Microsoft Takes on the JPEG Format

WebKnowHow
Tuesday, May 30, 2006; 02:02 AM

Microsoft's Windows Media Photo Format is out of development and out into the open.  The new image format is expected to offer the same or better image quality as JPEG at half the file size.

WMPhoto will be supported by the upcoming Windows Vista.  It is intended to replace the extremely popular JPEG format, which is currently supported by virtually all imaging solutions.

From Microsoft's website: 

Version 1.0

Windows Media Photo is a new file format for continuous-tone still images that surpasses the limitations of existing image formats. Windows Media Photo supports a wide range of features including:

Windows Media Photo delivers a lightweight, high performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding.

This version of the specification is based on the implementation of the Windows Media Photo codec that is currently shipping with Windows Vista Beta 2 and the WinFX Runtime Components Beta 2.