Digitization is the process of converting information into binary code so computers can store and process it, and it works differently for text and sound. For text, each character is assigned a numerical value through encoding systems like ASCII or Unicode, and those numbers are stored in binary form; the main tradeoff is between storage efficiency and flexibility, since broader language support and formatting features require more data. Sound digitization is more complex because sound waves are continuous, so they must be sampled at regular intervals and quantized into numeric values; higher sampling rates and bit depth increase accuracy and dynamic range, but also increase file size. Compression formats such as MP3 reduce storage needs by removing less noticeable audio data, but this can slightly reduce sound quality.
