Pronunciation

An image format designed for the internet which can capture a large number of colors and is commonly used to display photographs.

This format was designed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (hence the name JPEG or file extension .JPG) in order to balance detail in the image with file size. In order to accomplish this, a compression algorithm called discrete cosign transform, or DCT, is used. This allows the images to be compressed by a factor of 10, making them very convenient for sharing, but at the cost of lost data. The compression causes the image quality to deteriorate every time the image is opened and resaved. JPEG does support EXIF data but not transparency.

Technology