THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF JPEG FORMAT

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a group of experts that developed a lossy compression technique for color images. This is the known ‘JPG’ of high resolution files that uses a compression scheme specified by the user reducing sizes considerably of larch and heavy files.

This format use a universal standard for photography, is the ISO/ITU-TSS 10918 providing compression for loss and it means that the image can loss sharpness from the original one. Being one of the most knowing and used format since 1992, this format includes 29 distinct coding processes although a JPEG implement may not use them all.

Since the internet creation and the eagerness of posting web pages with beauty and useful simple platforms, the digital images started his boom, but high quality meant high size. An investigation started by the ISO with the final solution in JPG. Despite this format not include an alpha channel, his important value is in the quality/compression being the most effective format in the new era with easy uses in dispositives.

Also known as JFIF, depending the platform, this process marked an era. Because the world started to move fast forward and the designers would have had to spend highest amounts of money making a web page properly. However, that would have been impossible because no one could opened a simple webpage with a photography of a beauty landscape, the millions of colors and  pixels that non compressed imaged had, made impossible the fact that nowadays we enjoy, of posting a lot of images and does not exceeding highest megabytes.

In the 90’s, a good computer could have 16MB of RAM memory and a size of 1 GB in the Hard Disk, these dates, actually, would be a mockery for a bad computer. The technology must be balanced and that was the problem, because the new machines cannot opened a few native images, one by one must been seen. The need of show amount of information at the same time, just begun and the images could not be left behind, the solution: compression.

The mass storage device of that time, was the diskette a magnetic disc that had between 79,6 KB to 240 MB, they almost could have just 30 photos or 3 videos, because all the information comes native from the device. Here was another reason to think in a way to keep all the information in the same place, without buy another storage devices extra. Besides this, the time of viewing the full information was too much, because as I said, the maximum capacity of RAM memory, being the hardware that provide us the agility to make process depending of the storage and the balance with the rest of the machine, was less of 15 MB and the necessity of get into the images and possibly modify it.

Apart from the compression, the most important thing in this new image format, was the compatibility, because not all the devices used the same software and nowadays is the same. The importance of reading this images across the platforms in a easy way, was the most important thing that made this format reach the top in the industries.

Actually the JPG format has the higher percent in use of images, his lossy compression and loss of quality has not been an obstacle to be the 60% of use in the world. A lot of compression formats have appaeared, like TIFF that is known who the “lossless format” because reduce the size but not the quality, dod not lose any image data. The problem is compatibility, because just software like Photoshop or another photo editing, are the only one that could open this formats. Furthermore, integrates an alpha channel that JPG does not have. All of this characteristics are of the dreamed format, even the JPEG pulled out a version called “lossless version” but this version has not and easy use, so we can see the power of JPG despite having better characteristics in the market. On the other hand, there is the format that does not have any compression, it is the .RAW format that have the image native from the device. Formats like this or .TARGA, are the better for quality in the market, but it is nor for easy uses.

The .JPG created a way to handle the formats in the devices and multimedia uses for market, because it is not for the quality or the size, because as we can see is not the better for both, just is the balance, the power of bring a good quality with a perfect size. After 24 years we still using this format although there are formats like .PNG or .BPG, that this last is in a dispute for being the best and most uses format with JPG. BPG have a long way to go if want to be a format like .JPG, not for his quality o size, for his balance and affinity with the mount of platform existing now.