JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

.jpg .jpeg .jfif · image/jpeg · 1992 · Joint Photographic Experts Group

JPEG has been the default format for photographs since 1992. It uses lossy DCT compression tuned for natural images, which keeps photo files small at the cost of some fine detail. Every browser, OS, camera, and app on earth can open a JPEG, which is why it remains the safest choice for sharing and uploading photos. EditItAll re-encodes JPEGs with MozJPEG, which typically shaves 20–60% off camera or phone originals with no visible quality loss.

Compression

Lossy

Transparency

No

Animation

No

Browser display

All browsers

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

  • Opens literally everywhere — 30+ years of universal support
  • Small files for photographs at quality 75–85
  • Progressive mode loads gracefully on slow connections

Limitations

  • No transparency (alpha channel) support
  • Lossy only — repeated edits and re-saves degrade quality
  • Visible artifacts on sharp edges, text and flat-color graphics

Best used for

Tools for JPEG

Compress JPEGJPEG → WebPJPEG → AVIFJPEG → JPEG XLJPEG → PNGJPEG → ICOJPEG → TIFFJPEG → BMPHEIC → JPEGWebP → JPEGAVIF → JPEGJPEG XL → JPEGPNG → JPEGGIF → JPEGSVG → JPEGTIFF → JPEGBMP → JPEGPSD → JPEGEXR → JPEGCR2 → JPEGNEF → JPEGARW → JPEGDNG → JPEG