The JPEG image file format was first launched in the early 90s, making it ancient by modern tech standards. After a long, distinguished run, is it time for it to retire? Apple thinks so. After all, image compression has come a long way since 1992. With the introduction of OS 11, Apple has introduced HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format), a new format that promises to be more efficient and take up less storage space. They want it to replace JPEGs.
This isn’t just an Apple idea; it’s a new industry standard. Apple simply is the first company to support it. HEIF was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and applies a high-efficiency video codec to still images; in other words, the images take up less storage compared to JPEGs while promising higher-quality images.
Technically HEIF isn’t a file format, it’s a “container” for files. Unlike JPEG, which is a single image, HEIF can be either a single image or a multi-image sequence. That’s great for Apple’s Live Photos format, and as a potential replacement for animated GIFs.
Apple’s introduction in iOS 11 and MacOS X High Sierra has been a clumsy one—HEIF won’t work on some iOS 11 apps—but once those issues have been cleared up, HEIFs has some major advantages over JPEGs:
- They save storage space
- They let web pages load faster. HTML5.2 supports HIEF, and since that’s a smaller format, pages with lots of images such as photographer portfolios will load faster.
- Image quality is better. HEIF supports image color up to 16 bits (JPEG only goes to 8) while producing smaller files.
- It’s non-destructive, like RAW. This feature can be used by image editing applications so that the editing instructions are kept in the same file as the original image.
Nikia has provided some excellent examples of HEIF images here.
What about all of those JPEGs? Or devices and systems that don’t support HEIF? Well, sooner or later there will be a way to convert HEIFs to JPEGs for older systems, and JPEGs to HEIFs. Look for HEIF support from Adobe products soon.
Bottom line: Your JPEGs may one day be considered an old format, but they won’t die. There are so many of them out there, devices and systems in the future will have no choice but to be compatible with both JPEGs and HEIFs.
