In mathematics, the collage theorem characterises an iterated function system whose attractor is close, relative to the Hausdorff metric, to a given set. The IFS described is composed of contractions whose images, as a collage or union when mapping the given set, are arbitrarily close to the given set. It is typically used in fractal compression.

Let ${\displaystyle \mathbb {X} }$ be a complete metric space. Suppose ${\displaystyle L}$ is a nonempty, compact subset of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {X} }$ and let ${\displaystyle \epsilon >0}$ be given. Choose an iterated function system (IFS) ${\displaystyle \{\mathbb {X} ;w_{1},w_{2},\dots ,w_{N}\}}$ with contractivity factor ${\displaystyle s,}$ where ${\displaystyle 0\leq s<1}$ (the contractivity factor ${\displaystyle s}$ of the IFS is the maximum of the contractivity factors of the maps ${\displaystyle w_{i}}$). Suppose

${\displaystyle h\left(L,\bigcup _{n=1}^{N}w_{n}(L)\right)\leq \varepsilon ,}$

where ${\displaystyle h(\cdot ,\cdot )}$ is the Hausdorff metric. Then

${\displaystyle h(L,A)\leq {\frac {\varepsilon }{1-s}}}$

where A is the attractor of the IFS. Equivalently,

${\displaystyle h(L,A)\leq (1-s)^{-1}h\left(L,\cup _{n=1}^{N}w_{n}(L)\right)\quad }$, for all nonempty, compact subsets L of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {X} }$.

Informally, If ${\displaystyle L}$ is close to being stabilized by the IFS, then ${\displaystyle L}$ is also close to being the attractor of the IFS.

• Michael Barnsley
• Barnsley fern

• Barnsley, Michael. (1988). Fractals Everywhere. Academic Press, Inc. ISBN 0-12-079062-9.

• A description of the collage theorem and interactive Java applet at cut-the-knot.
• Notes on designing IFSs to approximate real images.
• Expository Paper on Fractals and Collage theorem

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