JPEG XL adoption accelerates as Firefox and Chrome integrate Rust decoders

The re-enabling of JPEG XL in Chromium and Firefox ends a three-year technical deadlock over browser support, signaling a shift toward more efficient HDR web delivery. For streaming workflows, the format’s native handling of wide color gamut and high-resolution assets offers a unified alternative to the fragmented use of WebP and AVIF. Ecosystem leverage now pivots to massive cloud-based image repositories that can transcode legacy JPEGs losslessly to save significant storage and egress costs. Watch for major Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to begin auto-negotiating the format once Chrome enables the feature by default.

The resurgence of JPEG XL follows a pivotal shift in the professional standards landscape. In late 2025, the PDF Association selected JPEG XL as the preferred format for high dynamic range (HDR) images embedded within PDF documents. This endorsement, per the PDF Association in September 2025, pressured browser vendors to provide consistent rendering for high-fidelity document workflows and likely accelerated Google's decision to re-audit the format after it had previously dismissed ecosystem interest.

Hardware manufacturers have also moved faster than web platforms to capitalize on the format's efficiency. Per PetaPixel in September 2024, the iPhone 16 Pro specifically uses JPEG XL compression within its ProRAW container to reduce a 75MB 48-megapixel image to approximately 20MB while remaining perceptually lossless. This implementation utilizes Digital Negative (DNG) 1.7 specifications, which officially incorporated JPEG XL code in June 2023. Similarly, Samsung's Expert RAW has used the codec to optimize storage on Galaxy S24 series devices, demonstrating that professional-tier photography has largely bypassed the web's earlier resistance.

Recent benchmarks underscore why professional imaging leaders like Adobe and Cloudinary remained proponents. According to Core Web Vitals reporting in February 2026, JPEG XL achieves visually lossless quality at roughly 1.2 bits per pixel, a 2:1 improvement over traditional JPEG. While AVIF competes effectively at ultra-low bitrates for UI elements, JPEG XL's significantly faster encoding speeds — often an order of magnitude faster than HEIC — make it the more viable candidate for high-volume server-side transcoding and real-time media delivery pipelines.