Basics: Image Compression
The pixel data of a DICOM image object is compressed by a lossless or lossy means. Before images are archived in Impax, they are stored in lossless form in the archive cache, so that all original data can be recovered when the file is uncompressed.
With lossless compression, every single bit of data that was originally in the file remains after the file is uncompressed. All of the information is completely restored. When you view study images on the CD Viewer, Impax has uncompressed the study images before burning them, fully restoring all data contained within the images.
If the Impax cluster receives images from another cluster, these images may already be lossy compressed. Lossy compression reduces a file by permanently eliminating certain information, especially redundant information. When the file is uncompressed, only a part of the original information is still there (although you may not notice it). When viewing images in CD Viewer, look for a triangle in the bottom right corner of an image. This triangle indicates that the image has been lossy compressed.