  The fractal structure of real world objects is often analyzed using digital
images. In this context, the compression fractal dimension is put forward. It
provides a simple method for the direct estimation of the dimension of fractals
stored as digital image files. The computational scheme can be implemented
using readily available free software. Its simplicity also makes it very
interesting for introductory elaborations of basic concepts of fractal
geometry, complexity, and information theory. A test of the computational
scheme using limited-quality images of well-defined fractal sets obtained from
the Internet and free software has been performed. Also, a systematic
evaluation of the proposed method using computer generated images of the
Weierstrass cosine function shows an accuracy comparable to those of the
methods most commonly used to estimate the dimension of fractal data sequences
applied to the same test problem.
