Will BPG replace JPG?

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BPG is a New Image Format That Wants to Replace the JPEG with Equal Quality at Half the Size


Source:
petapixel.com/2014/12/13/bpg-n…

JPEG is a remarkably resilient file format. Despite having many upstart formats attempt to dethrone it over the years — including JPEG 2000 and Google’s WebP — the JPEG is still used by nearly 70% of websites and is holding strong in popularity.

Now there’s a new competitor in the ring. It’s called BPG (Better Portable Graphics), and it’s a format designed and advocated by notable French programmer Fabrice Bellard (creator of FFmpeg and QEMU).

One of the big advantages BPG has over JPEG is its ability to deliver similar image quality as JPEG at about half the file size. Here’s a side-by-side comparison showing the same image compressed by BPG and JPEG to the same file size:


(Left: BPG, right: JPG)

Bellard created BPG after a Mozilla study concluded that the video encoding standard HEVC (i.e. H.265) outperformed other technologies. BPG is based on a subset of HEVC technologies.

One of the challenges with introducing new formats is getting browser developers on board with built-in support. So far, developers interested in using the .bpg format will need to use some special Javascript code to load the images.

If Bellard has his way, we may one day be opting for BPG when saving our files, just like PNG is now the preferred format for certain static graphics rather than GIF.


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Comments3
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M-M-X's avatar
It may replace JPEG among professional photographers who want to store full size photos, but I don't think it will become the new standard on the Internet - there's nothing wrong with the quality of JPEG (using the highest quality) and the internet connection is fast enough to load them.
Things may only change if high resolution screens (4K or more) become a standard, especially if a large company such as Apple decides to support the new file.