The purpose ofoff the algorithm is, given a [[Polygonal chain|curve composed of line segments]] (which is also called a ''Polyline'' in some contexts), to find a similar curve with fewer points. The algorithm defines 'dissimilar' based on the maximum distance between the original curve and the simplified curve (i.e., the [[Hausdorff distance]] between the curves). The simplified curve consists of a subset of the points that defined the original curve.
