HDF5 documents and links 
Introduction to HDF5 
HDF5 User Guide 
And in this document, the HDF5 Reference Manual  
H5   H5A   H5D   H5E   H5F   H5G   H5I   H5P  
H5R   H5S   H5T   H5Z   Tools   Datatypes  
(PDF of complete manual formatted as print volume)   

H5Z: Filter and Compression Interface

Filter and Compression API Functions

These functions enable the user to configure new filters for the local environment.
             

The FORTRAN90 Interfaces:
In general, each FORTRAN90 subroutine performs exactly the same task as the corresponding C function.
             

HDF5 supports a filter pipeline that provides the capability for standard and customized raw data processing during I/O operations. HDF5 is distributed with a small set of standard filters such as compression (gzip, SZIP, and a shuffling algorithm) and error checking (Fletcher32 checksum). For further flexibility, the library allows a user application to extend the pipeline through the creation and registration of customized filters.

The flexibility of the filter pipeline implementation enables the definition of additional filters by a user application. A filter

The HDF5 library does not support filters for contiguous datasets because of the difficulty of implementing random access for partial I/O. Compact dataset filters are not supported because it would not produce significant results.

Filter identifiers for the filters distributed with the HDF5 Library are as follows:
H5Z_FILTER_DEFLATEThe gzip compression, or deflation, filter
H5Z_FILTER_SZIPThe SZIP compression filter
H5Z_FILTER_SHUFFLEThe shuffle algorithm filter
H5Z_FILTER_FLETCHER32  The Fletcher32 checksum, or error checking, filter
Custom filters that have been registered with the library will have additional unique identifiers.

See The Dataset Interface (H5D) in the HDF5 User's Guide for further information regarding data compression.


HDF5 documents and links 
Introduction to HDF5 
HDF5 User Guide 
And in this document, the HDF5 Reference Manual  
H5   H5A   H5D   H5E   H5F   H5G   H5I   H5P  
H5R   H5S   H5T   H5Z   Tools   Datatypes  
(PDF of complete manual formatted as print volume)   

The HDF Group Help Desk:
Describes HDF5 Release 1.6.10, November 2009