A method for processing an image, consisting of a foreground and a background, to produce a highly compressed and accurate representation of the image, including the steps of scanning the image to create a digital image of the image, comparing the digital image against a codebook of stored digital images; matching the digital image with one of the stored digital images of the codebook; producing an index code identifying the background of the stored digital image as having matched the digital image; subtracting the stored digital image from the digital image to produce a second digital image representing the foreground of the stored digital image; and storing the second digital image with the index code. Techniques are also provided to enable merge/purge of the database(s) thereby created.