The case against JPEG XL

JPEG XL, a technically impressive image codec, holds promise as a superior alternative to JPEG and WebP for various use cases. However, its rejection from Chrome in 2023 due to a lack of adoption raises doubts about its future on the Web. While Rust-based JPEG XL decoders have been integrated into Firefox and Chrome, the new decoder may not be enough to change the minds of major stakeholders.

Historically, the author has been a proponent of JPEG XL for all use cases, endorsing it for Interop 2024 and collaborating with its primary authors. However, recent developments suggest that JPEG XL may not be the ideal solution for web image compression. The average web consumer primarily requires lossy compression, rendering JPEG XL's lossless advantage insignificant.

Furthermore, modern encoders, such as SVT-AV1, have surpassed JPEG XL in terms of speed and fidelity per bit. Additionally, AVIF demonstrates superior progressive decoding capabilities, with significantly smaller file sizes, compared to JPEG XL. While JPEG XL offers flexibility and potential for optimization, its practical advantages over competing codecs like AVIF appear limited, making it an unattractive choice for web image compression at present.