How a decade of open source experiments led to JPEG XL, the next-generation image standard

Summary

This article chronicles the decade-long open source journey behind JPEG XL (JXL), a next-generation image coding standard. It details how experiments in psychovisual modeling and compression—including projects like Guetzli, Butteraugli, and Pik—led to breakthroughs in perceptual image quality. The authors explain how JPEG XL addresses modern display needs like HDR and Wide Color Gamut while offering features such as lossless recompression of legacy JPEGs, efficient encoding/decoding, and royalty-free licensing. The piece positions JXL as the culmination of collaborative open source research that balances visual fidelity with bandwidth efficiency.