What is the function of lossless data compression formats?

Lossless data compression formats serve the purpose of compressing data without any loss of the original quality. This means that when data is compressed using a lossless format, it can be perfectly reconstructed to its original state when decompressed. This characteristic is especially crucial for certain types of data, such as text documents, spreadsheets, or images that need to maintain exact quality and detail, like technical illustrations or medical images.

In the context of image files, for example, formats like PNG or TIFF employ lossless compression to preserve every bit of the image data. This ensures that when the image is edited and saved multiple times, or if it is shared and downloaded repeatedly, no quality is degraded, and the image remains faithful to the original.

The other options provided focus on different aspects, such as altering image colors, increasing file size, or creating backups, which do not align with the primary function of lossless compression. Lossy formats, for instance, might reduce the number of colors in images for more efficient storage but would result in some quality loss, whereas increasing file size goes directly against the goal of data compression. Finally, while creating backups is an important task, it does not specifically pertain to the concept of lossless data compression, which is primarily