  Inspired by recent work on compression with and for young humans, the success
of transform-based approaches to information processing, and the rise of
powerful language-based AI, we propose \emph{textual transform coding}. It
shares some of its key properties with traditional transform-based coding
underlying much of our current multimedia compression technologies. It can form
the basis for compression at bit rates until recently considered uselessly low,
and for boosting human satisfaction from reconstructions at more traditional
bit rates.
