Sign magnitude representation is used (instead of two's complement) for the output data. The most significant bit is used for the sign (0 if positive, 1 if negative). Then the magnitude of the quantized coefficient is stored in the next M most significat bits. The rest of the bits (least significant bits) can contain a fractional value of the quantized coefficient. This fractional value is not to be coded by the entropy coder. However, it can be used to compute rate-distortion measures with greater precision.

The value of M is determined for each subband as the sum of the number of guard bits G and the nominal range of quantized wavelet coefficients in the corresponding subband (Rq), minus 1:

M = G + Rq -1

The value of G should be the same for all subbands. The value of Rq depends on the quantization step size, the nominal range of the component before the wavelet transform and the analysis gain of the subband (see Subband).

The blocks of data that are requested should not cross subband boundaries.