Format at a glance
- Full name
- Joint Photographic Experts Group image
- File extensions
- .jpeg, .jpg
- MIME types
- image/jpeg
- Category
- Images
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- No
- Animation
- No
- Properties
- Color profiles
Suitable tools
What is this format?
JPEG is a raster image coding standard created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Files commonly use .jpg or .jpeg and usually store 8-bit photographic color data with lossy DCT-based compression.
JPEG does not support an alpha channel or standard animation. Its quality setting controls a trade-off between file size and visible detail rather than representing a fixed percentage of retained data.
What is it used for?
- Digital photographs and camera exports
- Web images where compact photo files matter
- Email attachments and social-media images
- Photo archives where universal compatibility is more important than lossless editing
Which programs can open it?
- All current major web browsers
- Windows Photos, macOS Preview and mobile gallery apps
- Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, GIMP and Krita
- Most document, presentation and publishing applications
Support across devices and browsers
Built-in viewers and editors support JPEG.
Preview, Photos and graphics apps open JPEG natively.
Common desktop viewers and editors support JPEG through standard image libraries.
Camera, gallery, browser and messaging apps support JPEG.
Photos, Files, Safari and editing apps support JPEG.
JPEG is universally supported for web images.
Advantages
- Small files for photographs
- Universal device, browser and application support
- Adjustable quality-to-size trade-off
Disadvantages
- Lossy artifacts can appear around edges and fine detail
- No transparency or animation
- Repeated re-encoding can progressively reduce quality
Comparison with alternatives
JPEG is smaller for photos; PNG is lossless and better for transparency, text and sharp graphics.
WebP often reaches smaller sizes and supports transparency, while JPEG has broader legacy compatibility.
AVIF can compress photos more efficiently but encoding, decoding and application support vary more.
LocalFileLab support
Decoded locally as an image source.
Can be encoded as JPEG with an adjustable quality setting.
Can be resized and re-encoded at a lower quality.
A local image preview is available.
Compatible EXIF metadata can be preserved or removed, depending on the selected conversion options.
Related formats
Frequently asked questions
Are JPG and JPEG different formats?
No. .jpg and .jpeg normally identify the same JPEG image format; the shorter extension came from older filename limits.
Does JPEG support transparency?
No. Transparent pixels must be flattened onto a background or saved in a format such as PNG, WebP or AVIF.
What JPEG quality should I choose?
It depends on the image and purpose. Inspect the result at its intended display size and choose the lowest size that does not show distracting artifacts.