Representable tolerances in varieties

We discuss two possible ways of representing tolerances: first, as a homomorphic image of some congruence; second, as the relational composition of some compatible relation with its converse. The second way is independent from the variety under consideration, while the first way is variety-dependent. The relationships between these two kinds of representations are clarified. As an application, we show that any tolerance on some lattice L is the image of some congruence on a subalgebra of L x L. This is related to recent results by G. Czedli, G. Gratzer and E.W. Kiss.