Patent ID: 8335385

Claim:
A method of compressing a block of multiple pixels each having a pixel property value, said method comprising the steps of: a) losslessly compressing said pixel property values of said multiple pixels to get a candidate compressed block; b) comparing a bit length of said candidate compressed block with a target bit length; c) providing a quantization parameter; d) quantizing, if said bit length exceeds said target bit length, said pixel property values based on said quantization parameter to get quantized pixel property values; e) repeating, if said bit length exceeds said target bit length, said losslessly compressing step a) using said quantized pixel property values and said steps b) to d) until said bit length is equal to or shorter than said target bit length; and f) generating a compressed representation of said block comprising the candidate compressed block having a bit length that is equal to or shorter than said target bit length and an identifier of a provided quantization parameter.