Chrome will support JPEG XL. The evolution of image formats improves on WebP and AVIF to improve web performance and reduce environmental impact.

The weight of images on the modern web

The modern web is, first and foremost, a web of images. From corporate homepages to e-commerce product pages, from blogs to large publishing portals to social networks, visual content has become the heart of the online experience and now represents a significant portion of overall internet traffic. This evolution, however, has brought with it a clear contradiction: while connections are increasingly faster and devices more powerful, web pages continue to grow in size, and in most cases It is precisely the images that are the main slowing factor.

In recent years, with the introduction of increasingly precise metrics to evaluate the quality of the user experience, it has become clear that image management is no longer a secondary technical detail, but one of the central elements of modern web performanceThe weight of graphic resources directly affects loading times, the perception of a site's speed, and, consequently, its results in terms of engagement and conversions.

Optimizing images today no longer means just “compressing them a little more”, but rethink how they are stored, distributed and served to browsersReducing image size without sacrificing visual quality has become a strategic priority for anyone working on the web, because striking this balance determines not only a site's technical performance, but also its commercial effectiveness and the overall quality of the user experience.

From historical formats to modern fragmentation

For a long time, the web existed with just a few standard formats. JPEG was used for photographs, PNG for graphics and images with transparency, and GIF for animations. This ecosystem was simple to manage, but fraught with compromises in terms of quality and file size.

Over time, more modern formats like WebP and AVIF emerged, designed to offer more efficient compression and better quality for the same file size. From a performance standpoint, this represented a significant advance. However, rather than completely replacing previous formats, these new standards have sat alongside them, creating an increasingly fragmented ecosystem.

Today, most websites manage multiple versions of the same image: a JPEG or PNG version, a WebP, often an AVIF, as well as variations for different resolutions. This approach improves the user experience, but significantly increases technical complexity and infrastructure costs.

The hidden cost of image duplication

Each additional version of an image means more disk space, more data to save in backups, more content to replicate to the CDN, and more computing resources consumed to generate and maintain these files. On large projects, format duplication can account for a huge portion of total storage.

Added to this is the complexity of the processing pipelines: loading the original, converting to multiple formats, optimizing, and managing fallbacks for older browsers. All of this requires development time, processing power, and introduces potential points of failure. In other words, the current multi-format model is functional, but inefficient and expensive.

What is JPEG XL and why is it different?

JPEG XL was born with the aim of overcome the structural limitations of current formats. It is not simply a successor to the old JPEG, but a format designed to become a universal container for images, suitable for both the web and more advanced contexts such as digital publishing and professional graphics. Unlike JPEG, WebP and AVIF, it was designed from the outset for natively cover a broad spectrum of use cases without forcing developers and platforms to choose different formats depending on the type of image.

Feature-wise, JPEG XL supports both lossy and lossless compression, unifying into a single format roles that today are typically divided between JPEG, PNG and, to some extent, WebP. It supports transparency, high color depths, advanced color spaces and HDR content, features that make it comparable to AVIF in terms of expressive capabilities, but with a greater focus on operational efficiency and flexibility of use.

Compared to WebP, JPEG XL offers a wider range of advanced features related to color management, HDR, and data precision, while maintaining high compression efficiency. WebP represents a clear improvement over JPEG and PNG, but it remains somewhat of a "transitional" format, not fully covering all scenarios, especially the most advanced ones in terms of image quality and fidelity.

Compared to AVIF, JPEG XL is in a more balanced position between compression efficiency, visual quality and computational complexityAVIF is known for producing extremely small files, but at the cost of increased encoding and decoding complexity, which can result in more CPU-intensive usage and longer processing times. JPEG XL, while offering very competitive compression, aims to reduce computational cost and to make it easier to integrate into existing workflows, both server-side and client-side.

From a technical point of view, JPEG XL is designed for maximize compression efficiency while maintaining high perceived visual quality, even on complex photographic images and graphic content with fine details. This makes it suitable for both photographs and graphics, drastically reducing the need to choose different formats based on the type of content. In a single format, it is possible to manage images that today would be distributed as JPEG, PNG, WebP or AVIF.

In practice, JPEG XL can replace JPEG and PNG at the same time, and in many cases also WebP and AVIF, offering a more modern compromise between quality, file size, flexibility and operating costs. This is one of the reasons why it is considered not only a new format, but a potential point of convergence for the entire web image ecosystem.

The Return of JPEG XL in Chrome and What It Means

The fact that Chrome and the Chromium ecosystem are returning to support JPEG XL is an important signal. It means that one of the major players on the web considers this format mature and useful enough to deserve a place in the technology stack of modern browsers. This greatly increases the chances of real adoption, because it reduces one of the main barriers: client-side compatibility.

When a format is natively supported by the most popular browsers, it suddenly becomes interesting not only for experimenters, but also for companies, publishers, and platforms that must make prudent, long-term technological choices.

Smaller files and faster uploads

One of the most immediate benefits of JPEG XL is the reduction in image size while maintaining visual quality. This translates directly into faster loading times, especially on mobile networks or in environments with limited connectivity. Less data to transfer also means less bandwidth usage and a better end-user experience.

From a performance metrics perspective, lighter images help improve key metrics like Largest Contentful Paint and overall page load time. In an era where performance directly impacts SEO and conversions, this is a tangible competitive advantage.

A single format instead of three or four

The true revolutionary potential of JPEG XL, however, lies not only in compression. It lies in the possibility of radically simplifying image management. Instead of maintaining copies in JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF formats, it becomes possible to rely on a single, versatile format capable of covering most use cases.

This means fewer server-side conversions, less application logic to choose the right format, and, most importantly, less disk space. By eliminating format duplication, in many real-world scenarios, you can achieve storage savings of around 50% simply because you no longer need to store multiple versions of the same content.

Less complexity in processing pipelines

Reducing the number of formats also means simplifying image processing pipelines. Many systems today must manage complex conversion and optimization processes, often with different tools and complex configurations. Each step consumes resources and increases the risk of errors or inconsistencies between different file versions.

With JPEG XL, the entire workflow can become more streamlined: one main format, fewer transformations, fewer breakpoints. This not only reduces operating costs, but also improves the maintainability and reliability of systems handling large volumes of content.

Progressive loading and improved user experience

JPEG XL supports advanced progressive loading modes that allow you to quickly preview the image, which then sharpens as data arrives. This approach improves the perception of speed and makes browsing smoother, especially on mobile devices or slower connections.

From a user's perspective, a page that immediately displays the main content, even in a sketchy form, is perceived as faster and more responsive. This has a direct impact on user satisfaction and time spent on the site.

The environmental impact of a lighter web

Every byte saved is not only a technical or economic advantage, but represents a concrete step towards a more sustainable webData isn't an abstract entity: it lives in data centers that continuously consume energy, both to power and cool servers. Every gigabyte stored and every terabyte transferred contributes directly to the energy consumption of the global digital infrastructure..

In everyday web practice, however, there is an aspect that is often underestimated. Today, images are almost always uploaded in JPEG for content without transparency and PNG for those with transparency. Subsequently, optimization systems, CMS or CDNs generate alternative versions in WebP or AVIF to improve browser-side performance. This means that The original JPEG and PNG files still remain stored on the servers, for compatibility, fallback and editorial management reasons, and these are joined by the WebP and AVIF versions.

The result is that WebP and AVIF don't actually take up storage space, indeed, in most cases they increase it, because they introduce additional copies of the same content. For the same site, you end up keeping at least two, often three versions of the same image: the original JPEG or PNG, plus one or more versions optimized for delivery. This approach improves loading speed for the end user, but It has a structural cost in terms of disk space, backup, replication and data management.

In this scenario, JPEG XL radically changes the perspective. Its diffusion in the next months or years would allow to eliminate the need to maintain WebP and AVIF as parallel formats, because the image could be stored and distributed directly in JPEG XL, with modern compression, transparency support and high visual quality. In practice, the "original" format would already become the one optimized for the web, without the need for conversions and without the need to duplicate files.

This is the key point: the savings do not only come from smaller files, but above all from the elimination of format duplication. In real-world scenarios, this can lead to to an average space saving of around 50% or even more across the entire image component. On editorial sites, blogs, news portals, or e-commerce sites, where Images often represent over 90% of the total weight of stored data, the impact would be enormous: storage systems could actually be halved for all the part related to web content.

Added to this is the issue of data traffic. Reducing the average size of images and, above all, serve a single native format instead of multiple variants, means significantly reducing the amount of data transferred each day. Even a reduction of a few hundred kilobytes per page, on sites with millions of views, This easily translates into tens or hundreds of terabytes saved each year..

Less storage and less network traffic means less energy consumedEvery fewer disks to power and cool, every fewer gigabytes transferred over networks, every CPU cycle saved for redundant conversions and decoding helps reduce the overall energy footprint of digital services. On a global scale, where the web moves enormous amounts of data every second, Even structural improvements like these translate into a concrete and measurable environmental impact.

In this sense, adopting a format like JPEG XL is not just a choice of technical or performance optimization. It is an architectural choice This allows us to build a simpler, more efficient, and less resource-intensive web. It means offering the same experience to users. consuming less storage, less bandwidth and less energy, And then polluting less while providing the same services. For companies, this is no longer just a cost issue, but also a real element of sustainability and responsibility in the use of digital infrastructures.

Migrating from the past without losing the future

An often overlooked aspect is the ability to integrate JPEG XL with existing archives. The format was also designed to allow the migration of JPEG images without loss of information, while maintaining the ability to reconstruct the original file. This makes the transition less risky and more gradual, especially for those managing large content libraries.

Instead of a traumatic migration, one can imagine a progressive adoption, where JPEG XL is introduced into existing workflows without completely disrupting them, but simplifying them over time.

The return of JPEG XL support in Chrome is more than just tech news. It's a sign that the web may be ready for a new phase, where optimization no longer involves simply adding new layers of technology, but simplifying and making more efficient what already exists.

If JPEG XL succeeds in establishing itself as the reference format, the benefits will be evident on several levels: faster pages, lighter infrastructure, reduced storage costs and a lower environmental impact. In an age where performance and sustainability are increasingly intertwined, this evolution could represent one of the most important changes in the way the web manages images.