The maximum amplitude a digital system can represent. Also known as "full code", a signal has reached full scale when it has reached the maximum (or minimum) representable value. Theoretically this occurs when all bits are 1s, but this is a simplified analysis. Full scale also occurs when the minimum value (or maximum rarefaction amplitude) is reached, which would be represented as all 0s. Further, many digital systems use other digital encoding methods, such as two's complement wherein all 1s or all 0s actually occur around the zero crossing, and the maximum and minimum values are not as simply described. This article is about the unit of information. ... Rarefaction is the reduction of a mediums density, or the opposite of compression. ... Twos complement is the most popular method of signifying negative integers in computer science. ...

Once a signal has reached full scale all headroom has been utilized, and any further increase in gain results in an error known as clipping. Clipping has several meanings: Coin clipping, the act of shaving off a small portion of the precious metal for profit Clipping (computer graphics), to the task of making sure that only the visible part is actually drawn Clipping (gardening), or pruning, the practice of removing diseases, overmature or otherwise unwanted...

An important observation is that digital information only represents its analog equivalent, and must be reconstructed in order to reveal the original information. It is possible, therefore, for the signal represented by the digital data to exceed full scale even if the digital data does not.

See also

• dBFS