Editing Run-length encoding (section)

==Example==

Consider a screen containing plain black text on a solid white background.  There will be many long runs of white [[pixel]]s in the blank space, and many short runs of black pixels within the text. A hypothetical [[scan line]], with B representing a black pixel and W representing white, might read as follows:

: <code> WWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWBBBWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWBWWWWWWWWWWWWWW </code>

With a run-length encoding (RLE) data compression algorithm applied to the above hypothetical scan line, it can be rendered as follows:

: <code> 12W1B12W3B24W1B14W </code>

This can be interpreted as a sequence of twelve Ws, one B, twelve Ws, three Bs, etc., and represents the original 67 characters in only 18.  While the actual format used for the storage of images is generally binary rather than [[ASCII]] characters like this, the principle remains the same.  Even binary data files can be compressed with this method; file format specifications often dictate repeated bytes in files as padding space.  However, newer compression methods such as [[DEFLATE]] often use [[LZ77]]-based algorithms, a generalization of run-length encoding that can take advantage of runs of strings of characters (such as <code>BWWBWWBWWBWW</code>).

Run-length encoding can be expressed in multiple ways to accommodate data properties as well as additional compression algorithms.  For instance, one popular method encodes run lengths for runs of two or more characters only, using an "escape" symbol to identify runs, or using the character itself as the escape, so that any time a character appears twice it denotes a run.  On the previous example, this would give the following:
: <code>WW12BWW12BB3WW24BWW14</code>

This would be interpreted as a run of twelve Ws, a B, a run of twelve Ws, a run of three Bs, etc.  In data where runs are less frequent, this can significantly improve the compression rate.

One other matter is the application of additional compression algorithms.  Even with the runs extracted, the frequencies of different characters may be large, allowing for further compression; however, if the run lengths are written in the file in the locations where the runs occurred, the presence of these numbers interrupts the normal flow and makes it harder to compress.  To overcome this, some run-length encoders separate the data and escape symbols from the run lengths, so that the two can be handled independently.  For the example data, this would result in two outputs, the string "<code>WWBWWBBWWBWW</code>" and the numbers (<code>12,12,3,24,14</code>).