Google kills forthcoming JPEG XL image format from Chromium
- Reference: 1667225710
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/31/jpeg_xl_axed_chrome/
- Source link:
The Chromium browser project is the open source upstream of what later becomes Google's Chrome browser, along with a host of other browsers including Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave.
The [1]removal of JPEG XL means that none of these above browsers will be able to natively render JPEG XL images, and in turn that effectively dooms the new format, barring the unlikely event of the Mountain View megalith changing course.
[2]
The stated reasoning seems less than totally convincing:
We will be removing the JPEG XL code and flag from Chromium for the following reasons:
Experimental flags and code should not remain indefinitely
There is not enough interest from the entire ecosystem to continue experimenting with JPEG XL
The new image format does not bring sufficient incremental benefits over existing formats to warrant enabling it by default
By removing the flag and the code in M110, it reduces the maintenance burden and allows us to focus on improving existing formats in Chrome
JPEG XL is not final yet, although it's at version [3]0.7.0 and the format was frozen at the end of 2020, so it's stable. The format was derived from two earlier image-compression formats: [4]FLIF and Google's own [5]PIK . The latter of these obviously makes the decision even more surprising.
[6]KDE 5.26 gets a second point release (yes, already)
[7]The GNOME Project is closing all its mailing lists
[8]Microsoft's Lennart Poettering proposes tightening up Linux boot process
[9]Teen dream team reboots Rolling Rhino into Rhino Linux
The original JPEG 1 file format was launched 30 years ago by the [10]Joint Photographic Experts Group . Since then, the organization has released multiple improved successor formats, including JPEG XR in 2009, JPEG XT in 2015, and JPEG XS in 2019.
The decision follows long-running legal maneuvering. In February 2022, [11]Microsoft received a patent over a core technology used in JPEG XL, over a year and a half [12]since its previous rejection and despite [13]protests from industry specialists .
[14]
In other file format deprecation news, Google has also axed version 2 of its own image and video format, WebP. It [15]open sourced WebP in 2010 and [16]added to its own browsers in 2011 . It now says of WebP 2:
WebP 2 will not be released as an image format but is used as a playground for image compression experiments.
Considering the development history notes on the codec's [17]homepage , we suspect that performance considerations may be the issue here, rather than any potential issue over patents. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1178058#c84
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y1--L8VKi42JjabR8I0r1AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://github.com/libjxl/libjxl/releases/tag/v0.7.0
[4] http://flif.info/
[5] https://github.com/google/pik
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/27/kde_5_26_2/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/27/the_gnome_project_is_closing/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/26/tightening_linux_boot_process_microsoft_poettering/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/26/rolling_rhino_reboot/
[10] https://jpeg.org/about.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/17/microsoft_ans_patent/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/13/microsoft_ans_patent/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/31/iso_paywall_battle/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1--L8VKi42JjabR8I0r1AAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/30/google_webp/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2011/05/23/webp_format_in_chrome_gmail_picasa/
[17] https://chromium.googlesource.com/codecs/libwebp2/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: This is bad.
This cjxl tool, is it recent ?
Don't use GitHub, don't know how to check and the various version posts don't have a posted date.
Because, if cjxl is recent, or at least more recent than unicode, then it is a bloody shame they can't handle it.
Re: This is bad.
cjxl 0.7.0 is the most recent from September this year! Though it might be a "Windows cjxl.exe" only bug. I don't use Linux any more at home, since about 2010 or 2011.
Google has a high project kill-rate. In that line of thought I was hoping for them to discontinue the whole of chrome to save a development buck and undermine competitors. I was sure chrome would be the next in line, not some insignificant details.
Ah well, better luck next time.
Yeah but, Chrome is for market dominance.
Google will never let that go.
Are google planning on pushing AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) instead ?
The Chromium browser has has full AVIF support since 2020, Firefox since 2021 and Apple have added support.
(netflix has some examples of jpeg vs AVIF vs lossless images from kodak [1]https://netflixtechblog.com/avif-for-next-generation-image-coding-b1d75675fe4 )
[1] https://netflixtechblog.com/avif-for-next-generation-image-coding-b1d75675fe4
Re: Are google planning on pushing AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) instead ?
Yes, I think that's what this is really about. JPEG-XL is "encumbered" but AV1, and anything that is derived from free from any potential legal disputes because of agreements already signed.
Re: Are google planning on pushing AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) instead ?
Oh... PATENT issues!
Now we see the REAL reason! Thanks for that.
Hopefully libjpeg will support the newer formats anyway.
It looks like ImageMagick has a patent agreement from google for JPEG-XL
[1]https://github.com/ImageMagick/jpeg-xl/blob/main/PATENTS
(The only way this format can ever become a standard is if the use of patented tech is granted for all open source, In My Bombastic Opinion)
[1] https://github.com/ImageMagick/jpeg-xl/blob/main/PATENTS
So will MS now implement JPEG-XL into Edge (their variant of Chromium)?
This is bad.
jpeg-xl offers very good compression and one special feature: It can transcode .JPEG in .JXL lossless, and saving 20% to 30% space. It simply takes the already existing JPEG compression data and transforms it directly into .JXL. Together with better compression, especially when using lossless, it shrank my picture collection about 50% since there were a lot of .PNG which sometimes can be compressed to 20% or their original size. While sill being lossless.
I even wrote my own .ps1.cmd (powershell wrapped in .cmd) to make it easy to mass-convert whole collection. Simply drand and drop a directory on it, and it goes on. Including a specific workaround since [1]cjxl, the official tool , cannot handle [2]unicode filenames . If there is interest I put it on my github.
Imagemagic and XnViewMP can convert too, though I don't know whether they use transcoding for .JPEG.
[1] https://github.com/libjxl/libjxl/releases
[2] https://github.com/libjxl/libjxl/issues/683