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Supported Formats
Convert between all major file formats with high quality
Web Formats
Joint Photographic Experts Group - the most universal image format for photographs using lossy compression. Reduces file sizes 90-95% with minimal visible quality loss. No transparency support. Perfect for photos, web images, email attachments, and any scenario requiring small file sizes. Adjustable quality levels from 1-100. Standard since 1992 with universal device and software support. Ideal for photographs and complex images with many colors.
Portable Network Graphics - lossless image format supporting transparency and 16 million colors. Larger files than JPEG but perfect quality preservation. Supports alpha channel for smooth transparency. Excellent for logos, graphics with text, screenshots, and images requiring transparency. Better compression than GIF for photos. Perfect for web graphics, UI elements, and any image needing lossless quality or transparency. Standard format for web graphics since 1996.
Web Picture format - modern image format by Google providing 25-35% smaller files than JPEG at equivalent quality. Supports both lossy and lossless compression plus transparency. Superior compression algorithms reducing bandwidth usage. Native browser support (96%+ coverage). Perfect for website optimization, web images, and reducing page load times. Combines best features of JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Recommended for modern web development.
Graphics Interchange Format - image format supporting animation and transparency with 256-color limitation. Small file sizes for simple images. Perfect for simple animations, emojis, memes, and graphics with few colors. Lossless for limited palette. Inefficient for photographs (use JPEG) or high-color graphics (use PNG). Universal support since 1987. Standard format for simple web animations and reaction images.
Scalable Vector Graphics - XML-based vector format rendering perfectly at any size. Infinitely scalable without quality loss or pixelation. Small file sizes for geometric shapes and illustrations. Editable with text editors and design software. Perfect for logos, icons, diagrams, and graphics requiring scaling. Supports animation and interactivity. Standard for responsive web graphics and resolution-independent designs. Essential format for modern web icons.
Icon File Format - specialized format for Windows icons containing multiple image sizes (16x16 to 256x256 pixels). Single file provides icons for all display resolutions. Used for favicons, application icons, and Windows shell icons. Supports transparency and multiple color depths. Perfect for website favicons, Windows program icons, and shortcut icons. Standard format for Windows icons since Windows 1.0. Essential for professional Windows applications.
AV1 Image File Format - next-generation image format based on AV1 video codec providing better compression than WebP and JPEG. 20-50% smaller files at equivalent quality. Supports HDR, wide color gamut, and transparency. Cutting-edge compression technology. Growing browser support (85%+ and increasing). Perfect for future-proof web images and maximum efficiency. Better quality at smaller sizes than any previous format. Recommended for modern websites prioritizing performance.
Bitmap Image File - uncompressed raster format from Microsoft providing pixel-perfect quality with large file sizes. No compression means huge files (1MB+ for screenshots). Fast to load and display. Simple format with universal Windows support. Perfect for temporary graphics, screen captures, and scenarios where compression artifacts are unacceptable. Legacy format largely replaced by PNG. Convert to PNG or JPEG for practical use and storage.
Tagged Image File Format - flexible format supporting multiple pages, layers, and various compression methods. Industry standard for professional photography, publishing, and archival. Supports lossless compression, 16-bit color depth, and extensive metadata. Large file sizes but excellent quality. Perfect for print publishing, photo archival, professional photography, and scenarios requiring maximum quality and flexibility. Used in medical imaging and professional scanning.
Professional Formats
Photoshop Document - Adobe Photoshop's native format preserving layers, effects, masks, and all editing capabilities. Supports 16-bit and 32-bit color depths for professional work. Large file sizes due to layer data and editing information. Perfect for ongoing design projects, professional photo editing, and collaborative design work. Not suitable for final output (export to JPEG/PNG). Essential format for professional graphic design and photo manipulation workflows. Industry standard for design files.
OpenEXR - high dynamic range image format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for visual effects and animation. Stores 16-bit or 32-bit floating-point values per channel enabling enormous dynamic range. Supports multiple layers, arbitrary channels, and lossless/lossy compression. Industry standard for VFX, CGI, and professional 3D rendering. Perfect for HDR photography, compositing, and scenarios requiring maximum color precision. Used extensively in film production and high-end visual effects.
High Dynamic Range Image - format storing luminance and color information with greater range than standard images. Captures and displays brightness levels impossible in JPEG/PNG. Uses 32-bit floating-point encoding. Perfect for realistic lighting in 3D rendering, environment maps, and HDR photography. Common in game development and architectural visualization. Enables realistic tone mapping and exposure adjustment. Essential for professional lighting workflows.
DirectDraw Surface - Microsoft texture format for games and 3D applications supporting compressed textures and mipmaps. Optimized for GPU loading with hardware-accelerated decompression. Stores multiple resolution levels (mipmaps) in single file. Standard format for game textures (DirectX, Unity, Unreal). Supports various compression algorithms (DXT1, DXT5, BC7). Perfect for game development, 3D modeling, and real-time rendering. Essential format for game asset pipelines.
Truevision TGA/Targa - raster graphics format supporting 8-32 bits per pixel with alpha channel. Uncompressed or RLE compressed for fast loading. Standard format for video editing, animation, and texture mapping. Excellent color accuracy with optional lossless compression. Perfect for video frame sequences, animation frames, and game textures. Widely supported in 3D software and video editing applications. Reliable format for professional media production.
JPEG 2000 - advanced image format using wavelet compression providing better quality than JPEG at equivalent file sizes. Supports lossless and lossy compression, progressive decoding, and ROI coding. Used in medical imaging, digital cinema, and archival. Better compression artifacts than JPEG. Slower encoding/decoding. Perfect for medical imaging, digital preservation, and applications requiring superior compression. Limited web browser support.
JPEG Stereo - stereoscopic 3D image format storing left and right eye views side-by-side or top-bottom. Based on standard JPEG with special arrangement for 3D viewing. Used for 3D photography, VR content, and stereoscopic displays. Compatible with 3D TVs and VR headsets. Perfect for 3D photography, stereoscopic content creation, and VR/AR applications. Requires special viewing equipment for proper 3D effect.
Portable Float Map - floating-point image format storing HDR color data. Simple format with 32-bit float values per channel. Used in computer graphics for HDR images and height maps. Uncompressed format with large file sizes. Perfect for HDR photography processing, displacement maps, and scientific imaging. Common in 3D rendering and simulation applications. Alternative to OpenEXR for simple HDR storage.
Flexible Image Transport System - scientific image format used primarily in astronomy. Stores astronomical images with extensive metadata headers. Supports multiple data arrays and tables. Standard format for astronomical data archives. Perfect for astronomical imaging, scientific data exchange, and research applications. Used by major observatories and space agencies worldwide. Essential format for astronomical research and data sharing.
How to Convert Files
Upload your files, select output format, and download converted files instantly. Our converter supports batch conversion and maintains high quality.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a JBIG file and why was this format created?
A JBIG file contains an image encoded using the JBIG (Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group) standard, designed specifically for compressing 1-bit bi-level images such as scanned documents, faxes, engineering drawings, forms, and archival paperwork. JBIG was developed as an advanced successor to CCITT Group 3 and Group 4 fax compression, offering substantially better compression efficiency while preserving sharp, readable text.
JBIG was intended to become the universal standard for black-and-white imaging in fax machines, scanners, printers, and enterprise document systems. Although JBIG2 eventually replaced it in many areas, JBIG remains widely used in telecom, embedded hardware, OCR pipelines, and digital fax gateways because of its predictable, safe, and deterministic compression.
How is a JBIG file structured internally?
JBIG uses a sophisticated compression architecture optimized for monochrome documents:
Multi-Resolution Progressive Layers
The encoder generates multiple resolutions of the image. Decoders render a preview immediately and refine it progressively as more data becomes available.
Context-Based Arithmetic Coding
JBIG uses arithmetic coding that analyzes local pixel neighborhoods, identifying patterns and compressing text strokes with extreme efficiency.
Strict 1-Bit Per Pixel
JBIG stores nothing except black and white pixels, enabling extremely compact files ideal for text documents.
Template-Based Pixel Prediction
Each pixel is predicted using multiple surrounding pixels, and only differences are encoded. This dramatically reduces size while preserving sharp edges.
These features allow JBIG files to achieve far smaller sizes than fax-era compression while maintaining excellent legibility.
Where are JBIG files used today?
Despite its age, JBIG is still common in professional imaging workflows:
Fax Servers and FoIP Gateways
Modern fax systems often use JBIG internally for efficient and reliable transmission.
Document Scanners
High-end scanners encode monochrome pages as JBIG inside TIFF files to minimize storage usage.
Medical, Legal, and Government Archives
Institutions with long-term document retention policies store millions of pages in JBIG or TIFF-JBIG.
Multifunction Printers & Copiers
Many MFPs internally compress scanned pages using JBIG before sending them over networks.
Enterprise Document Management Systems
Corporations rely on JBIG for scanned forms because it significantly reduces storage costs.
OCR and Data Extraction
OCR systems ingest JBIG pages for high-contrast, noise-free text extraction.
Embedded Systems
Low-memory hardware such as printers and microcontrollers use JBIG for efficient 1-bit imagery.
JBIG persists in industries where compact, lossless monochrome compression is essential.
Why do JBIG images look sharper than older fax images?
JBIG’s arithmetic coding and context modeling preserve clean character edges far better than G3/G4 run-length encodings.
Fax-era artifacts like blockiness and misaligned runs are largely eliminated.
The multi-resolution approach ensures crisp strokes and accurate rendering of fine line-art.
How does JBIG compare to JBIG2, G4, and TIFF?
JBIG2 compresses better than JBIG but is more complex and historically prone to symbol substitution errors when poorly implemented.
Compared to G4, JBIG achieves much smaller file sizes and more accurate text rendering.
TIFF-JBIG wraps JBIG data inside TIFF, adding metadata, multi-page support, and universal compatibility across enterprise systems.
Does JBIG support grayscale, color, or transparency?
No-JBIG is limited to true 1-bit black-and-white imagery.
Grayscale or color inputs must be converted to monochrome using thresholding or dithering.
JBIG does not support alpha channels or transparency.
Why do some programs fail to open JBIG files?
Standalone JBIG files are uncommon; many tools expect JBIG data to be embedded inside TIFF.
Some JBIG files omit DPI or dimension metadata, causing output to appear stretched unless manually corrected.
Some vendors used custom JBIG implementations incompatible with generic decoders.
Why do JBIG conversions sometimes fail?
JBIG conversion issues usually arise from monochrome restrictions or variant differences:
Unsupported Progressive Layers
Not all decoders support multi-resolution JBIG streams, leading to partial or failed conversions.
Strict 1-Bit Limitation
JBIG cannot accept grayscale or RGB input unless converted to bi-level first.
Proprietary Extensions
Some fax vendors included non-standard flags or templates that break compatibility.
Missing DPI Metadata
Raw JBIG files may require manual width/height and DPI values when converting to formats like PNG or TIFF.
Multi-Page Handling
JBIG has no built-in multi-page support; converters must rely on TIFF-JBIG wrappers.
ImageMagick, JBIG-KIT, and Ghostscript handle JBIG conversions more consistently than typical editors.
Does JBIG support metadata, EXIF, or page structure?
No-JBIG codestreams contain no metadata, EXIF, ICC profiles, or timestamps.
Metadata must be stored by the container format (e.g., TIFF).
Standalone JBIG files always represent exactly one page.
What modern uses does JBIG still have?
JBIG remains widely used in commercial and enterprise environments:
Telecom Fax Routing
Digital fax gateways often convert incoming pages into JBIG for efficient storage and retransmission.
Legal Filings and Compliance Systems
Many courts and agencies accept TIFF-JBIG documents for archival-grade submissions.
OCR Pipelines
OCR engines benefit from JBIG’s crisp text representation.
Enterprise Scanning Hardware
Scanners use JBIG compression for efficient black-and-white document exports.
Unix Imaging Infrastructure
Tools like ImageMagick and JBIG-KIT have full JBIG encoding/decoding support.
Low-Storage Embedded Devices
Printers, copiers, and embedded fax systems rely on JBIG for internal storage.
Medical, Legal, and Government Archives
Long-term records in these sectors often use TIFF-JBIG for durability and compactness.
Document Forensics
Investigators analyze JBIG noise and compression patterns to authenticate scanned evidence.
Fax Simulation and Testing
Developers use JBIG streams to test fax gateways and transmission stability.
Long-Term Preservation
JBIG’s deterministic encoding makes it well-suited for archival environments requiring guaranteed readability.
Why are JBIG files so small?
They store only 1-bit pixels with no extra color or metadata overhead.
Arithmetic coding and template-based prediction eliminate redundant patterns.
Progressive resolution layers compress efficiently due to shared structure.
How large can a JBIG file get?
Most JBIG pages fall between 10–40 KB, depending on document density.
Complex line-art or engineering diagrams may reach 60–100 KB.
Only multi-page containers like TIFF-JBIG become large due to page count.
Does JBIG support multiple pages?
No-raw JBIG streams store a single page only.
Multi-page handling is available only in formats like TIFF-JBIG and PDF with JBIG streams.
Fax systems transmitted JBIG pages separately and grouped them outside the JBIG layer.
Why do some JBIG images appear stretched or incorrectly sized?
Some JBIG files lack DPI metadata, so default assumptions may distort proportions.
Fax-era devices used non-square pixels, which modern viewers may not interpret correctly.
Manual DPI and dimension assignment is often required for raw JBIG streams.
Is the JBIG format still relevant today?
Yes-JBIG remains important for enterprise scanning, telecom faxing, and archival storage.
Its exceptional compression for monochrome documents ensures continued use in large-scale document imaging.
Although JBIG2 offers improved ratios, JBIG remains favored where deterministic, safe, error-free encoding is required.
About the JBIG Format
JBIG is a file format used in specific workflows. The exact characteristics depend on the implementation and chosen settings.
- Format Type
- File format
- Origin
- Industry-developed format
- Common Uses
- Various applications that support JBIG
- Compression
- Depends on implementation
Sources and References
Format details on this page are based on the official specifications and documentation below.
- Image file type and format guide- MDN Web Docs