Investigating JPEG XL's place as a Web image codec.

Why?

JPEG XL is a technically impressive image codec; it is a definitive upgrade over JPEG, more versatile than WebP, and well-equipped to serve use cases beyond the Web. However, it was famously rejected from Chrome in 2023. Because this happened to a royalty-free, flexible, compression-efficient codec from the JPEG Committee that was receiving attention from large companies, the decision didn't land well with many.

Recently, a JPEG XL decoder in Rust has made its way into Firefox and Chrome in some capacity. The Web's major stakeholders may therefore be reversing course on JPEG XL given that the new decoder may protect the Web from reliving 2023's WebP vulnerability . Is this all it took to justify JPEG XL for the Web?

Historically, I've been a big proponent of JPEG XL for all use cases. I endorsed JPEG XL for Interop 2024, and I've interacted with Jon Sneyers and Jyrki Alakuijala (two of the format's primary authors) personally many times.…