrows–Wheeler transform
Recursive indexing
Run-length limited
Bitmap index
Forsyth–Edwards Notation, which uses run-length-encoding for empty spaces in chess
positions.
DEFLATE

References
1. Robinson, A. H.; Cherry, C. (1967). "Results of a prototype television bandwidth compression
scheme". Proceedings of the IEEE. IEEE. 55 (3): 356–364. doi:10.1109/PROC.1967.5493 (http
s://doi.org/10.1109%2FPROC.1967.5493).
2. "Run Length Encoding Patents" (http://www.ross.net/compression/patents_notes_from_ccfaq.ht
ml). Internet FAQ Consortium. 21 March 1996. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
3. "Method and system for data compression and restoration" (https://patents.google.com/patent/U
S4586027A). Google Patents. 7 August 1984. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
4. "Data recording method" (https://patents.google.com/patent/JPH0828053B2/en). Google
Patents. 8 August 1983. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
5. Dunn, Christopher (1987). "Smile! You're on RLE!" (http://csbruce.com/cbm/transactor/pdfs/trans
_v7_i06.pdf) (PDF). The Transactor. Transactor Publishing. 7 (6): 16–18. Retrieved 2015-12-06.
6. Recommendation T.45 (02/00): Run-length colour encoding (http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-T.45).
International Telecommunication Union. 2000. Retrieved 2015-12-06.

External links
Run-length encoding implemented in different programming languages (http://rosettacode.org/w
iki/Run-length_encoding) (on Rosetta Code)

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This page was last edited on 26 September 2022, at 07:10 (UTC).

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