Shipping JPEG XL in Chrome
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Chrome 155 ships JPEG XL with a pure Rust decoder for memory safety.
Chrome 155 ships decoding support for JPEG XL (.jxl), a next-generation image format offering 30-50% better compression than JPEG, lossless compression, HDR support, and lossless JPEG transcoding. Google reimplemented the decoder in Rust as jxl-rs to eliminate memory safety bugs, using SIMD via the stabilized target_feature_11 Rust feature. Performance optimizations build on the C++ libjxl reference implementation. The decision followed developer feedback through the Interop Project, where JPEG XL was a popular proposal in 2026. Chrome encourages trying both AVIF and JPEG XL for different use cases.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are broadly positive about JPEG XL finally shipping in Chrome, with several noting its removal years ago due to security and priority concerns. A major thread discusses the Rust reimplementation as a response to previous libjxl security bugs, though one commenter points out that security was not the stated reason for Chrome's earlier disinterest. Some debate encoding efficiency: one commenter finds JPEG XL far better than AVIF for thumbnails, while another notes AVIF is better at very low bit rates. A subthread speculates that Chrome reversed course because the PDF Association chose JPEG XL, requiring browser support for PDF rendering.