Method and apparatus for compressing data representing a set of symbols such that each symbol of the set can be separately accessed and decompressed. Each symbol of the set of symbols is encoded in the form of a two-part code wherein a first part of the code is common for all encoded symbols and a second part of the code encodes the data representing a symbol. An identifier is given for each symbol for permitting each encoded symbol to be separately accessed and decompressed. The invention is particularly useful for storing large fonts such as a Chinese or Japanese character set.