Mozilla announces new JPEG encoder enabling smaller sizes, quicker page loads

Mozilla has announced a new JPEG encoder called Mozjpeg that is intended to reduce the sizes of JPEG files, thus allowing for quicker Web page load times. The move comes in response to the increasing use of larger pictures on Web pages and the strain this puts on Internet infrastructure. JPEG files far outweigh HTML, CSS and JS when considering the total amount of data that needs to be transferred when a Web page is loaded.

The JPEG format has been in use since 1992, long before the World Wide Web became a mass phenomenon, and has achieved near-universal compatibility with PCs, mobile phones, TVs and various other digital devices.

Mozilla's Mozjpeg project aims to optimize the existing standard rather than replace JPEGs entirely, which has been the goal of other similar projects, most notably Google's proposed WebP standard.

Mozjpeg version 1.0 is based on the libjpeg-turbo encoder with an additional Perl script called Jpegturbo. Mozilla says a test involving 1,500 images from the Wikimedia commons resulted in an average size reduction of 10 percent. The foundation already has plans for the next stage of optimisations it will integrate.

Developers who are interested in knowing more about Mozjpeg or contributing to the standard can join the official mailing list or check out the project's official Github page.