JPEG
JPEG (ISO/IEC 10918) is a lossy discrete-cosine compression scheme for continuous-tone images. Files often live in a JFIF or Exif wrapper.
Common uses
- Photographs
- Camera output
- Thumbnails
Strengths
- Small files for photos
- Universal support
Weaknesses
- No alpha
- Blocking artefacts
- Generation loss on re-encode
- EXIF GPS surprises
Compatibility. Universal. Progressive JPEG is widely supported. JPEG XL is a different format.
Size and quality. Quality sliders trade artefacts for bytes. There is no lossless JPEG in ordinary use.
How to open it. Any photo app. Use the EXIF viewer before sharing.
How to convert it. Image converter and compressor. Metadata remover to drop GPS.
Security and privacy. GPS and camera serials are the usual leak. EXIF UserComment is untrusted text.
Related tools
- Image compressor
Reduce image weight in the browser and see the new file size before you download.
- EXIF viewer
Inspect EXIF and GPS locally, with tags treated as untrusted strings.
- Image metadata remover
Strip location and camera metadata before you share a photo.
Related comparisons
Last reviewed 16 August 2026.