Patent ID: 7853077

Claim:
A data compression apparatus that applies a data compression processing to data to be compressed, which consists of two or more color data each of which is represented by a succession of numerical values represented by a predetermined number of unit bits, the two or more color data being associated with two or more sorts of color element, respectively, the data compression apparatus comprising: a first difference creating means for determining differences between adjacent numerical values on a succession of numerical values constituting each of the two or more color data and creates two or more first difference data each of which consists of a succession of numerical values representative of the differences, the two or more first difference data being associated with the two or more sorts of color element, respectively; a second difference creating means for determining differences between numerical values constituting one of the two or more first difference data associated with a predetermined sort of color element of the two or more sorts of color element, and numerical values constituting each of remaining first difference data of the two or more first difference data excepting the one of the two or more first difference data, and creates one or more second difference data each of which consists of a succession of numerical values representative of the differences, the one or more second difference data being associated with remaining color elements of the two or more sorts of color element excepting the predetermined sort of color element, respectively; an offset means for offsetting, by a predetermined value, numerical values constituting individual difference data constituting a difference data group consisting of the one of the two or more first difference data associated with the predetermined sort of color element and the one or more second difference data associated with the remaining color elements, respectively; a dividing means for dividing the individual numerical values offset in numerical value by the offset means into an upper order unit bit portion and a lower order unit bit portion at a predetermined number of divisional bits that is less than the predetermined number of unit bits, so that the individual difference data constituting the difference data group is divided into upper order data consisting of a succession of numerical values of the upper order unit bit portion and lower order data consisting of a succession of numerical values of the lower order of unit bit portion; an upper order data compression means for applying reversible compression processing to the upper order data divided by the dividing means; and a lower order data compression means for applying the reversible compression processing to the lower order data divided by the dividing means.