The venerable JPEG image-compression standard is about to get a little bigger -- the international committee that regulates the standard just approved the creation of a format called JPEG XR based on Microsoft's HD Photo spec. The Joint Photographic Experts Committee started looking at standardizing HD Photo last month (formerly known as Windows Media Photo) because it features higher compression efficiency, better image fidelity, and more flexible in-camera editing options, and major camera makers and software vendors like Hasselblad and Adobe supported the format's metamorphosis into JPEG XR. It's not all cake and gumballs just yet, though -- although the committee approval process is over, it'll still take another year of work to clean up the spec and bring it in line with JPEG's standardization requirements. Now if only Microsoft would open up the rest of Windows Media, we'd be grinning from ear to ear.

[Via Electronista]

Microsoft announced recently that the Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) is contemplating standardization of its "HD Photo" format for still images (tentatively named JPEG XR), which was introduced with Vista. Originally called Windows Media Photo, the new format apparently offers higher compression efficiency, better image fidelity, and more flexible editing options in both lossy and lossless varieties than previous technologies. The news has been met with favorable reactions from camera makers like Hasselblad and Foveon, and JPEG says they believe the standard will "foster breakthrough, innovative products and services in the photography and printing industries that will have widespread value for consumers around the world." The deadline for consideration is in October, but it could take another year to see the standard published.

Microsoft formally launched HD Photo, a new file format for digital images, at the big Photo Marketing Association trade show that's going down in Las Vegas this week. Not exactly a surprise, since they've been talking about it for a while now (you may recall that HD Photo used to be known as Windows Media Photo), but the big news is that they're pushing it hard with a plug-in for Photoshop (for both Windows and OS X) and native support for the new format in Vista. There's no doubt that HD Photo is a more efficient imaging codec than JPEG -- the older standard is most definitely showing its age -- but JPEG is more or less the defacto standard that everyone has rallied around and it'll take a lot to get people to switch. As far as we know no manufacturers have announced plans to ship digital cameras that shoot in HD Photo (even as an option along with JPEG and/or RAW), and even though Microsoft is being pretty liberal with licensing terms for HD Photo, they still own the patents on it and aren't planning on donating the standard to the public domain any time soon.