Do BPG (Better Portable Graphics) mean the end of jpeg, gif and png files?!

The up-and-coming image format, BPG (Better Portable Graphics), is gaining traction in the digital arena. Not only might it really shake things up in the relatively near future, it might even spell the end of JPEG, GIF, and PNG files as we know and love them.

The format promises LOTS of exciting stuff:

Smaller file sizes (roughly half the size of an equivalent JPEG image!)

Much better quality than JPEG with less visible compression artifacts

Supports alpha transparency (like PNG)

Supports animation! Animated GIFs might be a thing of the past. The file sizes for animated BPG files are much smaller than they are for video files converted to GIF or GIFV.

Supports lossless compression. JPEGs always through away data even at maximum quality settings, so it is not the ideal format for transmitting original high-res source images.

Supports various metadata (EXIF, ICC profile, XMP)

The drawbacks…

No native browser support at this time. Requires loading a javascript library to decompress and display the image.

Decompressing/decompiling is kind of slow at this point and is processor intensive

Read and demo more:

BPG Image Format

BPG is a New Image Format That Wants to Replace the JPEG with Equal Quality at Half the Size

Check out this nifty comparison tool!

What are your thoughts on this rising format? Comments and questions welcomed below.

 

About Layla Masri

Layla is a co-founder of Bean Creative. She leverages her ad agency background and 15-plus years as a marketing and web copywriter to maximize interactive impact for strategic planning, usability/accessibility, and digital promotion.
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