How JPEG Became the Internet’s Image Standard – IEEE Spectrum
June 26, 2025
For roughly three decades, the JPEG has been the World Wide Web’s primary image format. But it wasn’t the one the Web started with. In fact, the first mainstream graphical browser, NCSA Mosaic, didn’t initially support inline JPEG files—just inline GIFs, along with a couple of other formats forgotten to history. However, the JPEG had many advantages over the format it quickly usurped.
Source: How JPEG Became the Internet’s Image Standard – IEEE Spectrum
JPEG is the image format that seemingly will not die. Long after its contemporary early web image format GIF has been confined to history, JPEG still lives on (though in 2025, really–we should all be using webp).
Here’s a history of the format we at least know how to pronounce the name of!
