Abstract: General apparatus 10 for carrying out non-linear aggregation compression and storage of pixel data is presented. Scanner device 10S receives record documents 10R containing record images 10D for providing analog data 10A. Analog-to-digital converter 12A digitizes the amplitudes of the analog data to provide digital data stream 12D. Mapping device 14 defines a non-linear series of aggregation segments (A, B, C . . . X, Y, and Z) along the scale of intensity which are aggregated to an aggregation level (a, b, c, . . . x, y, or z) within each segment. The basic steps of the general method are: Retrieving pixel image data from a data source to form data stream 12D; Defining a non-linear series of aggregation segments; Determining an aggregation level within each aggregation segment; Aggregating the intensity scale levels within each aggregation segment; Compressing the aggregated pixel data; and Storing the non-linearly aggregated pixel data in a memory device.