This clearly written book offers readers a succinct foundation to the most important topics in the field of data compression. Part I presents the basic approaches to data compression and describes a few popular techniques and methods that are commonly used to compress data. The reader will discover essential concepts. Part II concentrates on advanced techniques, such as arithmetic coding, orthogonal transforms, subband transforms and Burrows-Wheeler transform. This book is the perfect reference for advanced undergraduates in computer science and requires a minimum of mathematics. An author-maintained website provides errata and auxiliary material.