- File type: JPEG 2000 Image
- Developer: Joint Photographic Experts Group
- Digital photography, multimedia graphics images
JPEG and JPG Definition
JPEG or JPG are image files that can be downloaded from the internet. You can also create JPEG files using an app on your desktop PC. These image files are useful for web developers or bloggers wishing to spice up their web projects with images.
JPG file extension is an image compression format that store graphic images on the computer digitally. Joint Photographic Experts Group or JPEG standardized the format.
This file is used by several devices like digital cameras and image sensing or imaging devices. It can store as well as read the images in a digital format since this format supports for up to 24-bit color data. Hence it can be for very high quality images.
This format is also for publishing graphics on the web. JPG compression uses a loose technique. It implies that during the compression there is a loss in the data of the image. This can cause a reduction in the quality of the image in the event a very high amount of compression is tried on the original image.
It is a very good compression algorithm and achieves very good results for digital images. But if used with very high compressions it may highly reduce the quality of the image which is not recoverable.
How to Open JPG Files
On Windows OS
If you want to open a JPEG file on your Windows PC, you need to follow these instructions;
- You should visit the “Desktop” of your Windows OS PC. If the JPEG file is located in a folder there.
- Alternatively, you can click on ⊞ Win+E. This will open up the “File Explorer”. You then have to browse to locate the folder in which the JPG file is located.
- If the JPEG image file is downloaded straight from the internet, check your Windows OS “Download” folder for the files.
- To locate the JPEG files in your “Download” folder, you can type in the name of the file. Type the name on the “Search” bar of the File Explorer. This bar can be seen on the top right hand side.
- Locate the JPEG file using the “Search” bar by double-clicking it. The image file will then be opened on your default JPEG image viewing app.
- If you want to open a JPG file using a different image viewing app. You simply have to right click the file. After which, choose the option to “Open With”. You will see the different programs you can use to open the JPEG file, select your preferred app and the image will be viewed through it.
- It is also possible to open up JPEG files using an image editing program like Photoshop. You could also use a web browser such as Edge.
On Mac OS
If you own a Mac OS desktop computer, you can also open JPEG files.
Follow these simple steps;
- The first thing you should do on your Mac computer is to open up “Finder”. This is represented by a smiling face with a grayish and bluish colour. This “Finder” can be seen on the Dock at the topmost left hand corner.
- Once you have found the folder in which the JPG file is located. Click on the JPEG image file to open it.
- On “Finder”, it is also possible for you to navigate through drives and folders. Just go to the left-hand column on the “Finder”.
- After finding the JPEG file, open it by double-clicking it. You will then open the JPEG image file on your default image viewing program. For Mac desktop computers, the image normally shows up under ‘Preview’.
- If you do not want to use your default image viewing program, you can open the JPEG files under another app. Just click/hold the ⌘ Command first. Secondly, click on the JPEG image file you want to open. Thirdly, choose “Open With” and select your preferred JPEG image viewing program.
- Just like Windows OS, JPEG image files may be opened on image editing programs such as Photoshop. You may also open the file on a web browser like Safari.
On Linux using ImageMagick
While Linux is reputed for having a host of JPEG image viewing programs. One popular image viewing app on Linux that is easy to use and has great features is “ImageMagick” app.
ImageMagick is a versatile JPEG image viewing app on Linux. This app comes with a number of useful tools capable of carrying out many commands.
These commands will help you view JPEG images. You can also use the commands to manipulate or modify JPEG images.
The “Display” tool of ImageMagick will display JPEG files. ImageMagick may be a pre-installed app on Linux.
If you are not sure if the app already exists on your Linux system, follow this instruction to find out.
- Run a display command. This should be done when the terminal is open and a command prompt is indicated.
Here is the display command you need to run;
display -version
Using this command will display the installed ImageMagick on your Linux system.
The command will show the following;
- The ImageMagick version.
- The ImageMagick official website (http://www.imsgemagick.org)
- Copyright information.
- Features and Delegates.
If you run the display command (display -version) and you are not shown the version details. What this means is that ImageMagick is yet to be installed on your Linux.
To install ImageMagick, make use of the package manager. The command you use should match your Linux OS distribution.
This can be any of the following;
Arch Linux:
Command:
pacman -Sy imagemagick
CentOS:
Command:
sudo yum update && sudo yum install ImageMagick
Debian or Ubuntu:
Command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install imagemagick
Fedora:
Command:
sudo dnf update && sudo dnf install ImageMagick
OpenSUSE:
Command:
sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper install ImageMagick
Now that you know how to install ImageMagick to your Linux system. You should also learn how you can display a JPEG image file on ImageMagick.
How to Display an image
If you want to display JPEG image files, you will need to;
run display <file name>.
A typical example is:
display happyimage.jpg
When you run the command above, the JPEG image named “happyimage” will be displayed. It will be shown on a fresh window provided by the ImageMagick program.
Programs, Applications and Software to Open a .JPG File
Free viewers online
Windows Software openers
Programs for windows 10 and older versions
- Web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox,
- Any picture viewer,
- Roxio Easy Media Creator,
- The Logo Creator,
- Nuance OmniPage Professional,
- Nuance PaperPort,
- Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2,
- Adobe Photoshop,
- ACDSee Photo Manager,
- Microsoft Photo Editor
Linux Software Openers
Programs for Linux
- GIMP – The GNU Image Manipulation Program
Online
You can use the following online opener options:
- Apple Photos
- Microsoft onedrive
- Google Drive
IOS
IOS apps:
- Microsoft Onedrive
- Google Drive
- Pixelmator
- Adobe photoshop express
Android
Android Apps viewers:
- Google Drive
- Onedrive
- Adobe Photoshop Express
- File Viewer for Android
- Apowersoft phone manager
How to Convert JPG JPEG Files
There are two main ways to convert these file. Save it to another format or use a converter:
Save a jpeg as a PDF
Most of the editors available let you edit your files and save it as jpg/jpeg or other image formats. Take into account that it can’t be a quality reduction when changing the format suffix.
Conversion
You can use an online converter like:
- Zamzar
- FileZipZag
Difference Between JPG and JPEG
Apart from the suffix itself, one has one more letter than the other, there is not any difference. Both come from the Joint photographic experts group.
Earlier versions of windows didn’t support formats of more than three letters. In MAC there was not this limitation.
So, these formats are the same, no difference at all.
How to export and save a JPEG file for print
It is important that the files are in .JPG (.JPEG) format. In general, all design programs (Photoshop, corel, FreeHand, Illustrator …) offer this option. Generally the way to save these files is in the FILE tab> Save As.
At other times it must be done in the FILE> Export tab. In any case, the export should always be done at the highest quality that the JPG format allows in order to guarantee the optimum printing of the graphic.
JPG Lossy Compression Algorythm
JPEG (JPG) is a lossy compression algorithm. This means that by using the image after compression we do not get exactly the same image we had before compression.
One of the features that make JPEG (JPG) very flexible is the ability to adjust the degree of compression.
If we specify a very high compression, the image will loose a significant amount of quality. But we will obtain extremely small files. With a low amount of compression we obtain a quality very similar to that of the original, and a small file.
This loss of quality accumulates. This means that if you compress an image and compress it again, you will get a greater loss. Every time you compress and decompress the image it will lose some quality.
Let’s see how we can save an image in JPEG format using GIMP. It will not be the same if we have an image with layers or if we have an image with a single layer.
We will create an image from scratch with the Logos filters to later save that image in JPG format.
In the Image Window menu, access File -> Create -> Logos -> Glowing Heat, type “JPG” as text and accept.
You get an image with three layers that you will save in JPG format. File -> Export and select the folder where you will save the file;
- Put the name of the file and select the JPG format.
- You will see that the JPG extension is added to the name you have given to the file.
- Click on Export and a GIMP notice appears reminding us of the characteristics of the export.
There is no possibility of loss of the characteristics of the original image because it is not modified and the export to the JPG format is done externally to the image we are working on. Click on Export.
If you click on Advanced Options, the JPG export options will be displayed and behind an Image Window. (If you have checked the option Show preview in the Image window). That shows you the previous image of the export result according to the chosen values.
The dialog box is very complete when we click on Advanced Options. Although we will focus only on some aspects that will allow us to save our images according to our choice. As for the parameters that we are going to use, we will only refer to the Quality and Smoothing options.
We can select Quality from 0 to 100, although by default it marks 85. This option tells GIMP the compression that it will set for the file. You can modify the Quality to observe, in the image, the changes that occur. As well as the changes in the size of the image.
Let’s be a bit exaggerated to check, before saving, the results that occur on our image when making changes in Quality. Put a quality of 85 (you get a file of 8,483 bytes); then it changes to 20 (the file is 3121 bytes).
Do you notice the difference?
So that the effects of compression with losses are not so obvious you can modify the amount of Smoothing up to 1.00.
Smoothing does not solve excessive compression, so you should carefully handle the compression quality. We can say that the Quality should not fall below 60 when the images are for the Web.
Leave marked the other options that come by default and add any comments to the image to be abl