JPEG XR was developed by Microsoft as Windows Media Photo, renamed HD Photo, and standardized in 2009. It carries 32-bit floating-point high dynamic range, 16-bit precision, CMYK and transparency — none of which JPEG has.
Files use .jxr; the earlier names live on as .wdp and
.hdp, which are the same bytes. Windows saves high dynamic range screen captures
as .jxr.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy, and bit-exact lossless |
| Precision | 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit float, each kept at its own width |
| High dynamic range | Float pictures keep values above 1.0 |
| Color models | Grayscale, RGB and CMYK |
| Transparency | A full alpha channel |
| Color profiles | Embedded ICC profile, read and written |
| Metadata | Read: EXIF and XMP |
| Fast previews | Half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth size read straight from the file |
These are properties of JPEG XR itself. No program can do better with a .jxr file.
| Limitation | Result |
|---|---|
| Layers | Export writes the flattened picture |
| Animation | None; export writes the current frame |
| Program support | Few programs outside Windows read it. Use it for its precision, not for sharing |
These are gaps on our side, not the format's.
| Limitation | Result |
|---|---|
| Floating-point export | Read at full float precision; export writes 8- or 16-bit |
| CMYK export | Read at 8- and 16-bit; export writes 8-bit |
| Metadata on export | The color profile is written; EXIF and XMP are not |
| Tiles and regions | The whole picture is read, at the size asked for |