1. A method of compressing a block of feature vectors representing a feature associated with image elements of an image, including the steps of determining the distribution of the feature vectors; transforming each point pattern in a predetermined set of point patterns to fit the determined distribution; selecting a transformed point pattern that best fits the determined distribution; representing the block of feature vectors by an identifier identifying the selected point pattern in the set of point patterns, parameters representing the transformation associated with the selected point pattern, and an index for each feature vector representing the nearest point in the transformed selected point pattern.