JPEG Image

In the early 1980s, no technology allowed users to easily compress and share digital images. In 1982, the JPEG workgroup began designing a compression standard for reducing the size of image files, making them easier to share while retaining as much of their quality as possible.

In 1992, the workgroup created the JPEG file format, and many technologies adopted the format. Since then, it has become the most common image compression standard and allows users to produce sharable, high-quality image files.

More information about the JPEG format

The JPEG format utilizes a lossy compression algorithm to reduce the size of images. The compression algorithm destroys some data within the original image file; however, the data loss is mostly unnoticeable to the human eye. The format also stores metadata that describes the contents of its file, such as the color space, color profile, and image dimension information.

NOTE: Image files saved in the JPEG format are more commonly appended with the .JPG extension than the JPEG extension.

You can open a JPEG file with a large number of free and commercial image viewing and editing applications available for desktop and mobile platforms. Some options include:

NOTE: You can also view a JPEG file with a web browser by dragging and dropping it into the browser window.

Many image viewers and editors, including Microsoft Photos, Apple Preview, and Corel PaintShop Pro, can convert JPEG files to other formats.

For example, Microsoft Photos can convert JPEG files to the following formats:

Programs that open JPEG files

Updated: April 19, 2022