This document discusses fidelity criteria in image compression. It defines fidelity as the degree of exactness of reproduction and identifies two types of fidelity criteria: objective and subjective. Objective criteria measure information loss mathematically between original and compressed images, using metrics like root mean square error and peak signal-to-noise ratio. Subjective criteria involve human evaluations of compressed image quality based on rating scales. The document also describes the basic components of image compression systems, including encoders, decoders, mappers, quantizers and symbol coders.