What is JPEG XL & How It Compares to Other Formats

The internet’s always been about getting information as quickly and efficiently as possible; hence, there’s always room for improvement in both content and media assets, such as images. There’s no shortage of image formats besides the common ones such as JPEG, PNG, WEBP, etc. They’re useful for encoding, storing, or even compressing digital images and each has its own USP. However, there is a new format in town called JPEG XL, that aims to be better at everything. With iPhone 16 Pro/Max being the first devices to support the format, this could be a new standard very soon.

What is JPEG XL or JXL?

JPEG XL is an image compression format that improves upon older image formats like JPEG, PNG, and WebP. It isbased on Google’s PIK and Cloudinary’s FUIFimage formats. The main goal behind its development is to improve compression efficiency while preserving the image quality so that it can be used in everything from the internet to professional photography.

JXL promises about60% less file sizecompared to a JPEG with the same visual quality, 20% smaller lossless JPEG transcoding, and 35% smaller than PNG (50% smaller for HDR). These are quite significant reductions. Here are afew examples of JPEG XLrelative to other file formats so you can see the difference yourself. Oh, and JXL isbackwards-compatibleas well.

As mentioned earlier, JXL was created in 2018 by combining Google’s PIK and Cloudinary’s FUIF. Support for the format soon made its way to Chrome and Firefox in 2022. But it was laterremoved from Chromebecause its developers thought it wasn’t worth it. As of writing this, JPEG XL is supported on Safari and on all the latest Apple devices, Linux, and creative software like GIMP, Krita, and Adobe Lightroom, among others.

What Is the File Extension for JPEG XL?

JPEG XL images use the file extension.jxl. Since it isn’t widely used, your image viewer might not be capable of displaying JXL images. Hence, to view the differences in quality between JXL and other formats, Darktable, Affinity, Photoshop, and Lightroom.

JPEG XL vs JPEG vs PNG

A typical JPEG XL image may retain similar or better quality than JPEG but in20-30% smaller file sizes. JPEG XL is also better at handling artifacts compared to JPEG. The latter usually compresses a lot to reduce the overall file size, thereby introducing artifacts and the image quality taking a severe hit.

JPEG XL supports bothlossless and lossy compression. When compared to lossless PNGs, lossless JPEG XL images can sometimes be smaller but almost indistinguishable from PNGs.

Besides, JPEG XLsupports transparencyand hasmore color depth(32-bit float VS 16-bit). Combined with lower file size, expect PNGs to go out of business anytime soon, at least across the internet.

JXL even trumpsJPEGLI, an image format backed by Google, as it again retains much more detail while maintaining a higher compression ratio.

JPEG XL vs WebP

WebP seems to be the go-to image format for many publishers on the internet, and for all the valid reasons. Both offer great lossy compression without any hit on the image quality, but JXL scoots past the WebP format thanks to more compression and better color depth.

However,WebP is still a tad bit fasterthan JPEG XL when it comes to encoding and decoding. As a result, the web may not completely switch to JXL when it comes to loading times.

JXL vs Other Formats: Benchmarks and Tests

We need a few examples to better understand the improvements that JXL brings to the table compared to other formats. Fortunately, the folks over atCloudinaryandFastlyhave us covered with their benchmark results.

Shown below is a plotted image from ssimulacra2 of the compression JXL achieves after converting from PNG compared to other formats like JPEG, AVIF, and WebP. The time (in ms) is on the Y axis, whereas the file size is on the X axis. As you can see, JXL trumps all formats almost all the time with WebP coming second, followed by AVIF and JPEG.

The encoding times are a different story, though, with WebP sometimes achieving much faster encoding times consistently. Both JXL and AVIF encoding times are almost similar, but on average, AVIF does seem to be leading a bit.

To differentiate how JPEG XL is different to other image formats, here are some image examples from the good folks at Cloudinary. WordPress might compress these even further, but you should be able to see the differences.

You can observe that the JPEG XL ismuch closer to the PNGimage with almost no visual difference. The JPEG image is the worst with lots of visible color banding, followed by WebP, which is usable but still has some banding.

JPEG XL vs All Major Image Formats

JXL support is still expanding and hasn’t made it to all platforms and apps yet. However, we soon expect all major platforms to adopt it and your internet browsing experience may get more colorful and sharp with fewer artifacts and more details.

The image format is currently supported in a lot of software like GIMP, Adobe Lightroom, Krita, FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Firefox (flag), and Edge (flag).FeatureJPEG XLPNGJPGWebPCompression TypeLossy and LosslessLosslessLossyLossy and LosslessCompression EfficiencyHighestHighMediumHighImage QualityExcellent100% (No loss in Quality)GoodExcellentColor Depth24-bit integer or 32-bit Float8-bit and 16-bit8-bit8-bit and 12-bitTransparencyYesYesNoYesFile SizeSmallestMediumSmallSmall

Best Features of JXL

There’s a lot to take away from the above comparisons, so let’s paint a clear picture of why JXL is so significant when it comes to lossy and lossless compression compared to other formats.

JXL: Pros and Cons

While there are lots of advantages of using JXL over JPEG, AVIF, and WebP, there are a few downsides.

If JPEG XL is So Good, Why Isn’t It Widely Adopted Already?

That’s a nice question, and the answer will teach you a thing or two about why having a monopoly is such a bad thing. In 2022, Chrome developers unexpectedly removed JPEG XL because they didn’t think it was the future. One of the creators of JPEG XL, Jon Sneyers, was told the decision was made after a few test results, which convinced the developers that it was not worth it.

Jon pointed out a few flaws in the Chrome team’s testing, but those were ignored. Since Chrome is THE most popular browser, thelack of support from Googleslowed down the adoption of JPEG XL. This was until Apple added support for JPEG XL across its devices.

In theInterop projectconducted by browser giants like Apple and Google in 2024, JPEG XL received the top vote share with 646 reactions compared to competitors. However, to JPEG XL developers’ surprise, their proposal didn’t get a selection. It’s believed that Google was the one who opposed the proposal.

JPEG XL Could Be the Next Big Thing for Social Media

Apple is keen on adopting JPEG XL across all of its devices. Since it has many benefits over traditional image formats, it could replace the JPEG image format on social media. Although we cannot predict when JXL might become a norm, we expect its adoption to hasten now that Apple has announced support for JXL across its software and devices.

JPEG XL has better compression and retains as much detail and color depth, making it easy to differentiate high-quality JPEG XL images from lossy JPEG images. Besides, since social media is all about color-boosted images and JXL has better color depth, it’s only a question of when the platforms implement it.

What are your thoughts on the JPEG XL image format? Let us know in the comments below.

Abubakar Mohammed

Abubakar covers Tech on Beebom. Hailing from a Computer Science background, the start of his love for Tech dates back to 2011, when he was gifted a Dell Inspiron 5100. When he’s not covering Tech, you’ll find him binge-watching anime and Tech content on YouTube, hunting heads in competitive FPS games, or exploring Teyvat in Genshin Impact. He has previously worked for leading publications such as Fossbytes, How-To Geek, and Android Police.

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