The document discusses different data compression techniques, focusing on lossless dictionary-based compression algorithms like Lempel-Ziv (LZ). It explains how LZ algorithms like LZW work by building an adaptive dictionary during compression and decompression. The LZW algorithm is described through examples. Advantages of LZW include no need to explicitly transfer the dictionary and fast encoding/decoding through table lookups. Problems like running out of dictionary space are also addressed.