Abstract: A method of compressing an image comprises dividing the image into a plurality of scan paths, each path comprising pixels having the same or a similar colour. The position and shape of each scan path, together with the colour, are encoded and transmitted in a lossless compressed format, such that the entire image can recreated at a receiving end by a decoding process. The method finds particular application in active graphics systems, wherein each encoded image is an XOR combination of two sequential images, such that, from an initial image and a set of such encoded “combination” images, the second and subsequent images can be recreated.