A method for compressing data includes transmitting a requested compression factor such as a quality factor known in JPEG compression, to a scanner or like peripheral device. The type of communication link between the scanner or like device and a host computer is identified, and based on the communication link type, the requested compression factor is altered to generate a new compression factor subsequently used to compress the data. The amount of buffer, such as scan buffer, used by the scanner or peripheral device may also be used to alter the compression factor prior to compression.