Digital image business applications are expanding rapidly, driven by advances in the technology and breakthroughs in the price and performance of hardware and firmware. This ever increasing need for the storage and transmission of images has in turn driven the technology of image compression: image data rate reduction to save storage space and reduce transmission rate requirements. Digital image compression offers a solution to a variety of imaging applications that require a vast amount of data to represent the images, such as document imaging management systems, facsimile transmission, image archiving, remote sensing, medical imaging, entertainment, HDTV, broadcasting, education and video teleconferencing. This work introduces the reader to compression algorithms, including the CCITT facsimile standards T.4 and T.6, JBIG, CCITT H.261 and MPEG standards. The book provides explanations of the principles and concepts of the algorithms, helping the readers' understanding and allowing them to use the standards in business, product development and R&D. It should be a useful reference for the graduate student, researcher and engineer.