Google may kill a new image format even though it offers significant improvements over others.
The standard JPEG format is quite ancient in the computer world, dating all the way back to 1992, yet it’s still the most commonly used image file format. JPEG files are well known for having ugly compression artifacts, particularly when an image has been compressed multiple times. Nonetheless, we put up with such unsightly compression artifacts, because the compressed images take up significantly less space than images stored in lossless file formats like PNG. Images with smaller file sizes not only decrease the amount of space our devices need to store said images, but also increase the speed at which images load on the Web.
In recent years, various groups have developed different alternative image file formats intended to replace the older JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats with one that decreases file size without the noticeable artifacts and loss in fidelity that result from older compression codecs. One of the more widely supported alternatives is WebP, which was developed directly by Google. However, Google has more recently put its support behind the newer AFIV format, which the company had a hand in developing.
AVIF competes more directly with Apple’s HEIC format, as both AVIF and HEIC image files are generally both smaller in size and higher fidelity than WebP files, but use slower codecs. Speed is critical on the Web, where users expect pages to ideally load in less than the blink of an eye. So while WebP image files may look worse and be slightly larger than AVIF and HEIC files, they load significantly faster. JPEG XL is an emerging image file format designed to increase image fidelity while decreasing file size when compared to other popular image formats, particularly the old JPEG format. At present, both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome support the new image format as an experimental feature. However, it seems that Google is planning to drop JPEG XL support from its browser in favor of the WebP and AVIF formats.The standard JPEG format is quite ancient in the computer world, dating all the way back to 1992, yet it’s still the most commonly used image file format.
