[gcr]

One thing I like about JPEG-XL is that it supports all kinds of weird image formats.

For example, I used to work with depth data a lot, which is best expressed as monochrome 16-bit floating point images. Previously, TIFF was the only format that supported this. Many shops would instead save depth images as UINT16 .PNG files, where the raw pixel intensity maps to the camera distance in mm. The problem with this is that pixels more than 65.535 meters away aren't representable. (Hot take: I personally think this is one reason why nobody studies depth estimation for outdoor scenes.)

JPEG-XL supports more weird combinations here, e.g. storing greyscale float32 images (with alpha even! you can store sparse depth maps without needing a separate mask!)

It's like, uniquely suited to these sorts of 3D scene understanding challenges and I really hope people adopt the format for more scientific applications.

[GuB-42]

> One thing I like about JPEG-XL is that it supports all kinds of weird image formats.

And it is probably the reason why browser vendors disliked it. Lots of complexity, it means a big library, which is high maintenance with a big attack surface. By comparison, webp is "free" if you have webm, as webp is essentially a single frame video.

[edflsafoiewq]

AFAIK browsers do not reuse any VP8 codepath for WebP, they just use libwebp, which decodes lossy images in software. WebP has a non-VP8 lossless mode too. The concern about image format attack surface is also probably because of the recent exploit in libwebp.

[somat]

On the subject of tiff, why is it not used more? I mean, it is more or less really a container format right. Why are we not using it all over the place but with modern compression methods?

[jasomill]

It is used quite a bit.

As just one of innumerable examples, it's the basis for Adobe's DNG raw photo format and many proprietary raw formats used by camera manufacturers (Nikon NEF, Canon CRW and CR2, etc.).

Speaking as an outside observer, the ISO Base Media File Format seems to have more mindshare for newer applications, presumably on account of its broader scope and cleaner design.

[JBorrow]

There is also FITS, but that is mainly for astronomical applications (and is in general an insane and terrible format). But it supports tons of types!