Lossless, context-free data compression is implemented using a data aware compression scheme that is specific to the type of data being compressed. A modified delta compression scheme is used in which difference information is encoded with reference to a set of typical difference values that commonly occur for the type of data being compressed. Selecting the compression scheme based on the type of data being compressed allows highly-compressed, yet lossless, compression. In addition, the contextual information required to uncompress information is reduced or eliminated, thereby enabling random access of the compressed data.