Archive-name: jpeg-faq
Last-modified: 18 April 1993

This FAQ article discusses JPEG image compression.  Suggestions for
additions and clarifications are welcome.

New since version of 3 April 1993:
  * New versions of Image Archiver and PMJPEG for OS/2.


This article includes the following sections:

[1]  What is JPEG?
[2]  Why use JPEG?
[3]  When should I use JPEG, and when should I stick with GIF?
[4]  How well does JPEG compress images?
[5]  What are good "quality" settings for JPEG?
[6]  Where can I get JPEG software?
    [6A] "canned" software, viewers, etc.
    [6B] source code
[7]  What's all this hoopla about color quantization?
[8]  How does JPEG work?
[9]  What about lossless JPEG?
[10]  Why all the argument about file formats?
[11]  How do I recognize which file format I have, and what do I do about it?
[12]  What about arithmetic coding?
[13]  Does loss accumulate with repeated compression/decompression?
[14]  What are some rules of thumb for converting GIF images to JPEG?

Sections 1-6 are basic info that every JPEG user needs to know;
sections 7-14 are advanced info for the curious.

This article is posted every 2 weeks.  You can always find the latest version
in the news.answers archive at rtfm.mit.edu (18.172.1.27).  By FTP, fetch
/pub/usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq; or if you don't have FTP, send e-mail to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with body "send usenet/news.answers/jpeg-faq".
Many other FAQ articles are also stored in this archive.  For more
instructions on use of the archive, send e-mail to the same address with the
words "help" and "index" (no quotes) on separate lines.  If you don't get a
reply, the server may be misreading your return address; add a line such as
"path myname@mysite" to specify your correct e-mail address to reply to.


----------


[1]  What is JPEG?

JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized image compression mechanism.
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the
committee that wrote the standard.  JPEG is designed for compressing either
full-color or gray-scale digital images of "natural", real-world scenes.
It does not work so well on non-realistic images, such as cartoons or line
drawings.

JPEG does not handle black-and-white (1-bit-per-pixel) images, nor does it
handle motion picture compression.  Standards for compressing those types
of images are being worked on by other committees, named JBIG and MPEG
respectively.

JPEG is "lossy", meaning that the image you get out of decompression isn't
quite identical to what you originally put in.  The algorithm achieves much
of its compression by exploiting known limitations of the human eye, notably
the fact that small color details aren't perceived as well as small details
of light-and-dark.  Thus, JPEG is intended for compressing images that will
be looked at by humans.  If you plan to machine-analyze your images, the
small errors introduced by JPEG may be a problem for you, even if they are
invisible to the eye.

A useful property of JPEG is that the degree of lossiness can be varied by
adjusting compression parameters.  This means that the image maker can trade
off file size against output image quality.  You can make *extremely* small
files if you don't mind poor quality; this is useful for indexing image
archives, making thumbnail views or icons, etc. etc.  Conversely, if you
aren't happy with the output quality at the default compression setting, you
can jack up the quality until you are satisfied, and accept lesser compression.


[2]  Why use JPEG?

There are two good reasons: to make your image files smaller, and to store
24-bit-per-pixel color data instead of 8-bit-per-pixel data.

Making image files smaller is a big win for transmitting files across
networks and for archiving libraries of images.  Being able to compress a
2 Mbyte full-color file down to 100 Kbytes or so makes a big difference in
disk space and transmission time!  (If you are comparing GIF and JPEG, the
size ratio is more like four to one.  More details below.)

If your viewing software doesn't support JPEG directly, you'll have to
convert JPEG to some other format for viewing or manipulating images.  Even
with a JPEG-capable viewer, it takes longer to decode and view a JPEG image
than to view an image of a simpler format (GIF, for instance).  Thus, using
JPEG is essentially a time/space tradeoff: you give up some time in order to
store or transmit an image more cheaply.

It's worth noting that when network or phone transmission is involved, the
time savings from transferring a shorter file can be much greater than the
extra time to decompress the file.  I'll let you do the arithmetic yourself.

The other reason why JPEG will gradually replace GIF as a standard Usenet
posting format is that JPEG can store full color information: 24 bits/pixel
(16 million colors) instead of 8 or less (256 or fewer colors).  If you have
only 8-bit display hardware then this may not seem like much of an advantage
to you.  Within a couple of years, though, 8-bit GIF will look as obsolete as
black-and-white MacPaint format does today.  Furthermore, for reasons detailed
in section 7, JPEG is far more useful than GIF for exchanging images among
people with widely varying color display hardware.  Hence JPEG is considerably
more appropriate than GIF for use as a Usenet posting standard.


[3]  When should I use JPEG, and when should I stick with GIF?

JPEG is *not* going to displace GIF entirely; for some types of images,
GIF is superior in image quality, file size, or both.  One of the first
things to learn about JPEG is which kinds of images to apply it to.

As a rule of thumb, JPEG is superior to GIF for storing full-color or
gray-scale images of "realistic" scenes; that means scanned photographs and
similar material.  JPEG is superior even if you don't have 24-bit display
hardware, and it is a LOT superior if you do.  (See section 7 for details.)

GIF does significantly better on images with only a few distinct colors,
such as cartoons and line drawings.  In particular, large areas of pixels
that are all *exactly* the same color are compressed very efficiently indeed
by GIF.  JPEG can't squeeze these files as much as GIF does without
introducing visible defects.  This sort of image is best kept in GIF form.
(In particular, single-color borders are quite cheap in GIF files, but they
should be avoided in JPEG files.)

JPEG also has a hard time with very sharp edges: a row of pure-black pixels
adjacent to a row of pure-white pixels, for example.  Sharp edges tend to
come out blurred unless you use a very high quality setting.  Again, this
sort of thing is not found in scanned photographs, but it shows up fairly
often in GIF files: borders, overlaid text, etc.  The blurriness is
particularly objectionable with text that's only a few pixels high.
If you have a GIF with a lot of small-size overlaid text, don't JPEG it.

Computer-drawn images (ray-traced scenes, for instance) usually fall between
scanned images and cartoons in terms of complexity.  The more complex and
subtly rendered the image, the more likely that JPEG will do well on it.
The same goes for semi-realistic artwork (fantasy drawings and such).

Plain black-and-white (two level) images should never be converted to JPEG.
You need at least about 16 gray levels before JPEG is useful for gray-scale
images.  It should also be noted that GIF is lossless for gray-scale images
of up to 256 levels, while JPEG is not.

If you have an existing library of GIF images, you may wonder whether you
should convert them to JPEG.  You will lose a little image quality if you do.
(Section 7, which argues that JPEG image quality is superior to GIF, only
applies if both formats start from a full-color original.  If you start from
a GIF, you've already irretrievably lost a great deal of information; JPEG
can only make things worse.)  However, the disk space savings may justify
converting anyway.  This is a decision you'll have to make for yourself.
If you do convert a GIF library to JPEG, see section 14 for hints.  Be
prepared to leave some images in GIF format, since some GIFs will not
convert well.


[4]  How well does JPEG compress images?

Pretty darn well.  Here are some sample file sizes for an image I have
handy, a 727x525 full-color image of a ship in a harbor.  The first three
files are for comparison purposes; the rest were created with the free JPEG
software described in section 6B.

File	   Size in bytes		Comments

ship.ppm	1145040  Original file in PPM format (no compression; 24 bits
			 or 3 bytes per pixel, plus a few bytes overhead)
ship.ppm.Z	 963829  PPM file passed through Unix compress
			 compress doesn't accomplish a lot, you'll note.
			 Other text-oriented compressors give similar results.
ship.gif	 240438  Converted to GIF with ppmquant -fs 256 | ppmtogif
			 Most of the savings is the result of losing color
			 info: GIF saves 8 bits/pixel, not 24.  (See sec. 7.)

ship.jpg95	 155622  cjpeg -Q 95    (highest useful quality setting)
			 This is indistinguishable from the 24-bit original,
			 at least to my nonprofessional eyeballs.
ship.jpg75	  58009  cjpeg -Q 75    (default setting)
			 You have to look mighty darn close to distinguish this
			 from the original, even with both on-screen at once.
ship.jpg50	  38406  cjpeg -Q 50
			 This has slight defects; if you know what to look
			 for, you could tell it's been JPEGed without seeing
			 the original.  Still as good image quality as many
			 recent postings in Usenet pictures groups.
ship.jpg25	  25192  cjpeg -Q 25
			 JPEG's characteristic "blockiness" becomes apparent
			 at this setting (djpeg -blocksmooth helps some).
			 Still, I've seen plenty of Usenet postings that were
			 of poorer image quality than this.
ship.jpg5o	   6587  cjpeg -Q 5 -optimize  (-optimize cuts table overhead)
			 Blocky, but perfectly satisfactory for preview or
			 indexing purposes.  Note that this file is TINY:
			 the compression ratio from the original is 173:1 !

In this case JPEG can make a file that's a factor of four or five smaller
than a GIF of comparable quality (the -Q 75 file is every bit as good as the
GIF, better if you have a full-color display).  This seems to be a typical
ratio for real-world scenes.


[5]  What are good "quality" settings for JPEG?

Most JPEG compressors let you pick a file size vs. image quality tradeoff by
selecting a quality setting.  There seems to be widespread confusion about
the meaning of these settings.  "Quality 95" does NOT mean "keep 95% of the
information", as some have claimed.  The quality scale is purely arbitrary;
it's not a percentage of anything.

The name of the game in using JPEG is to pick the lowest quality setting
(smallest file size) that decompresses into an image indistinguishable from
the original.  This setting will vary from one image to another and from one
observer to another, but here are some rules of thumb.

The default quality setting (-Q 75) is very often the best choice.  This
setting is about the lowest you can go without expecting to see defects in a
typical image.  Try -Q 75 first; if you see defects, then go up.  Except for
experimental purposes, never go above -Q 95; saying -Q 100 will produce a
file two or three times as large as -Q 95, but of hardly any better quality.

If the image was less than perfect quality to begin with, you might be able to
go down to -Q 50 without objectionable degradation.  On the other hand, you
might need to go to a HIGHER quality setting to avoid further degradation.
The second case seems to apply much of the time when converting GIFs to JPEG.
The default -Q 75 is about right for compressing 24-bit images, but -Q 85 to
95 is usually better for converting GIFs (see section 14 for more info).

If you want a very small file (say for preview or indexing purposes) and are
prepared to tolerate large defects, a -Q setting in the range of 5 to 10 is
about right.  -Q 2 or so may be amusing as "op art".

(Note: the quality settings discussed in this article apply to the free JPEG
software described in section 6B, and to many programs based on it.  Other
JPEG implementations, such as Image Alchemy, may use a completely different
quality scale.  Some programs don't even provide a numeric scale, just
"high"/"medium"/"low"-style choices.)


[6]  Where can I get JPEG software?

Most of the programs described in this section are available by FTP.
If you don't know how to use FTP, see the FAQ article "How to find sources".
(If you don't have direct access to FTP, read about ftpmail servers in the
same article.)  That article appears regularly in news.answers, or you can
get it by sending e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
"send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body.  The "Anonymous FTP
List FAQ" may also be helpful --- it's usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq in
the news.answers archive.

NOTE: this list changes constantly.  If you have a copy more than a couple
months old, get the latest JPEG FAQ from the news.answers archive.


[6A]  If you are looking for "canned" software, viewers, etc:

The first part of this list is system-specific programs that only run on one
kind of system.  If you don't see what you want for your machine, check out
the portable JPEG software described at the end of the list.  Note that this
list concentrates on free and shareware programs that you can obtain over
Internet; but some commercial programs are listed too.

X Windows:

John Bradley's free XV (version 2.00 and up) is an excellent viewer for JPEG,
GIF, and other image formats.  It's available for FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu
or ftp.cis.upenn.edu.  The file is called 'xv-???.tar.Z' (where ??? is the
version number, currently 2.21); it is located in the 'contrib' directory on
export or the 'pub/xv' directory at upenn.  XV reduces all images to 8 bits
internally, which means it's not a real good choice if you have a 24-bit
display (you'll still get only 8-bit color).  Also, you shouldn't use XV to
convert full-color images to JPEG, because they'll get color-quantized first.
But XV is a fine tool for converting GIF and other 8-bit images to JPEG.
CAUTION: there is a glitch in versions 2.21 and earlier: be sure to check
the "save at normal size" checkbox when saving a JPEG file, or the file will
be blurry.

Another good choice for X Windows is John Cristy's free ImageMagick package,
also available from export.lcs.mit.edu, file contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z.
This package handles many image processing and conversion tasks.  The
ImageMagick viewer handles 24-bit displays correctly; for colormapped
displays, it does better (though slower) color quantization than XV or the
basic free JPEG software.

Both of the above are large, complex packages.  If you just want a simple
image viewer, try xloadimage or xli.  xloadimage supports JPEG in its latest
release, 3.03.  xloadimage is free and available from export.lcs.mit.edu,
file contrib/xloadimage.3.03.tar.Z.  xli is a variant version of xloadimage,
said by its fans to be somewhat faster and more robust than the original.
(The current xli is indeed faster and more robust than the current
xloadimage, at least with respect to JPEG files, because it has the IJG v4
decoder while xloadimage 3.03 is using a hacked-over v1.  The next
xloadimage release will fix this.)  xli is also free and available from
export.lcs.mit.edu, file contrib/xli.1.14.tar.Z.  Both programs are said
to do the right thing with 24-bit displays.


MS-DOS:

This covers plain DOS; for Windows or OS/2 programs, see the next headings.

One good choice is Eric Praetzel's free DVPEG, which views JPEG and GIF files.
The current version, 2.4a, is available by FTP from sunee.uwaterloo.ca
(129.97.50.50), file pub/jpeg/viewers/dvpeg24a.zip.  This is a good basic
viewer that works on either 286 or 386/486 machines.  The user interface is
not flashy, but it's functional.

Another freeware JPEG/GIF/TGA viewer is Mohammad Rezaei's Hiview.  The
current version, 1.2, is available from Simtel20 and mirror sites (see NOTE
below), file msdos/graphics/hv12.zip.  Hiview requires a 386 or better CPU
and a VCPI-compatible memory manager (QEMM386 and 386MAX work; Windows and
OS/2 do not).  Hiview is currently the fastest viewer for images that are no
bigger than your screen.  For larger images, it scales the image down to fit
on the screen (rather than using panning/scrolling as most viewers do).
You may or may not prefer this approach, but there's no denying that it
slows down loading of large images considerably.  Note: installation is a
bit tricky; read the directions carefully!

A shareware alternative is ColorView for DOS ($30).  This is easier to
install than either of the two freeware alternatives.  Its user interface is
also much spiffier-looking, although personally I find it harder to use ---
more keystrokes, inconsistent behavior.  It is faster than DVPEG but a
little slower than Hiview, at least on my hardware.  (For images larger than
screen size, DVPEG and ColorView seem to be about the same speed, and both
are faster than Hiview.)  The current version is 2.1, available from
Simtel20 and mirror sites (see NOTE below), file msdos/graphics/dcview21.zip.
Requires a VESA graphics driver; if you don't have one, look in vesadrv2.zip
or vesa-tsr.zip from the same directory.  (Many recent PCs have a built-in
VESA driver, so don't try to load a VESA driver unless ColorView complains
that the driver is missing.)

A second shareware alternative is Fullview, which has been kicking around
the net for a while, but I don't know any stable archive location for it.
The current (rather old) version is inferior to the above viewers anyway.
The author tells me that a new version of Fullview will be out shortly
and it will be submitted to the Simtel20 archives at that time.

The well-known GIF viewer CompuShow (CSHOW) supports JPEG in its latest
revision, 8.60a.  However, CSHOW's JPEG implementation isn't very good:
it's slow (about half the speed of the above viewers) and image quality is
poor except on hi-color displays.  Too bad ... it'd have been nice to see a
good JPEG capability in CSHOW.  Shareware, $25.  Available from Simtel20 and
mirror sites (see NOTE below), file msdos/gif/cshw860a.zip.

Due to the remarkable variety of PC graphics hardware, any one of these
viewers might not work on your particular machine.  If you can't get *any*
of them to work, you'll need to use one of the following conversion programs
to convert JPEG to GIF, then view with your favorite GIF viewer.  (If you
have hi-color hardware, don't use GIF as the intermediate format; try to
find a TARGA-capable viewer instead.  VPIC5.0 is reputed to do the right
thing with hi-color displays.)

The Independent JPEG Group's free JPEG converters are FTPable from Simtel20
and mirror sites (see NOTE below), file msdos/graphics/jpeg4.zip (or
jpeg4386.zip if you have a 386 and extended memory).  These files are DOS
compilations of the free source code described in section 6B; they will
convert JPEG to and from GIF, Targa, and PPM formats.

Handmade Software offers free JPEG<=>GIF conversion tools, GIF2JPG/JPG2GIF.
These are slow and are limited to conversion to and from GIF format; in
particular, you can't get 24-bit color output from a JPEG.  The major
advantage of these tools is that they will read and write HSI's proprietary
JPEG format as well as the Usenet-standard JFIF format.  Since HSI-format
files are rather widespread on BBSes, this is a useful capability.  Version
2.0 of these tools is free (prior versions were shareware).  Get it from
Simtel20 and mirror sites (see NOTE below), file msdos/graphics/gif2jpg2.zip.
NOTE: do not use HSI format for files to be posted on Internet, since it is
not readable on non-PC platforms.

Handmade Software also has a shareware image conversion and manipulation
package, Image Alchemy.  This will translate JPEG files (both JFIF and HSI
formats) to and from many other image formats.  It can also display images.
A demo version of Image Alchemy version 1.6.1 is available from Simtel20 and
mirror sites (see NOTE below), file msdos/graphics/alch161.zip.

NOTE ABOUT SIMTEL20: The Internet's key archive site for PC-related programs
is Simtel20, full name wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (192.88.110.20).  Simtel20
runs a non-Unix system with weird directory names; where this document
refers to directory (eg) "msdos/graphics" at Simtel20, that really means
"pd1:<msdos.graphics>".  If you are not physically on MILnet, you should
expect rather slow FTP transfer rates from Simtel20.  There are several
Internet sites that maintain copies (mirrors) of the Simtel20 archives;
most FTP users should go to one of the mirror sites instead.  A popular USA
mirror site is oak.oakland.edu (141.210.10.117), which keeps Simtel20 files
in (eg) "/pub/msdos/graphics".  If you have no FTP capability, you can
retrieve files from Simtel20 by e-mail; see informational postings in
comp.archives.msdos.announce to find out how.  If you are outside the USA,
consult the same newsgroup to learn where your nearest Simtel20 mirror is.

Microsoft Windows:

There are several Windows programs capable of displaying JPEG images.
(Windows viewers are generally slower than DOS viewers on the same hardware,
due to Windows' system overhead.  Note that you can run the DOS conversion
programs described above inside a Windows DOS window.)

The newest entry is WinECJ, which is free and EXTREMELY fast.  Version 1.0
is available from ftp.rahul.net, file /pub/bryanw/pc/jpeg/wecj.zip.
Requires Windows 3.1 and 256-or-more-colors mode.  This is a no-frills
viewer with the bad habit of hogging the machine completely while it
decodes; and the image quality is noticeably worse than other viewers.
But it's so fast you'll use it anyway, at least for previewing...

JView is freeware, fairly fast, has good on-line help, and can write out the
decompressed image in Windows BMP format; but it can't create new JPEG
files, and it doesn't view GIFs.  JView also lacks some other useful
features of the shareware viewers (such as brightness adjustment), but it's
an excellent basic viewer.  The current version, 0.9, is available from
ftp.cica.indiana.edu (129.79.20.84), file pub/pc/win3/desktop/jview090.zip.
(Mirrors of this archive can be found at some other Internet sites,
including wuarchive.wustl.edu.)

WinJPEG (shareware, $20) displays JPEG,GIF,Targa,TIFF, and BMP image files;
it can write all of these formats too, so it can be used as a converter.
It has some other nifty features including color-balance adjustment and
slideshow.  The current version is 2.1, available from Simtel20 and mirror
sites (see NOTE above), file msdos/windows3/winjp210.zip.  (This is a slow
286-compatible version; if you register, you'll get the 386-only version,
which is roughly 25% faster.)

ColorView is another shareware entry ($30).  This was an early and promising
contender, but it has not been updated in some time, and at this point it
has no real advantages over WinJPEG.  If you want to try it anyway, the
current version is 0.97, available from ftp.cica.indiana.edu, file
pub/pc/win3/desktop/cview097.zip.  (I understand that a new version will
be appearing once the authors are finished with ColorView for DOS.)

DVPEG (see DOS heading) also works under Windows, but only in full-screen
mode, not in a window.

OS/2:

The following files are available from hobbes.nmsu.edu (128.123.35.151).
Note: check /pub/uploads for more recent versions --- the hobbes moderator
is not very fast about moving uploads into their permanent directories.
/pub/os2/2.x/graphics/jpegv4.zip
    32-bit version of free IJG conversion programs, version 4.
/pub/os2/all/graphics/jpeg4-16.zip
    16-bit version of same, for OS/2 1.x.
/pub/os2/2.x/graphics/imgarc11.zip
    Image Archiver 1.01: image conversion/viewing with PM graphical interface.
    Strong on conversion functions, viewing is a bit weaker.  Shareware, $15.
/pub/os2/2.x/graphics/pmjpeg11.zip
    PMJPEG 1.1: OS/2 2.x port of WinJPEG, a popular viewer for Windows
    (see description in Windows section).  Shareware, $20.
/pub/os2/2.x/graphics/pmview84.zip
    PMView 0.84: JPEG/GIF/BMP viewer.  GIF viewing very fast, JPEG viewing
    fast if you have huge amounts of RAM, otherwise about the same speed
    as the above programs.  Strong 24-bit display support.  Shareware, $20.

Macintosh:

Most Mac JPEG programs rely on Apple's JPEG implementation, which is part of
the QuickTime system extension; so you need to have QuickTime installed.
To use QuickTime, you need a 68020 or better CPU and you need to be running
System 6.0.7 or later.  (If you're running System 6, you must also install
the 32-bit QuickDraw extension; this is built-in on System 7.)  You can get
QuickTime by FTP from ftp.apple.com, file dts/mac/quicktime/quicktime.hqx.
(As of 11/92, this file contains QuickTime 1.5, which is better than QT 1.0
in several ways.  With respect to JPEG, it is marginally faster and
considerably less prone to crash when fed a corrupt JPEG file.  However,
some applications seem to have compatibility problems with QT 1.5.)

Mac users should keep in mind that QuickTime's JPEG format, PICT/JPEG, is
not the same as the Usenet-standard JFIF JPEG format.  (See section 10 for
details.)  If you post images on Usenet, make sure they are in JFIF format.
Most of the programs mentioned below can generate either format.

The first choice is probably JPEGView, a free program for viewing images
that are in JFIF format, PICT/JPEG format, or GIF format.  It also can
convert between the two JPEG formats.  The current version, 2.0, is a big
improvement over prior versions.  Get it from sumex-aim.stanford.edu
(36.44.0.6), file /info-mac/app/jpeg-view-20.hqx.  Requires System 7 and
QuickTime.  On 8-bit displays, JPEGView usually produces the best color
image quality of all the currently available Mac JPEG viewers.  JPEGView can
view large images in much less memory than other Mac viewers; in fact, it's
the only one that can deal with JPEG images much over 640x480 pixels on a
typical 4MB Mac.  Given a large image, JPEGView automatically scales it down
to fit on the screen, rather than presenting scroll bars like most other
viewers.  (You can zoom in on any desired portion, though.)  Some people
like this behavior, some don't.  Overall, JPEGView's user interface is very
well thought out.

GIFConverter, a shareware ($40) image viewer/converter, supports JFIF and
PICT/JPEG, as well as GIF and several other image formats.  The latest
version is 2.3.2.  Get it from sumex-aim.stanford.edu, file
/info-mac/art/gif/gif-converter-232.hqx.  Requires System 6.0.5 or later.
GIFConverter is not better than JPEGView as a plain JPEG/GIF viewer, but
it has much more extensive image manipulation and format conversion
capabilities, so you may find it worth its shareware fee if you do a lot of
playing around with images.  Also, the newest version of GIFConverter can
load and save JFIF images *without* QuickTime, so it is your best bet if
your machine is too old to run QuickTime.  (But it's faster with QuickTime.)
Note: If GIFConverter runs out of memory trying to load a large JPEG, try
converting the file to GIF with JPEG Convert, then viewing the GIF version.

JPEG Convert, a Mac version of the free IJG JPEG conversion utilities, is
available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu, file /info-mac/app/jpeg-convert-10.hqx.
This will run on any Mac, but it only does file conversion, not viewing.
You can use it in conjunction with any GIF viewer.

Previous versions of this FAQ recommended Imagery JPEG v0.6, a JPEG<=>GIF
converter based on an old version of the IJG code.  If you are using this
program, you definitely should replace it with JPEG Convert.

Apple's free program PictPixie can view images in JFIF, QuickTime JPEG, and
GIF format, and can convert between these formats.  You can get PictPixie
from ftp.apple.com, file dts/mac/quicktime/qt.1.0.stuff/pictpixie.hqx.
Requires QuickTime.  PictPixie was intended as a developer's tool, and it's
really not the best choice unless you like to fool around with QuickTime.
Some of its drawbacks are that it requires lots of memory, it produces
relatively poor color image quality on anything less than a 24-bit display,
and it has a relatively unfriendly user interface.  Worse, PictPixie is an
unsupported program, meaning it has some minor bugs that Apple does not
intend to fix.  (There is an old version of PictPixie, called
PICTCompressor, floating around the net.  If you have this you should trash
it, as it's even buggier.  Also, the QuickTime Starter Kit includes a much
cleaned-up descendant of PictPixie called Picture Compressor.  Note that
Picture Compressor is NOT free and may not be distributed on the net.)

Storm Technology's Picture Decompress is a free JPEG viewer/converter.
This rather old program is inferior to the above programs in many ways, but
it will run without System 7 or QuickTime, so you may be forced to use it on
older systems.  (It does need 32-bit QuickDraw, so really old machines can't
use it.)  You can get it from sumex-aim.stanford.edu, file
/info-mac/app/picture-decompress-201.hqx.  You must set the file type of a
downloaded image file to 'JPEG' to allow Picture Decompress to open it.

If your machine is too old to run 32-bit QuickDraw (a Mac Plus for instance),
GIFConverter is your only choice for single-program JPEG viewing.  If you
don't want to pay for GIFConverter, use JPEG Convert and a free GIF viewer.

More and more commercial Mac applications are supporting JPEG, although not
all can deal with the Usenet-standard JFIF format.  Adobe Photoshop, version
2.0.1 or later, can read and write JFIF-format JPEG files (use the JPEG
plug-in from the Acquire menu).  You must set the file type of a downloaded
JPEG file to 'JPEG' to allow Photoshop to recognize it.

Amiga:

(Most programs listed in this section are stored in the AmiNet archive at
amiga.physik.unizh.ch (130.60.80.80).  There are many mirror sites of this
archive and you should try to use the closest one.  In the USA, a good
choice is wuarchive.wustl.edu; look under /mirrors/amiga.physik.unizh.ch/...)

HamLab Plus is an excellent JPEG viewer/converter, as well as being a
general image manipulation tool.  It's cheap (shareware, $20) and can read
several formats besides JPEG.  The current version is 2.0.8.  A demo version
is available from amiga.physik.unizh.ch (and mirror sites), file
amiga/gfx/edit/hamlab208d.lha.  The demo version will crop images larger
than 512x512, but it is otherwise fully functional.

Rend24 (shareware, $30) is an image renderer that can display JPEG, ILBM,
and GIF images.  The program can be used to create animations, even
capturing frames on-the-fly from rendering packages like Lightwave.  The
current version is 1.05, available from amiga.physik.unizh.ch (and mirror
sites), file amiga/os30/gfx/rend105.lha.  (Note: although this directory is
supposedly for AmigaDOS 3.0 programs, the program will also run under
AmigaDOS 1.3, 2.04 or 2.1.)

Viewtek is a free JPEG/ILBM/GIF/ANIM viewer.  The current version is 1.04,
available from amiga.physik.unizh.ch (and mirror sites), file
amiga/gfx/show/ViewTek104.lha.

If you're willing to spend real money, there are several commercial packages
that support JPEG.  Two are written by Thomas Krehbiel, the author of Rend24
and Viewtek.  These are CineMorph, a standalone image morphing package, and
ImageFX, an impressive 24-bit image capture, conversion, editing, painting,
effects and prepress package that also includes CineMorph.  Both are
distributed by Great Valley Products.  Art Department Professional (ADPro),
from ASDG Inc, is the most widely used commercial image manipulation
software for Amigas.  ImageMaster, from Black Belt Systems, is another
well-regarded commercial graphics package with JPEG support.

The free IJG JPEG software is available compiled for Amigas from
amiga.physik.unizh.ch (and mirror sites) in directory amiga/gfx/conv, file
AmigaJPEGV4.lha.  These programs convert JPEG to/from PPM,GIF,Targa formats.

The Amiga world is heavily infested with quick-and-dirty JPEG programs, many
based on an ancient beta-test version of the free IJG JPEG software (thanks
to a certain magazine that published same on its disk-of-the-month, without
so much as notifying the authors).  Among these are "AugJPEG", "NewAmyJPEG",
"VJPEG", and probably others I have not even heard of.  In my opinion,
anything older than IJG version 3 (March 1992) is not worth the disk space
it's stored on; if you have such a program, trash it and get something newer.

Atari ST:

The free IJG JPEG software is available compiled for Atari ST, TT, etc,
from atari.archive.umich.edu, file /atari/Graphics/jpeg4bin.zoo.
These programs convert JPEG to/from PPM, GIF, Targa formats.

I have not heard of any free or shareware JPEG-capable viewer for Ataris,
but surely there must be one by now?  Pointers appreciated.

Acorn Archimedes:

!ChangeFSI, supplied with RISC OS 3 version 3.10, can convert from and view
JPEG JFIF format.  Provision is also made to convert images to JPEG,
although this must be done from the CLI rather than by double-clicking.

Recent versions (since 7.11) of the shareware program Translator can handle
JPEG, along with about 30 other image formats.  While older versions can be
found on some Archimedes bboards, the current version is only available by
registering with the author, John Kortink, Nutterbrink 31, 7544 WJ, Enschede,
The Netherlands.  Price 35 Dutch guilders (about $22 or 10 pounds).

There's also a commercial product called !JPEG which provides JPEG read/write
functionality and direct JPEG viewing, as well as a host of other image
format conversion and processing options.  This is more expensive but not
necessarily better than the above programs.  Contact: DT Software, FREEPOST,
Cambridge, UK.  Tel: 0223 841099.


Portable software for almost any system:

If none of the above fits your situation, you can obtain and compile the free
JPEG conversion software described in 6B.  You'll also need a viewer program.
If your display is 8 bits or less, any GIF viewer will do fine; if you have a
display with more color capability, try to find a viewer that can read Targa
or PPM 24-bit image files.

There are numerous commercial JPEG offerings, with more popping up every
day.  I recommend that you not spend money on one of these unless you find
the available free or shareware software vastly too slow.  In that case,
purchase a hardware-assisted product.  Ask pointed questions about whether
the product complies with the final JPEG standard and about whether it can
handle the JFIF file format; many of the earliest commercial releases are
not and never will be compatible with anyone else's files.


[6B]  If you are looking for source code to work with:

Free, portable C code for JPEG compression is available from the Independent
JPEG Group, which I lead.  A package containing our source code,
documentation, and some small test files is available from several places.
The "official" archive site for this source code is ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.9
or 192.48.96.9).  Look under directory /graphics/jpeg; the current release
is jpegsrc.v4.tar.Z.  (This is a compressed TAR file; don't forget to
retrieve in binary mode.)  You can retrieve this file by FTP or UUCP.
If you are on a PC and don't know how to cope with .tar.Z format, you may
prefer ZIP format, which you can find at Simtel20 and mirror sites (see NOTE
above), file msdos/graphics/jpegsrc4.zip.  This file will also be available on
CompuServe, in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO PICS), library 15, as jpsrc4.zip.
If you have no FTP access, you can retrieve the source from your nearest
comp.sources.misc archive; version 4 appeared as issues 55-72 of volume 34.
(If you don't know how to retrieve comp.sources.misc postings, see the FAQ
article "How to find sources", referred to at the top of section 6.)

The free JPEG code provides conversion between JPEG "JFIF" format and image
files in GIF, PBMPLUS PPM/PGM, Utah RLE, and Truevision Targa file formats.
The core compression and decompression modules can easily be reused in other
programs, such as image viewers.  The package is highly portable; we have
tested it on many machines ranging from PCs to Crays.

We have released this software for both noncommercial and commercial use.
Companies are welcome to use it as the basis for JPEG-related products.
We do not ask a royalty, although we do ask for an acknowledgement in
product literature (see the README file in the distribution for details).
We hope to make this software industrial-quality --- although, as with
anything that's free, we offer no warranty and accept no liability.

The Independent JPEG Group is a volunteer organization; if you'd like to
contribute to improving our software, you are welcome to join.


[7]  What's all this hoopla about color quantization?

Most people don't have full-color (24 bit per pixel) display hardware.
Typical display hardware stores 8 or fewer bits per pixel, so it can display
256 or fewer distinct colors at a time.  To display a full-color image, the
computer must map the image into an appropriate set of representative
colors.  This process is called "color quantization".  (This is something
of a misnomer, "color selection" would be a better term.  We're stuck with
the standard usage though.)

Clearly, color quantization is a lossy process.  It turns out that for most
images, the details of the color quantization algorithm have MUCH more impact
on the final image quality than do any errors introduced by JPEG (except at
the very lowest JPEG quality settings).

Since JPEG is a full-color format, converting a color JPEG image for display
on 8-bit-or-less hardware requires color quantization.  This is true for
*all* color JPEGs: even if you feed a 256-or-less-color GIF into JPEG, what
comes out of the decompressor is *not* 256 colors, but thousands of colors.
This happens because JPEG's lossiness affects each pixel a little
differently, so two pixels that started with identical colors will probably
come out with slightly different colors.  Each original color gets "smeared"
into a group of nearby colors.  Therefore quantization is always required to
display a color JPEG on a colormapped display, regardless of the image
source.  The only way to avoid quantization is to ask for gray-scale output.

(Incidentally, because of this effect it's nearly meaningless to talk about
the number of colors used by a JPEG image.  Even if you attempted to count
the number of distinct pixel values, different JPEG decoders would give you
different results because of roundoff error differences.  I occasionally see
posted images described as "256-color JPEG".  This tells me that the poster
(a) hasn't read this FAQ and (b) probably converted the JPEG from a GIF.
JPEGs can be classified as color or gray-scale (just like photographs), but
number of colors just isn't a useful concept for JPEG.)

On the other hand, a GIF image by definition has already been quantized to
256 or fewer colors.  (A GIF *does* have a definite number of colors in its
palette, and the format doesn't allow more than 256 palette entries.)
For purposes of Usenet picture distribution, GIF has the advantage that the
sender precomputes the color quantization, so recipients don't have to.
This is also the *disadvantage* of GIF: you're stuck with the sender's
quantization.  If the sender quantized to a different number of colors than
what you can display, you have to re-quantize, resulting in much poorer
image quality than if you had quantized once from a full-color image.
Furthermore, if the sender didn't use a high-quality color quantization
algorithm, you're out of luck.

For this reason, JPEG offers the promise of significantly better image quality
for all users whose machines don't match the sender's display hardware.
JPEG's full color image can be quantized to precisely match the user's display
hardware.  Furthermore, you will be able to take advantage of future
improvements in quantization algorithms (there is a lot of active research in
this area), or purchase better display hardware, to get a better view of JPEG
images you already have.  With a GIF, you're stuck forevermore with what was
sent.

It's also worth mentioning that many GIF-viewing programs include rather
shoddy quantization routines.  If you view a 256-color GIF on a 16-color EGA
display, for example, you are probably getting a much worse image than you
need to.  This is partly an inevitable consequence of doing two color
quantizations (one to create the GIF, one to display it), but often it's
also due to sloppiness.  JPEG conversion programs will be forced to use
high quality quantizers in order to get acceptable results at all, and in
normal use they will quantize directly to the number of colors to be
displayed.  Thus, JPEG is likely to provide better results than the average
GIF program for low-color-resolution displays as well as high-resolution ones!

Finally, an ever-growing number of people have better-than-8-bit display
hardware already: 15-bit "hi-color" PC displays, true 24-bit displays on
workstations and Macintoshes, etc.  For these people, GIF is already
obsolete, as it cannot represent an image to the full capabilities of their
display.  JPEG images can drive these displays much more effectively.
Thus, JPEG is an all-around better choice than GIF for representing images
in a machine-independent fashion.


[8]  How does JPEG work?

The buzz-words to know are chrominance subsampling, discrete cosine
transforms, coefficient quantization, and Huffman or arithmetic entropy
coding.  This article's long enough already, so I'm not going to say more
than that here.  For technical information, see the comp.compression FAQ.
This is available from the news.answers archive at rtfm.mit.edu, in files
/pub/usenet/news.answers/compression-faq/part[1-3].  If you need help in
using the news.answers archive, see the top of this article.


[9]  What about lossless JPEG?

There's a great deal of confusion on this subject.  The JPEG committee did
define a truly lossless compression algorithm, i.e., one that guarantees the
final output is bit-for-bit identical to the original input.  However, this
lossless mode has almost nothing in common with the regular, lossy JPEG
algorithm, and it offers much less compression.  At present, very few
implementations of lossless JPEG exist, and all of them are commercial.

Saying "-Q 100" to the free JPEG software DOES NOT get you a lossless image.
What it does get rid of is deliberate information loss in the coefficient
quantization step.  There is still a good deal of information loss in the
color subsampling step.  (With the V4 free JPEG code, you can also say
"-sample 1x1" to turn off subsampling.  Keep in mind that many commercial
JPEG implementations cannot cope with the resulting file.)

Even with both quantization and subsampling turned off, the regular JPEG
algorithm is not lossless, because it is subject to roundoff errors in
various calculations.  The maximum error is a few counts in any one pixel
value; it's highly unlikely that this could be perceived by the human eye,
but it might be a concern if you are doing machine processing of an image.

At this minimum-loss setting, regular JPEG produces files that are perhaps
half the size of an uncompressed 24-bit-per-pixel image.  True lossless JPEG
provides roughly the same amount of compression, but it guarantees
bit-for-bit accuracy.

If you have an application requiring lossless storage of images with less
than 6 bits per pixel (per color component), you may want to look into the
JBIG bilevel image compression standard.  This performs better than JPEG
lossless on such images.  JPEG lossless is superior to JBIG on images with
6 or more bits per pixel; furthermore, JPEG is public domain (at least with a
Huffman back end), while the JBIG techniques are heavily covered by patents.


[10]  Why all the argument about file formats?

Strictly speaking, JPEG refers only to a family of compression algorithms;
it does *not* refer to a specific image file format.  The JPEG committee was
prevented from defining a file format by turf wars within the international
standards organizations.

Since we can't actually exchange images with anyone else unless we agree on
a common file format, this leaves us with a problem.  In the absence of
official standards, a number of JPEG program writers have just gone off to
"do their own thing", and as a result their programs aren't compatible with
anybody else's.

The closest thing we have to a de-facto standard JPEG format is some work
that's been coordinated by people at C-Cube Microsystems.  They have defined
two JPEG-based file formats:
  * JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format), a "low-end" format that transports
    pixels and not much else.
  * TIFF/JPEG, aka TIFF 6.0, an extension of the Aldus TIFF format.  TIFF is
    a "high-end" format that will let you record just about everything you
    ever wanted to know about an image, and a lot more besides :-).  TIFF is
    a lot more complex than JFIF, and may well prove less transportable,
    because different vendors have historically implemented slightly different
    and incompatible subsets of TIFF.  It's not likely that adding JPEG to the
    mix will do anything to improve this situation.
Both of these formats were developed with input from all the major vendors
of JPEG-related products; it's reasonably likely that future commercial
products will adhere to one or both standards.

I believe that Usenet should adopt JFIF as the replacement for GIF in
picture postings.  JFIF is simpler than TIFF and is available now; the
TIFF 6.0 spec has only recently been officially adopted, and it is still
unusably vague on some crucial details.  Even when TIFF/JPEG is well
defined, the JFIF format is likely to be a widely supported "lowest common
denominator"; TIFF/JPEG files may never be as transportable.

A particular case that people may be interested in is Apple's QuickTime
software for the Macintosh.  QuickTime uses a JFIF-compatible format wrapped
inside the Mac-specific PICT structure.  Conversion between JFIF and
QuickTime JPEG is pretty straightforward, and several Mac programs are
available to do it (see Mac portion of section 6A).  If you have an editor
that handles binary files, you can strip a QuickTime JPEG PICT down to JFIF
by hand; see section 11 for details.

Another particular case is Handmade Software's programs (GIF2JPG/JPG2GIF and
Image Alchemy).  These programs are capable of reading and writing JFIF
format.  By default, though, they write a proprietary format developed by
HSI.  This format is NOT readable by any non-HSI programs and should not be
used for Usenet postings.  Use the -j switch to get JFIF output.  (This
applies to old versions of these programs; the current releases emit JFIF
format by default.  You still should be careful not to post HSI-format
files, unless you want to get flamed by people on non-PC platforms.)


[11]  How do I recognize which file format I have, and what do I do about it?

If you have an alleged JPEG file that your software won't read, it's likely
to be HSI format or some other proprietary JPEG-based format.  You can tell
what you have by inspecting the first few bytes of the file:

1.  A JFIF-standard file will start with the characters (hex) FF D8 FF E0,
    followed by two variable bytes (often hex 00 10), followed by 'JFIF'.

2.  If you see FF D8 at the start, but not the rest of it, you may have a
    "raw JPEG" file.  This is probably decodable as-is by JFIF software ---
    it's worth a try, anyway.

3.  HSI files start with 'hsi1'.  You're out of luck unless you have HSI
    software.  Portions of the file may look like plain JPEG data, but they
    won't decompress properly with non-HSI programs.

4.  A Macintosh PICT file, if JPEG-compressed, will have a couple hundred
    bytes of header followed by a JFIF header (scan for 'JFIF').  Strip off
    everything before the FF D8 and you should be able to read it.

5.  Anything else: it's a proprietary format, or not JPEG at all.  If you are
    lucky, the file may consist of a header and a raw JPEG data stream.
    If you can identify the start of the JPEG data stream (look for FF D8),
    try stripping off everything before that.

In uuencoded Usenet postings, the characteristic JFIF pattern is

	"begin" line
	M_]C_X ...

whereas uuencoded HSI files will start with

	"begin" line
	M:'-I ...

If you learn to check for the former, you can save yourself the trouble of
downloading non-JFIF files.


[12]  What about arithmetic coding?

The JPEG spec defines two different "back end" modules for the final output
of compressed data: either Huffman coding or arithmetic coding is allowed.
The choice has no impact on image quality, but arithmetic coding usually
produces a smaller compressed file.  On typical images, arithmetic coding
produces a file 5 or 10 percent smaller than Huffman coding.  (All the
file-size numbers previously cited are for Huffman coding.)

Unfortunately, the particular variant of arithmetic coding specified by the
JPEG standard is subject to patents owned by IBM, AT&T, and Mitsubishi.
Thus *you cannot legally use arithmetic coding* unless you obtain licenses
from these companies.  (The "fair use" doctrine allows people to implement
and test the algorithm, but actually storing any images with it is dubious
at best.)

At least in the short run, I recommend that people not worry about
arithmetic coding; the space savings isn't great enough to justify the
potential legal hassles.  In particular, arithmetic coding *should not*
be used for any images to be exchanged on Usenet.

There is some small chance that the legal situation may change in the
future.  Stay tuned for further details.


[13]  Does loss accumulate with repeated compression/decompression?

It would be nice if, having compressed an image with JPEG, you could
decompress it, manipulate it (crop off a border, say), and recompress it
without any further image degradation beyond what you lost initially.
Unfortunately THIS IS NOT THE CASE.  In general, recompressing an altered
image loses more information, though usually not as much as was lost the
first time around.

The next best thing would be that if you decompress an image and recompress
it *without changing it* then there is no further loss, i.e., you get an
identical JPEG file.  Even this is not true; at least, not with the current
free JPEG software.  It's essentially a problem of accumulation of roundoff
error.  If you repeatedly compress and decompress, the image will eventually
degrade to where you can see visible changes from the first-generation
output.  (It usually takes many such cycles to get visible change.)
One of the things on our to-do list is to see if accumulation of error can
be avoided or limited, but I am not optimistic about it.

In any case, the most that could possibly be guaranteed would be that
compressing the unmodified full-color output of djpeg, at the original
quality setting, would introduce no further loss.  Even such simple changes
as cropping off a border could cause further roundoff-error degradation.
(If you're wondering why, it's because the pixel-block boundaries move.
If you cropped off only multiples of 16 pixels, you might be safe, but
that's a mighty limited capability!)

The bottom line is that JPEG is a useful format for archival storage and
transmission of images, but you don't want to use it as an intermediate
format for sequences of image manipulation steps.  Use a lossless format
(PPM, RLE, TIFF, etc) while working on the image, then JPEG it when you are
ready to file it away.  Aside from avoiding degradation, you will save a lot
of compression/decompression time this way :-).


[14]  What are some rules of thumb for converting GIF images to JPEG?

As stated earlier, you *will* lose some amount of image information if you
convert an existing GIF image to JPEG.  If you can obtain the original
full-color data the GIF was made from, it's far better to make a JPEG from
that.  But if you need to save space and have only the GIF to work from,
here are some suggestions for getting maximum space savings with minimum
loss of quality.

The first rule when converting a GIF library is to look at each JPEG, to
make sure you are happy with it, before throwing away the corresponding GIF;
that will give you a chance to re-do the conversion with a higher quality
setting if necessary.  Some GIFs may be better left as GIFs, as explained in
section 3; in particular, cartoon-type GIFs with sixteen or fewer colors
don't convert well.  You may find that a JPEG file of reasonable quality
will be *larger* than the GIF.  (So check the sizes too.)

Experience to date suggests that large, high-visual-quality GIFs are the best
candidates for conversion to JPEG.  They chew up the most storage so offer
the most potential savings, and they convert to JPEG with least degradation.
Don't waste your time converting any GIF much under 100 Kbytes.  Also, don't
expect JPEG files converted from GIFs to be as small as those created
directly from full-color originals.  To maintain image quality you may have
to let the converted files be as much as twice as big as straight-through
JPEG files would be (i.e., shoot for 1/2 or 1/3rd the size of the GIF file,
not 1/4th as suggested in earlier comparisons).

Many people have developed an odd habit of putting a large constant-color
border around a GIF image.  While useless, this was nearly free in terms of
storage cost in GIF files.  It is NOT free in JPEG files, and the sharp
border boundary can create visible artifacts ("ghost" edges).  Do yourself
a favor and crop off any border before JPEGing.  (If you are on an X Windows
system, XV's manual and automatic cropping functions are a very painless
way to do this.)

cjpeg's default Q setting of 75 is appropriate for full-color input, but
for GIF inputs, Q settings of 85 to 95 often seem to be necessary to avoid
image degradation.  (If you apply smoothing as suggested below, the higher
Q setting may not be necessary.)

Color GIFs of photographs or complex artwork are usually "dithered" to fool
your eye into seeing more than the 256 colors that GIF can actually store.
If you enlarge the image, you will see that adjacent pixels are often of
significantly different colors; at normal size the eye averages these pixels
together to produce the illusion of an intermediate color value.  The
trouble with dithering is that, to JPEG, it looks like high-spatial-frequency
color noise; and JPEG can't compress noise very well.  The resulting JPEG
file is both larger and of lower image quality than what you would have
gotten from JPEGing the original full color image (if you had it).
To get around this, you want to "smooth" the GIF image before compression.
Smoothing averages together nearby pixels, thus approximating the color that
you thought you saw anyway, and in the process getting rid of the rapid
color changes that give JPEG trouble.  Appropriate use of smoothing will
often let you avoid using a high Q factor, thus further reducing the size of
the compressed file, while still obtaining a better-looking output image
than you'd get without smoothing.

With the V4 free JPEG software (or products based on it), a simple smoothing
capability is built in.  Try "-smooth 10" or so when converting GIFs.
Values of 10 to 25 seem to work well for high-quality GIFs.  Heavy-handed
dithering may require larger smoothing factors.  (If you can see regular
fine-scale patterns on the GIF image even without enlargement, then strong
smoothing is definitely called for.)  Too large a smoothing factor will blur
the output image, which you don't want.  If you are an image processing
wizard, you can also do smoothing with a separate filtering program, such as
pnmconvol from the PBMPLUS package.  However, cjpeg's built-in smoother is
a LOT faster than pnmconvol...

The upshot of all this is that "cjpeg -quality 85 -smooth 10" is probably a
good starting point for converting GIFs.  But if you really care about the
image, you'll want to check the results and maybe try a few other settings.


---------------------

For more information about JPEG in general or the free JPEG software in
particular, contact the Independent JPEG Group at jpeg-info@uunet.uu.net.
