All lossy compression algorithms hallucinate. That's the whole point: reducing image size by dropping some information and then hallucinating a plausible replacement to decompress.
The only difference is that this compression is better at hallucinating, so you don't get ringing artifacts or blocks, but some internally consistent alternate reality.
If you don't want to lose data you should not use lossy compression at all. JPEG can erase the distinction between digits as well.
The only difference is that this compression is better at hallucinating, so you don't get ringing artifacts or blocks, but some internally consistent alternate reality.
If you don't want to lose data you should not use lossy compression at all. JPEG can erase the distinction between digits as well.