The Content-Encoding representation header lists any encodings that have been applied to the representation (message payload), and in what order. This lets the recipient know how to decode the representation in order to obtain the original payload format. Content encoding is mainly used to compress the message data without losing information about the origin media type.
Note that the original media/content type is specified in the Content-Type header, and that the Content-Encoding applies to the representation, or "coded form", of the data. If the original media is encoded in some way (e.g. a zip file) then this information would not be included in the Content-Encoding header.
Servers are encouraged to compress data as much as possible, and should use content encoding where appropriate. Compressing a compressed media type such as a zip or jpeg may not be appropriate, as this can make the payload larger.
| Header type | Representation header |
|---|---|
| Forbidden header name | no |