iPhone 16 Pro Supports JPEG-XL Format

[MacRumors]

The iPhone 16 Pro models will support the JPEG-XL file format, according to code found in iOS 18. Compared to JPEG, JPEG-XL has improved compression for smaller file sizes.

Apple did not mention JPEG-XL support during today's event, but this feature was rumored ahead of the iPhone 16 launch. It appears that the Pro models will support capturing images in JPEG-XL.

Compared to the HEIC format that Apple introduced several years ago, JPEG-XL supports both lossy and lossless compression. HEIC is a lossy format, and while it retains better quality than JPG images, pros will likely prefer JPEG-XL for zero image degradation. HEIC has never gained wide support, which has hindered its usefulness.

HEIC will still be available alongside JPEG, JPEG-XL, and other formats.

Article Link: iPhone 16 Pro Supports JPEG-XL Format

 

[jz0309]

is jpeg-xl supported on Android? on Windows? I like what heir did/does but it's not an accepted standard

 

[Jamie0003]

Why does supporting a file format require a new phone?

 

[drumcat]

I guess it's time to batch all the .heic back to .jpeg

 

[jz0309]

pros will likely prefer JPEG-XL for zero image degradation

Pros will not use jpeg-xl, they'll either use prow or the "real" raw that apps like Hallide support

 

[JPack]

Why does supporting a file format require a new phone?

Same reason why 80% Limit required a new phone. $.

 

[MrRom92]

Still unconfirmed if it will do jpeg xl lossless - if so, sign me up

 

[Kylo83]

It’s not on the spec sheet for iPhones as a format so doubt it

 

[midkay]

I really hope this pans out and we get some control over the amount of compression applied to our photos. It would be great to have a slider to choose between more compression, higher quality, or fully lossless.

 

[gphome]

I would be interested in how editing speed within the photos editor differs between JXL and HEIC, there is a definite slight lag when cropping HEIC compared to JPG (likely due to the heavy decoding requirements of HEIC) and if JXL is better then I’ll switch. Plus I never use Live Photo but it sometimes turns itself back on so hopefully it’ll also stop that

 

[rotvaldi]

JPEG XL is a royalty-free raster-graphics file format, it could be easily added on iOS 18 and support all phones, applying only on iPhone 16 is a catch.

 

[sw1tcher]

Why does supporting a file format require a new phone?

Not just a new phone, but a Pro level iPhone

The iPhone 16 Pro models will support the JPEG-XL file format, according to code found in iOS 18.

Another feature artificially being limited to Pro line up

 

[antiprotest]

pros will likely prefer JPEG-XL for zero image degradation. HEIC has never gained wide support, which has hindered its usefulness.

I am not a photographer so maybe I am the only one who has never heard of JPEG-XL until the earlier rumor. Does it already have more adoption than HEIC? Or does this statement mean that it will catch up and pass HEIC because pros will prefer it? But will it gain more support if pros prefer it, as if most people are pros?

Otherwise, does all iPhones, iPads, Mac and some cameras supporting HEIC still means it has never "gained wide support"? Or does the statement mean it has gained wide support only when more devices from more companies support it? Kind of like how everyone hates webp, although it's in Chrome?

 

[rotvaldi]

I am not a photographer so maybe I am the only one who has never heard of JPEG-XL until the earlier rumor. Does it already have more adoption than HEIC? Or does this statement mean that it will catch up and pass HEIC because pros will prefer it?

Otherwise, does all iPhones, iPads, Mac and some cameras supporting HEIC still means it has never "gained wide support"? Or does the statement mean it has gained wide support only when more devices from more companies support it? Kind of like how everyone hates webp, although it's in Chrome?

Unfortunately, image formats are largely dependent on daily internet usage, and as a result, they rely on whether major web browsers, like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or similar, support them. Google wasn’t interested in adding it to Chromium (the open-source project behind Chrome and Edge), which is why you don’t hear much about it. However, in the GitHub world, there are several free ways to force Windows to support JPEG XL.

"Chrome is 'against' because of 'insufficient ecosystem interest' and because they want to promote improvements in existing codecs," said Sneyers, pointing to JPEG, WebP, and AVIF. "Those last two are after all codecs that were developed in part by people from the Chrome team, so it makes sense that they want to promote adoption of their own codecs."

 

[coffeemilktea]

HEIC has never gained wide support, which has hindered its usefulness.

I'm so glad Apple decided to use such a popular and widely supported format like JPEG-XL then... maybe the iPhone 17 will also support equally popular formats like TIFF and AVIF too.

 

[al256]

This is not how you get a standard adopted.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Great, a new image format with less support than HEIC. Hope we don't have to pay for a plugin to view these on Windows.

 

[Hammerd]

What a game changer!!!

 

[liamottawa]

i bought the domain jpegxl.ca a few wks ago. i have an idea for it

 

[now i see it]

New format is not going to help. Just zoom in on any new iPhone picture taken with the camera and behold the horrible “computational photography” artifacts left behind. The problem isn’t jpeg, it’s their in-camera processing.

 

[ifxf]

I guess it's time to batch all the .heic back to .jpeg

never used .heic due to its proprietary nature.

 

[Dizzy714]

Bring back the option to shoot without the auto-HDR crap. Some times it works good, other times my image looks completely dull, darker & less saturated than what I see in the live view before snapping a photo.

 

[robgendreau]

This article claims it's "very likely" iPhones other than the next generation will get JPEG-XL in the iOS 18 upgrade: https://www.cultofmac.com/news/jpeg-xl-iphone-new-photo-format-explained

One can export to the format from the Lightroom Mobile app in iOS as well.

Great for display HDR; does gain maps. https://gregbenzphotography.com/hdr-photos/jpg-hdr-gain-maps-in-adobe-camera-raw/

I'm glad Apple is getting into it. Safari was one of the first browsers to support it IIRC. HDR looks great on the Apple devices that have higher nits, esp MBPs, etc.

 

[Rychiar]

is jpeg-xl supported on Android? on Windows? I like what heir did/does but it's not an accepted standard

Exactly what I wondered. Are they just trading one inconvenient codec for another?

 

[maruyama]

Why does supporting a file format require a new phone?

It does seem kind of silly, but it might actually be more hardware-related than it would appear at first glance.

HEIC encoding and decoding have almost certainly been hardware-accelerated on the A-series chips ever since Apple adopted the format. I wouldn't be surprised if the encoding part is even baked into the ISP stack at this point. HEIC is a lot more computationally intensive than classic JPEG, so it's both a speed and battery advantage to do that in hardware rather than in software.

Switching to JPEG-XL, which is presumably similar in terms of computation requirements, would then mean Apple needs a hardware-accelerated pipeline for encoding images in that file format, thus tying it to the A18 SoCs.

The alternative would be switching all iPhones on iOS 18 to encoding JPEG-XL on the CPU rather than HEIC on the ISP, and I think the firestorm of criticism for making the camera slower and more battery-intensive on all existing iPhones is something they definitely wanted to avoid. JPEG-gate!