What process is used to reduce the size of files?

The process used to reduce the size of files is known as compression. Compression algorithms work by identifying and eliminating redundancy in data. This reduction can be achieved through various methods, such as reducing the number of bits used to represent information or by reorganizing data into a more space-efficient format. For example, a lossless compression technique ensures that original data can be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data, making it ideal for files where quality is crucial, like text documents and images. There are also lossy compression methods that discard some data to achieve smaller file sizes, commonly used in audio and video files where slight loss of quality is acceptable.

In contrast, encryption involves converting data into a coded format to prevent unauthorized access, which doesn’t reduce file size. Encoding, while related to data transformation for readability or compatibility reasons, does not inherently aim to decrease file size either. Decryption is the reverse of encryption, restoring data to its original format and similarly does not pertain to file size reduction.