This paper has the following contributions in iris recognition compass: first, novel parameters selection for Gabor filters to extract the iris features. Second, due to iris textures randomness and assigning the Gabor parameters by pre-knowledgeable values, traditionally, a large Gabor filter bank has been used to prevent losing the discriminative informat ion. It leads to perform extracting and matching the features heavily and on the other hand, the generated feature vectors are lengthened as required for extra storage space. We have proposed and compared two different approaches based on Genetic Algorithm to reduce the system co mplexity: optimizing the Gabor parameters and feature selection. Third, proposing a novel encoding strategy based on the texture variat ions to generate compact iris codes. The experimental results show that generated iris codes by optimizing the Gabor parameters approach is mo re distinctive and compact than ones based on feature selection approach. Since 2003 he has been on the faculty of the Depart ment of Teleco mmunication Eng ineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran. His activities have included Image signal processing, digital filter structures, filter banks, wavelet based signal processing and wireless communication. He is a Member of the IEEE.Habi bol ah Danyali received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering respectively fro m the