In 2010, a Paris-based Google team created lossy WebP as single-frame WebM (VP8).
2010
2011
Back in 2011, Jon Sneyers and Pieter Wuille got interested in image compression and started a pet project called JiF or JPiF.
In 2012, the Zurich-based Google compression team lead by Jyrki Alakuijala added alpha support and a lossless mode to WebP.
2012
They went on doing other things:
Brotli (2013) / WOFF 2.0 / ZopfliPNG.
Brotli (2013) / WOFF 2.0 / ZopfliPNG.
2013
2015
In October 2015, Jon Sneyers released FLIF, the Free Lossless Image Format.
In 2016, they got interested in lossy image compression and created the Butteraugli perceptual metric and the Guetzli JPEG encoder.
2016
In February 2016, Jon Sneyers started working for Cloudinary.
In September 2016, Jon Sneyers presented FLIF at the IEEE ICIP conference, at the occasion of the Image Compression Grand Challenge organized by JPEG (“best lossless codec”).
In 2017, they released the first version of Pik.
2017
End of 2017, JPEG started drafting a Call for Proposals for JPEG XL.
Jon Sneyers starts working on FUIF, the Free Universal Image Format, based on FLIF.
2018
Early 2018: JPEG launches Call for Proposals for a next-gen image codec (‘JPEG XL’)
In September 2018, Google submits Pik to the JPEG XL Call for Proposals.
In September 2018, Cloudinary submits FUIF to the JPEG XL Call for Proposals.
Combining Pik & FUIF
It took almost two years to combine Pik and FUIF
- September 2018: 7 proposals submitted to the JPEG XL CfP, including Pik and FUIF
- October 2018: The JPEG committee investigates the different proposals
- January 2019: Combination of Pik+FUIF selected
- Two years of shared development, many improvements made along the way
ISO Standardization Process
ISO Standardization Process
- April 2019: New Project (NP) started
- July 2019: Committee Draft (CD)
- July 2020: Draft International Standard (DIS) approved
- December 2020: bitstream frozen
- January 2021: Part 1 (codestream) FDIS submitted
- April 2021: Part 2 (file format) FDIS submitted; Draft Amendment to Part 1 (Profile & Levels)
First editions published
First editions published
- 18181-1 (JPEG XL core codestream): published in March 2022
- 18181-2 (JPEG XL file format): published in Oct 2021
- 18181-3 (JPEG XL conformance testing): published in Oct 2022
- 18181-4 (JPEG XL reference software): published in August 2022
- Then started working on 2nd editions (corrections and clarifications)
Current Status
- 18181-1 (JPEG XL core codestream): 2nd edition published July 2024
- 18181-2 (JPEG XL file format): 2nd edition published June 2024
- 18181-3 (JPEG XL conformance testing): 2nd edition FDIS submitted July 2024
- 18181-4 (JPEG XL reference software): 2nd edition not yet initiated, will be done when libjxl 1.0 is released
