Joint Photographic Experts Group

A photo of a cat with the compression rate decreasing from left to right.
Filename extension	.jpg, .jpeg, .jpe .jif, .jfif, .jfi
Internet media type	image/jpeg
Type code	JPEG
Uniform Type Identifier	public.jpeg
Magic number	ff d8
Developed by	Joint Photographic Experts Group
Type of format	lossy image format
Standard(s)	ISO/IEC 10918, ITU-T T.81, ITU-T T.83, ITU-T T.84, ITU-T T.86

In computing, JPEG ( /ˈdʒeɪpɛɡ/ JAY-peg) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital photography (image). The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.

JPEG compression is used in a number of image file formats. JPEG/Exif is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices; along with JPEG/JFIF, it is the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.^{[citation needed]} These format variations are often not distinguished, and are simply called JPEG.

The term "JPEG" is an acronym for the Joint Photographic Experts Group which created the standard. The MIME media type for JPEG is image/jpeg (defined in RFC 1341), except in Internet Explorer, which provides a MIME type of image/pjpeg when uploading JPEG images.^[1]

It supports a maximum image size of 65535×65535.^[2]

The JPEG standard[link]

The name "JPEG" stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the name of the committee that created the JPEG standard and also other still picture coding standards. The "Joint" stood for ISO TC97 WG8 and CCITT SGVIII. In 1987 ISO TC 97 became ISO/IEC JTC1 and in 1992 CCITT became ITU-T. Currently on the JTC1 side JPEG is one of two sub-groups of ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 29, Working Group 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1) – titled as Coding of still pictures.^[3][4][5]. On the ITU-T side ITU-T SG16 is the respective body. The original JPEG group was organized in 1986,^[6] issuing the first JPEG standard in 1992, which was approved in September 1992 as ITU-T Recommendation T.81^[7] and in 1994 as ISO/IEC 10918-1.

The JPEG standard specifies the codec, which defines how an image is compressed into a stream of bytes and decompressed back into an image, but not the file format used to contain that stream.^[8] The Exif and JFIF standards define the commonly used file formats for interchange of JPEG-compressed images.

JPEG standards are formally named as Information technology – Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still images. ISO/IEC 10918 consists of the following parts:

Ecma International TR/98 specifies the JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF); the first edition was published in June 2009.^[11]

Typical usage[link]

The JPEG compression algorithm is at its best on photographs and paintings of realistic scenes with smooth variations of tone and color. For web usage, where the amount of data used for an image is important, JPEG is very popular. JPEG/Exif is also the most common format saved by digital cameras.

On the other hand, JPEG may not be as well suited for line drawings and other textual or iconic graphics, where the sharp contrasts between adjacent pixels can cause noticeable artifacts. Such images may be better saved in a lossless graphics format such as TIFF, GIF, PNG, or a raw image format. The JPEG standard actually includes a lossless coding mode, but that mode is not supported in most products.

As the typical use of JPEG is a lossy compression method, which somewhat reduces the image fidelity, it should not be used in scenarios where the exact reproduction of the data is required (such as some scientific and medical imaging applications and certain technical image processing work).

JPEG is also not well suited to files that will undergo multiple edits, as some image quality will usually be lost each time the image is decompressed and recompressed, particularly if the image is cropped or shifted, or if encoding parameters are changed – see digital generation loss for details. To avoid this, an image that is being modified or may be modified in the future can be saved in a lossless format, with a copy exported as JPEG for distribution.

JPEG compression[link]

Error creating thumbnail: Invalid thumbnail parameters or image file with more than 12.5 million pixels

A chart showing the relative quality of various JPEG encoding settings and also compares saving a file as a JPEG normally and using Photoshop's "save for web" option

The compression method is usually lossy, meaning that some original image information is lost and cannot be restored, possibly affecting image quality. There is an optional lossless mode defined in the JPEG standard; however, this mode is not widely supported in products.

There is also an interlaced "Progressive JPEG" format, in which data is compressed in multiple passes of progressively higher detail. This is ideal for large images that will be displayed while downloading over a slow connection, allowing a reasonable preview after receiving only a portion of the data. However, progressive JPEGs are not as widely supported,^{[citation needed]} and even some software which does support them (such as versions of Internet Explorer before Windows 7)^[12] only displays the image after it has been completely downloaded.

There are also many medical imaging and traffic systems that create and process 12-bit JPEG images, normally grayscale images. The 12-bit JPEG format has been part of the JPEG specification for some time, but again, this format is not as widely supported.

Lossless editing[link]

A number of alterations to a JPEG image can be performed losslessly (that is, without recompression and the associated quality loss) as long as the image size is a multiple of 1 MCU block (Minimum Coded Unit) (usually 16 pixels in both directions, for 4:2:0 chroma subsampling). Utilities that implement this include jpegtran, with user interface Jpegcrop, and the JPG_TRANSFORM plugin to IrfanView.

Blocks can be rotated in 90 degree increments, flipped in the horizontal, vertical and diagonal axes and moved about in the image. Not all blocks from the original image need to be used in the modified one.

The top and left edge of a JPEG image must lie on a block boundary, but the bottom and right edge need not do so. This limits the possible lossless crop operations, and also prevents flips and rotations of an image whose bottom or right edge does not lie on a block boundary for all channels (because the edge would end up on top or left, where – as aforementioned – a block boundary is obligatory).

When using lossless cropping, if the bottom or right side of the crop region is not on a block boundary then the rest of the data from the partially used blocks will still be present in the cropped file and can be recovered.

It is also possible to transform between baseline and progressive formats without any loss of quality, since the only difference is the order in which the coefficients are placed in the file.

JPEG files[link]

The file format known as "JPEG Interchange Format" (JIF) is specified in Annex B of the standard. However, this "pure" file format is rarely used, primarily because of the difficulty of programming encoders and decoders that fully implement all aspects of the standard and because of certain shortcomings of the standard:

• Color space definition
• Component sub-sampling registration
• Pixel aspect ratio definition.

Several additional standards have evolved to address these issues. The first of these, released in 1992, was JPEG File Interchange Format (or JFIF), followed in recent years by Exchangeable image file format (Exif) and ICC color profiles. Both of these formats use the actual JIF byte layout, consisting of different markers, but in addition employ one of the JIF standard's extension points, namely the application markers: JFIF use APP0, while Exif use APP1. Within these segments of the file, that were left for future use in the JIF standard and aren't read by it, these standards add specific metadata.

Thus, in some ways JFIF is a cutdown version of the JIF standard in that it specifies certain constraints (such as not allowing all the different encoding modes), while in other ways it is an extension of JIF due to the added metadata. The documentation for the original JFIF standard states:^[13]

JPEG File Interchange Format is a minimal file format which enables JPEG bitstreams to be exchanged between a wide variety of platforms and applications. This minimal format does not include any of the advanced features found in the TIFF JPEG specification or any application specific file format. Nor should it, for the only purpose of this simplified format is to allow the exchange of JPEG compressed images.

Image files that employ JPEG compression are commonly called "JPEG files", and are stored in variants of the JIF image format. Most image capture devices (such as digital cameras) that output JPEG are actually creating files in the Exif format, the format that the camera industry has standardized on for metadata interchange. On the other hand, since the Exif standard does not allow color profiles, most image editing software stores JPEG in JFIF format, and also include the APP1 segment from the Exif file to include the metadata in an almost-compliant way; the JFIF standard is interpreted somewhat flexibly.^[14]

Strictly speaking, the JFIF and Exif standards are incompatible because they each specify that their marker segment (APP0 or APP1, respectively) appears first. In practice, most JPEG files contain a JFIF marker segment that precedes the Exif header. This allows older readers to correctly handle the older format JFIF segment, while newer readers also decode the following Exif segment, being less strict about requiring it to appear first.

JPEG filename extensions[link]

The most common filename extensions for files employing JPEG compression are .jpg and .jpeg, though .jpe, .jfif and .jif are also used. It is also possible for JPEG data to be embedded in other file types – TIFF encoded files often embed a JPEG image as a thumbnail of the main image; and MP3 files can contain a JPEG of cover art, in the ID3v2 tag.

Color profile[link]

Many JPEG files embed an ICC color profile (color space). Commonly used color profiles include sRGB and Adobe RGB. Because these color spaces use a non-linear transformation, the dynamic range of an 8-bit JPEG file is about 11 stops; see gamma curve.

Syntax and structure[link]

A JPEG image consists of a sequence of segments, each beginning with a marker, each of which begins with a 0xFF byte followed by a byte indicating what kind of marker it is. Some markers consist of just those two bytes; others are followed by two bytes indicating the length of marker-specific payload data that follows. (The length includes the two bytes for the length, but not the two bytes for the marker.) Some markers are followed by entropy-coded data; the length of such a marker does not include the entropy-coded data. Note that consecutive 0xFF bytes are used as fill bytes for padding purposes (see JPEG specification section B.1.1.2 for details).

Within the entropy-coded data, after any 0xFF byte, a 0x00 byte is inserted by the encoder before the next byte, so that there does not appear to be a marker where none is intended, preventing framing errors. Decoders must skip this 0x00 byte. This technique, called byte stuffing (see JPEG specification section F.1.2.3), is only applied to the entropy-coded data, not to marker payload data.

There are other Start Of Frame markers that introduce other kinds of JPEG encodings.

Since several vendors might use the same APPn marker type, application-specific markers often begin with a standard or vendor name (e.g., "Exif" or "Adobe") or some other identifying string.

At a restart marker, block-to-block predictor variables are reset, and the bitstream is synchronized to a byte boundary. Restart markers provide means for recovery after bitstream error, such as transmission over an unreliable network or file corruption. Since the runs of macroblocks between restart markers may be independently decoded, these runs may be decoded in parallel.

JPEG codec example[link]

Although a JPEG file can be encoded in various ways, most commonly it is done with JFIF encoding. The encoding process consists of several steps:

1. The representation of the colors in the image is converted from RGB to Y′C_BC_R, consisting of one luma component (Y'), representing brightness, and two chroma components, (C_B and C_R), representing color. This step is sometimes skipped.
2. The resolution of the chroma data is reduced, usually by a factor of 2. This reflects the fact that the eye is less sensitive to fine color details than to fine brightness details.
3. The image is split into blocks of 8×8 pixels, and for each block, each of the Y, C_B, and C_R data undergoes a discrete cosine transform (DCT). A DCT is similar to a Fourier transform in the sense that it produces a kind of spatial frequency spectrum.
4. The amplitudes of the frequency components are quantized. Human vision is much more sensitive to small variations in color or brightness over large areas than to the strength of high-frequency brightness variations. Therefore, the magnitudes of the high-frequency components are stored with a lower accuracy than the low-frequency components. The quality setting of the encoder (for example 50 or 95 on a scale of 0–100 in the Independent JPEG Group's library^[16]) affects to what extent the resolution of each frequency component is reduced. If an excessively low quality setting is used, the high-frequency components are discarded altogether.
5. The resulting data for all 8×8 blocks is further compressed with a lossless algorithm, a variant of Huffman encoding.

The decoding process reverses these steps, except the quantization because it is irreversible. In the remainder of this section, the encoding and decoding processes are described in more detail.

Encoding[link]

Many of the options in the JPEG standard are not commonly used, and as mentioned above, most image software uses the simpler JFIF format when creating a JPEG file, which among other things specifies the encoding method. Here is a brief description of one of the more common methods of encoding when applied to an input that has 24 bits per pixel (eight each of red, green, and blue). This particular option is a lossy data compression method.^{[citation needed]}

Color space transformation[link]

First, the image should be converted from RGB into a different color space called Y′C_BC_R (or, informally, YCbCr). It has three components Y', C_B and C_R: the Y' component represents the brightness of a pixel, and the C_B and C_R components represent the chrominance (split into blue and red components). This is basically the same color space as used by digital color television as well as digital video including video DVDs, and is similar to the way color is represented in analog PAL video and MAC (but not by analog NTSC, which uses the YIQ color space). The Y′C_BC_R color space conversion allows greater compression without a significant effect on perceptual image quality (or greater perceptual image quality for the same compression). The compression is more efficient because the brightness information, which is more important to the eventual perceptual quality of the image, is confined to a single channel. This more closely corresponds to the perception of color in the human visual system. The color transformation also improves compression by statistical decorrelation.

A particular conversion to Y′C_BC_R is specified in the JFIF standard, and should be performed for the resulting JPEG file to have maximum compatibility. However, some JPEG implementations in "highest quality" mode do not apply this step and instead keep the color information in the RGB color model^{[citation needed]}, where the image is stored in separate channels for red, green and blue brightness components. This results in less efficient compression, and would not likely be used when file size is especially important.

Downsampling[link]

Due to the densities of color- and brightness-sensitive receptors in the human eye, humans can see considerably more fine detail in the brightness of an image (the Y' component) than in the hue and color saturation of an image (the Cb and Cr components). Using this knowledge, encoders can be designed to compress images more efficiently.

The transformation into the Y′C_BC_R color model enables the next usual step, which is to reduce the spatial resolution of the Cb and Cr components (called "downsampling" or "chroma subsampling"). The ratios at which the downsampling is ordinarily done for JPEG images are 4:4:4 (no downsampling), 4:2:2 (reduction by a factor of 2 in the horizontal direction), or (most commonly) 4:2:0 (reduction by a factor of 2 in both the horizontal and vertical directions). For the rest of the compression process, Y', Cb and Cr are processed separately and in a very similar manner.

Block splitting[link]

After subsampling, each channel must be split into 8×8 blocks. Depending on chroma subsampling, this yields (Minimum Coded Unit) MCU blocks of size 8×8 (4:4:4 – no subsampling), 16×8 (4:2:2), or most commonly 16×16 (4:2:0). In video compression MCUs are called macroblocks.

If the data for a channel does not represent an integer number of blocks then the encoder must fill the remaining area of the incomplete blocks with some form of dummy data. Filling the edges with a fixed color (for example, black) can create ringing artifacts along the visible part of the border; repeating the edge pixels is a common technique that reduces (but does not necessarily completely eliminate) such artifacts, and more sophisticated border filling techniques can also be applied.

Discrete cosine transform[link]

The 8×8 sub-image shown in 8-bit grayscale

Next, each 8×8 block of each component (Y, Cb, Cr) is converted to a frequency-domain representation, using a normalized, two-dimensional type-II discrete cosine transform (DCT).

As an example, one such 8×8 8-bit subimage might be:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} 52 & 55 & 61 & 66 & 70 & 61 & 64 & 73 \\ 63 & 59 & 55 & 90 & 109 & 85 & 69 & 72 \\ 62 & 59 & 68 & 113 & 144 & 104 & 66 & 73 \\ 63 & 58 & 71 & 122 & 154 & 106 & 70 & 69 \\ 67 & 61 & 68 & 104 & 126 & 88 & 68 & 70 \\ 79 & 65 & 60 & 70 & 77 & 68 & 58 & 75 \\ 85 & 71 & 64 & 59 & 55 & 61 & 65 & 83 \\ 87 & 79 & 69 & 68 & 65 & 76 & 78 & 94 \end{array} \right].

Before computing the DCT of the 8×8 block, its values are shifted from a positive range to one centered around zero. For an 8-bit image, each entry in the original block falls in the range Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): [0, 255] . The mid-point of the range (in this case, the value 128) is subtracted from each entry to produce a data range that is centered around zero, so that the modified range is Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): [-128, 127] . This step reduces the dynamic range requirements in the DCT processing stage that follows. (Aside from the difference in dynamic range within the DCT stage, this step is mathematically equivalent to subtracting 1024 from the DC coefficient after performing the transform – which may be a better way to perform the operation on some architectures since it involves performing only one subtraction rather than 64 of them.)

This step results in the following values:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): g= \begin{array}{c} x \\ \longrightarrow \\ \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -76 & -73 & -67 & -62 & -58 & -67 & -64 & -55 \\ -65 & -69 & -73 & -38 & -19 & -43 & -59 & -56 \\ -66 & -69 & -60 & -15 & 16 & -24 & -62 & -55 \\ -65 & -70 & -57 & -6 & 26 & -22 & -58 & -59 \\ -61 & -67 & -60 & -24 & -2 & -40 & -60 & -58 \\ -49 & -63 & -68 & -58 & -51 & -60 & -70 & -53 \\ -43 & -57 & -64 & -69 & -73 & -67 & -63 & -45 \\ -41 & -49 & -59 & -60 & -63 & -52 & -50 & -34 \end{array} \right] \end{array} \Bigg\downarrow y.

The next step is to take the two-dimensional DCT, which is given by:

The DCT transforms an 8×8 block of input values to a linear combination of these 64 patterns. The patterns are referred to as the two-dimensional DCT basis functions, and the output values are referred to as transform coefficients. The horizontal index is Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): u

and the vertical index is Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): v

.

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ G_{u,v} = \sum_{x=0}^7 \sum_{y=0}^7 \alpha(u) \alpha(v) g_{x,y} \cos \left[\frac{\pi}{8} \left(x+\frac{1}{2}\right) u \right] \cos \left[\frac{\pi}{8} \left(y+\frac{1}{2}\right) v \right]

where

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ u

is the horizontal spatial frequency, for the integers Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ 0 \leq u < 8

.

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ v

is the vertical spatial frequency, for the integers Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ 0 \leq v < 8

.

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \alpha(u) = \begin{cases} \sqrt{ \frac{1}{8} }, & \mbox{if }u=0 \\ \sqrt{ \frac{2}{8} }, & \mbox{otherwise} \end{cases}

is a normalizing scale factor to make the transformation orthonormal

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ g_{x,y}

is the pixel value at coordinates Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ (x,y)

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ G_{u,v}

is the DCT coefficient at coordinates Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ (u,v).

If we perform this transformation on our matrix above, we get the following (rounded to the nearest two digits beyond the decimal point):

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): G= \begin{array}{c} u \\ \longrightarrow \\ \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -415.38 & -30.19 & -61.20 & 27.24 & 56.13 & -20.10 & -2.39 & 0.46 \\ 4.47 & -21.86 & -60.76 & 10.25 & 13.15 & -7.09 & -8.54 & 4.88 \\ -46.83 & 7.37 & 77.13 & -24.56 & -28.91 & 9.93 & 5.42 & -5.65 \\ -48.53 & 12.07 & 34.10 & -14.76 & -10.24 & 6.30 & 1.83 & 1.95 \\ 12.12 & -6.55 & -13.20 & -3.95 & -1.88 & 1.75 & -2.79 & 3.14 \\ -7.73 & 2.91 & 2.38 & -5.94 & -2.38 & 0.94 & 4.30 & 1.85 \\ -1.03 & 0.18 & 0.42 & -2.42 & -0.88 & -3.02 & 4.12 & -0.66 \\ -0.17 & 0.14 & -1.07 & -4.19 & -1.17 & -0.10 & 0.50 & 1.68 \end{array} \right] \end{array} \Bigg\downarrow v.

Note the top-left corner entry with the rather large magnitude. This is the DC coefficient. The remaining 63 coefficients are called the AC coefficients. The advantage of the DCT is its tendency to aggregate most of the signal in one corner of the result, as may be seen above. The quantization step to follow accentuates this effect while simultaneously reducing the overall size of the DCT coefficients, resulting in a signal that is easy to compress efficiently in the entropy stage.

The DCT temporarily increases the bit-depth of the data, since the DCT coefficients of an 8-bit/component image take up to 11 or more bits (depending on fidelity of the DCT calculation) to store. This may force the codec to temporarily use 16-bit bins to hold these coefficients, doubling the size of the image representation at this point; they are typically reduced back to 8-bit values by the quantization step. The temporary increase in size at this stage is not a performance concern for most JPEG implementations, because typically only a very small part of the image is stored in full DCT form at any given time during the image encoding or decoding process.

Quantization[link]

The human eye is good at seeing small differences in brightness over a relatively large area, but not so good at distinguishing the exact strength of a high frequency brightness variation. This allows one to greatly reduce the amount of information in the high frequency components. This is done by simply dividing each component in the frequency domain by a constant for that component, and then rounding to the nearest integer. This rounding operation is the only lossy operation in the whole process if the DCT computation is performed with sufficiently high precision. As a result of this, it is typically the case that many of the higher frequency components are rounded to zero, and many of the rest become small positive or negative numbers, which take many fewer bits to represent.

A typical quantization matrix, as specified in the original JPEG Standard, is as follows:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): Q= \begin{bmatrix} 16 & 11 & 10 & 16 & 24 & 40 & 51 & 61 \\ 12 & 12 & 14 & 19 & 26 & 58 & 60 & 55 \\ 14 & 13 & 16 & 24 & 40 & 57 & 69 & 56 \\ 14 & 17 & 22 & 29 & 51 & 87 & 80 & 62 \\ 18 & 22 & 37 & 56 & 68 & 109 & 103 & 77 \\ 24 & 35 & 55 & 64 & 81 & 104 & 113 & 92 \\ 49 & 64 & 78 & 87 & 103 & 121 & 120 & 101 \\ 72 & 92 & 95 & 98 & 112 & 100 & 103 & 99 \end{bmatrix}.

The quantized DCT coefficients are computed with

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): B_{j,k} = \mathrm{round} \left( \frac{G_{j,k}}{Q_{j,k}} \right) \mbox{ for } j=0,1,2,\ldots,7; k=0,1,2,\ldots,7

where Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): G

is the unquantized DCT coefficients; Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): Q
is the quantization matrix above; and Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): B
is the quantized DCT coefficients.

Using this quantization matrix with the DCT coefficient matrix from above results in:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): B= \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -26 & -3 & -6 & 2 & 2 & -1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 & -4 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -3 & 1 & 5 & -1 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -3 & 1 & 2 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{array} \right].

For example, using −415 (the DC coefficient) and rounding to the nearest integer

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \mathrm{round} \left( \frac{-415.38}{16} \right) = \mathrm{round} \left( -25.96 \right) = -26.

Entropy coding[link]

Zigzag ordering of JPEG image components

Entropy coding is a special form of lossless data compression. It involves arranging the image components in a "zigzag" order employing run-length encoding (RLE) algorithm that groups similar frequencies together, inserting length coding zeros, and then using Huffman coding on what is left.

The JPEG standard also allows, but does not require, decoders to support the use of arithmetic coding, which is mathematically superior to Huffman coding. However, this feature has rarely been used as it was historically covered by patents requiring royalty-bearing licenses, and because it is slower to encode and decode compared to Huffman coding. Arithmetic coding typically makes files about 5–7% smaller.

The previous quantized DC coefficient is used to predict the current quantized DC coefficient. The difference between the two is encoded rather than the actual value. The encoding of the 63 quantized AC coefficients does not use such prediction differencing.

The zigzag sequence for the above quantized coefficients are shown below. (The format shown is just for ease of understanding/viewing.)

If the i-th block is represented by Bi and positions within each block are represented by (p,q) where p = 0, 1, ..., 7 and q = 0, 1, ..., 7, then any coefficient in the DCT image can be represented as Bi(p,q). Thus, in the above scheme, the order of encoding pixels (for the i-th block) is Bi(0,0), Bi(0,1), Bi(1,0), Bi(2,0), Bi(1,1), Bi(0,2), Bi(0,3), Bi(1,2) and so on.

Baseline sequential JPEG encoding and decoding processes

This encoding mode is called baseline sequential encoding. Baseline JPEG also supports progressive encoding. While sequential encoding encodes coefficients of a single block at a time (in a zigzag manner), progressive encoding encodes similar-positioned coefficients of all blocks in one go, followed by the next positioned coefficients of all blocks, and so on. So, if the image is divided into N 8×8 blocks {B0,B1,B2, ..., Bn-1}, then progressive encoding encodes Bi(0,0) for all blocks, i.e., for all i = 0, 1, 2, ..., N-1. This is followed by encoding Bi(0,1) coefficient of all blocks, followed by Bi(1,0)-th coefficient of all blocks, then Bi(2,0)-th coefficient of all blocks, and so on. It should be noted here that once all similar-positioned coefficients have been encoded, the next position to be encoded is the one occurring next in the zigzag traversal as indicated in the figure above. It has been found that Baseline Progressive JPEG encoding usually gives better compression as compared to Baseline Sequential JPEG due to the ability to use different Huffman tables (see below) tailored for different frequencies on each "scan" or "pass" (which includes similar-positioned coefficients), though the difference is not too large.

In the rest of the article, it is assumed that the coefficient pattern generated is due to sequential mode.

In order to encode the above generated coefficient pattern, JPEG uses Huffman encoding. JPEG has a special Huffman code word for ending the sequence prematurely when the remaining coefficients are zero.

Using this special code word: "EOB", the sequence becomes:

JPEG's other code words represent combinations of (a) the number of significant bits of a coefficient, including sign, and (b) the number of consecutive zero coefficients that precede it. (Once you know how many bits to expect, it takes 1 bit to represent the choices {-1, +1}, 2 bits to represent the choices {-3, −2, +2, +3}, and so forth.) In our example block, most of the quantized coefficients are small numbers that are not preceded immediately by a zero coefficient. These more-frequent cases will be represented by shorter code words.

The JPEG standard provides general-purpose Huffman tables; encoders may also choose to generate Huffman tables optimized for the actual frequency distributions in images being encoded.

Compression ratio and artifacts[link]

This image shows the pixels that are different between a non-compressed image and the same image JPEG compressed with a quality setting of 50. Darker means a larger difference. Note especially the changes occurring near sharp edges and having a block-like shape.

The compressed 8×8-squares are visible in the scaled up picture, together with other visual artifacts of the lossy compression.

The resulting compression ratio can be varied according to need by being more or less aggressive in the divisors used in the quantization phase. Ten to one compression usually results in an image that cannot be distinguished by eye from the original. 100 to one compression is usually possible, but will look distinctly artifacted compared to the original. The appropriate level of compression depends on the use to which the image will be put.

External images
	Illustration of edge busyness.[17]

Those who use the World Wide Web may be familiar with the irregularities known as compression artifacts that appear in JPEG images, which may take the form of noise around contrasting edges (especially curves and corners), or blocky images, commonly known as 'jaggies'. These are due to the quantization step of the JPEG algorithm. They are especially noticeable around sharp corners between contrasting colors (text is a good example as it contains many such corners). The analogous artifacts in MPEG video are referred to as mosquito noise, as the resulting "edge busyness" and spurious dots, which change over time, resemble mosquitoes swarming around the object.^[17][18]

These artifacts can be reduced by choosing a lower level of compression; they may be eliminated by saving an image using a lossless file format, though for photographic images this will usually result in a larger file size. The images created with ray-tracing programs have noticeable blocky shapes on the terrain. Certain low-intensity compression artifacts might be acceptable when simply viewing the images, but can be emphasized if the image is subsequently processed, usually resulting in unacceptable quality. Consider the example below, demonstrating the effect of lossy compression on an edge detection processing step.

Image	Lossless compression	Lossy compression
Original
Processed by Canny edge detector

Some programs allow the user to vary the amount by which individual blocks are compressed. Stronger compression is applied to areas of the image that show fewer artifacts. This way it is possible to manually reduce JPEG file size with less loss of quality.

JPEG artifacts, like pixelation, are occasionally intentionally exploited for artistic purposes, as in Jpegs, by German photographer Thomas Ruff.^[19][20]

Since the quantization stage always results in a loss of information, JPEG standard is always a lossy compression codec. (Information is lost both in quantizing and rounding of the floating-point numbers.) Even if the quantization matrix is a matrix of ones, information will still be lost in the rounding step.

Decoding[link]

Decoding to display the image consists of doing all the above in reverse.

Taking the DCT coefficient matrix (after adding the difference of the DC coefficient back in)

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -26 & -3 & -6 & 2 & 2 & -1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & -2 & -4 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -3 & 1 & 5 & -1 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -4 & 1 & 2 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{array} \right]

and taking the entry-for-entry product with the quantization matrix from above results in

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -416 & -33 & -60 & 32 & 48 & -40 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & -24 & -56 & 19 & 26 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -42 & 13 & 80 & -24 & -40 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ -42 & 17 & 44 & -29 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 18 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{array} \right]

which closely resembles the original DCT coefficient matrix for the top-left portion.

The next step is to take the two-dimensional inverse DCT (a 2D type-III DCT), which is given by:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): f_{x,y} = \sum_{u=0}^7 \sum_{v=0}^7 \alpha(u) \alpha(v) F_{u,v} \cos \left[\frac{\pi}{8} \left(x+\frac{1}{2}\right) u \right] \cos \left[\frac{\pi}{8} \left(y+\frac{1}{2}\right) v \right]

where

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ x

is the pixel row, for the integers Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ 0 \leq x < 8

.

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ y

is the pixel column, for the integers Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ 0 \leq y < 8

.

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ \alpha(u)

is defined as above, for the integers Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ 0 \leq u < 8

.

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ F_{u,v}

is the reconstructed approximate coefficient at coordinates Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ (u,v).

• Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ f_{x,y}

is the reconstructed pixel value at coordinates Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \ (x,y)

Rounding the output to integer values (since the original had integer values) results in an image with values (still shifted down by 128)

Notice the slight differences between the original (top) and decompressed image (bottom), which is most readily seen in the bottom-left corner.

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -66 & -63 & -71 & -68 & -56 & -65 & -68 & -46 \\ -71 & -73 & -72 & -46 & -20 & -41 & -66 & -57 \\ -70 & -78 & -68 & -17 & 20 & -14 & -61 & -63 \\ -63 & -73 & -62 & -8 & 27 & -14 & -60 & -58 \\ -58 & -65 & -61 & -27 & -6 & -40 & -68 & -50 \\ -57 & -57 & -64 & -58 & -48 & -66 & -72 & -47 \\ -53 & -46 & -61 & -74 & -65 & -63 & -61 & -45 \\ -47 & -34 & -53 & -74 & -60 & -47 & -47 & -41 \end{array} \right]

and adding 128 to each entry

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} 62 & 65 & 57 & 60 & 72 & 63 & 60 & 82 \\ 57 & 55 & 56 & 82 & 108 & 87 & 62 & 71 \\ 58 & 50 & 60 & 111 & 148 & 114 & 67 & 64 \\ 65 & 55 & 66 & 120 & 155 & 114 & 68 & 70 \\ 70 & 63 & 67 & 101 & 122 & 88 & 60 & 78 \\ 71 & 71 & 64 & 70 & 80 & 62 & 56 & 81 \\ 75 & 82 & 67 & 54 & 63 & 65 & 66 & 83 \\ 81 & 95 & 75 & 54 & 68 & 81 & 81 & 87 \end{array} \right].

This is the decompressed subimage. In general, the decompression process may produce values outside of the original input range of Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): [0, 255] . If this occurs, the decoder needs to clip the output values keep them within that range to prevent overflow when storing the decompressed image with the original bit depth.

The decompressed subimage can be compared to the original subimage (also see images to the right) by taking the difference (original − uncompressed) results in the following error values:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \left[ \begin{array}{rrrrrrrr} -10 & -10 & 4 & 6 & 2 & 2 & 4 & -9 \\ 6 & 4 & -1 & 8 & 1 & -2 & 7 & 1 \\ 4 & 9 & 8 & 2 & -4 & -10 & -1 & 8 \\ -2 & 3 & 5 & 2 & -1 & -8 & 2 & -1 \\ -3 & -2 & 1 & 3 & 4 & 0 & 8 & -8 \\ 8 & -6 & -4 & 0 & -3 & 6 & 2 & -6 \\ 10 & -11 & -3 & 5 & -8 & -4 & -1 & 0 \\ 6 & -15 & -6 & 14 & -3 & -5 & -3 & 7 \end{array} \right]

with an average absolute error of about 5 values per pixels (i.e., Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \frac{1}{64} \sum_{x=0}^7 \sum_{y=0}^7 |e(x,y)| = 4.875 ).

The error is most noticeable in the bottom-left corner where the bottom-left pixel becomes darker than the pixel to its immediate right.

Required precision[link]

The encoding description in the JPEG standard does not fix the precision needed for the output compressed image. However, the JPEG standard (and the similar MPEG standards) includes some precision requirements for the decoding, including all parts of the decoding process (variable length decoding, inverse DCT, dequantization, renormalization of outputs); the output from the reference algorithm must not exceed:

• a maximum 1 bit of difference for each pixel component
• low mean square error over each 8×8-pixel block
• very low mean error over each 8×8-pixel block
• very low mean square error over the whole image
• extremely low mean error over the whole image

These assertions are tested on a large set of randomized input images, to handle the worst cases. The former IEEE 1180–1990 standard contained some similar precision requirements. The precision has a consequence on the implementation of decoders, and it is critical because some encoding processes (notably used for encoding sequences of images like MPEG) need to be able to construct, on the encoder side, a reference decoded image. In order to support 8-bit precision per pixel component output, dequantization and inverse DCT transforms are typically implemented with at least 14-bit precision in optimized decoders.

Effects of JPEG compression[link]

JPEG compression artifacts blend well into photographs with detailed non-uniform textures, allowing higher compression ratios. Notice how a higher compression ratio first affects the high-frequency textures in the upper-left corner of the image, and how the contrasting lines become more fuzzy. The very high compression ratio severely affects the quality of the image, although the overall colors and image form are still recognizable. However, the precision of colors suffer less (for a human eye) than the precision of contours (based on luminance). This justifies the fact that images should be first transformed in a color model separating the luminance from the chromatic information, before subsampling the chromatic planes (which may also use lower quality quantization) in order to preserve the precision of the luminance plane with more information bits.

Sample photographs[link]

For information, the uncompressed 24-bit RGB bitmap image below (73,242 pixels) would require 219,726 bytes (excluding all other information headers). The filesizes indicated below include the internal JPEG information headers and some meta-data. For highest quality images (Q=100), about 8.25 bits per color pixel is required. On grayscale images, a minimum of 6.5 bits per pixel is enough (a comparable Q=100 quality color information requires about 25% more encoded bits). The highest quality image below (Q=100) is encoded at 9 bits per color pixel, the medium quality image (Q=25) uses 1 bit per color pixel. For most applications, the quality factor should not go below 0.75 bit per pixel (Q=12.5), as demonstrated by the low quality image. The image at lowest quality uses only 0.13 bit per pixel, and displays very poor color, it could only be usable after subsampling to a much lower display size.

Note: The above images are not IEEE / CCIR / EBU test images, and the encoder settings are not specified or available.

Image	Quality	Size (bytes)	Compression ratio	Comment
	Highest quality (Q = 100)	83,261	2.6:1	Extremely minor artifacts
	High quality (Q = 50)	15,138	15:1	Initial signs of subimage artifacts
	Medium quality (Q = 25)	9,553	23:1	Stronger artifacts; loss of high frequency information
	Low quality (Q = 10)	4,787	46:1	Severe high frequency loss; artifacts on subimage boundaries ("macroblocking") are obvious
	Lowest quality (Q = 1)	1,523	144:1	Extreme loss of color and detail; the leaves are nearly unrecognizable

The medium quality photo uses only 4.3% of the storage space required for the uncompressed image, but has little noticeable loss of detail or visible artifacts. However, once a certain threshold of compression is passed, compressed images show increasingly visible defects. See the article on rate distortion theory for a mathematical explanation of this threshold effect. A particular limitation of JPEG in this regard is its non-overlapped 8×8 block transform structure. More modern designs such as JPEG 2000 and JPEG XR exhibit a more graceful degradation of quality as the bit usage decreases – by using transforms with a larger spatial extent for the lower frequency coefficients and by using overlapping transform basis functions.

Lossless further compression[link]

From 2004 to 2008, new research has emerged on ways to further compress the data contained in JPEG images without modifying the represented image.^{[21][22][23][24]} This has applications in scenarios where the original image is only available in JPEG format, and its size needs to be reduced for archival or transmission. Standard general-purpose compression tools cannot significantly compress JPEG files.

Typically, such schemes take advantage of improvements to the naive scheme for coding DCT coefficients, which fails to take into account:

• Correlations between magnitudes of adjacent coefficients in the same block;
• Correlations between magnitudes of the same coefficient in adjacent blocks;
• Correlations between magnitudes of the same coefficient/block in different channels;
• The DC coefficients when taken together resemble a downscale version of the original image multiplied by a scaling factor. Well-known schemes for lossless coding of continuous-tone images can be applied, achieving somewhat better compression than the Huffman coded DPCM used in JPEG.

Some standard but rarely-used options already exist in JPEG to improve the efficiency of coding DCT coefficients: the arithmetic coding option, and the progressive coding option (which produces lower bitrates because values for each coefficient are coded independently, and each coefficient has a significantly different distribution). Modern methods have improved on these techniques by reordering coefficients to group coefficients of larger magnitude together;^[21] using adjacent coefficients and blocks to predict new coefficient values;^[23] dividing blocks or coefficients up among a small number of independently coded models based on their statistics and adjacent values;^[22][23] and most recently, by decoding blocks, predicting subsequent blocks in the spatial domain, and then encoding these to generate predictions for DCT coefficients.^[24]

Typically, such methods can compress existing JPEG files between 15 and 25 percent, and for JPEGs compressed at low-quality settings, can produce improvements of up to 65%.^[23][24]

A freely-available tool called packJPG^[25] is based on the 2007 paper "Improved Redundancy Reduction for JPEG Files." There are also at least two companies selling proprietary tools with similar capabilities, Infima's JPACK^[26] and Smith Micro Software's StuffIt,^[27] both of which claim to have pending patents on their respective technologies.^[28][29]

Derived formats for stereoscopic 3D[link]

JPEG Stereoscopic[link]

JPEG Stereoscopic (JPS, extension .jps) is a JPEG-based format for stereoscopic images.^[30][31] It has a range of configurations stored in the JPEG APP3 marker field, but usually contains one image of double width, representing two images of identical size in cross-eyed (i.e. left frame on the right half of the image and vice versa) side-by-side arrangement. This file format can be viewed as a JPEG without any special software, or can be processed for rendering in other modes.

JPEG Multi-Picture Format[link]

JPEG Multi-Picture Format (MPO, extension .mpo) is a JPEG-based format for multi-view images. It contains two or more JPEG files concatenated together.^[32][33] There are also special EXIF fields describing its purpose. This is used by the Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1 camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 & DMC-TS4 (FT4), Sony DSC-HX7V, HTC Evo 3D, the JVC GY-HMZ1U AVCHD/MVC extension camcorder and by the Nintendo 3DS for its 3D Camera.

Patent issues[link]

In 2002, Forgent Networks asserted that it owned and would enforce patent rights on the JPEG technology, arising from a patent that had been filed on October 27, 1986, and granted on October 6, 1987 (U.S. Patent 4,698,672). The announcement created a furor reminiscent of Unisys' attempts to assert its rights over the GIF image compression standard.

The JPEG committee investigated the patent claims in 2002 and were of the opinion that they were invalidated by prior art.^[34] Others also concluded that Forgent did not have a patent that covered JPEG.^[35] Nevertheless, between 2002 and 2004 Forgent was able to obtain about US$105 million by licensing their patent to some 30 companies. In April 2004, Forgent sued 31 other companies to enforce further license payments. In July of the same year, a consortium of 21 large computer companies filed a countersuit, with the goal of invalidating the patent. In addition, Microsoft launched a separate lawsuit against Forgent in April 2005.^[36] In February 2006, the United States Patent and Trademark Office agreed to re-examine Forgent's JPEG patent at the request of the Public Patent Foundation.^[37] On May 26, 2006 the USPTO found the patent invalid based on prior art. The USPTO also found that Forgent knew about the prior art, and did not tell the Patent Office, making any appeal to reinstate the patent highly unlikely to succeed.^[38]

Forgent also possesses a similar patent granted by the European Patent Office in 1994, though it is unclear how enforceable it is.^[39]

As of October 27, 2006, the U.S. patent's 20-year term appears to have expired, and in November 2006, Forgent agreed to abandon enforcement of patent claims against use of the JPEG standard.^[40]

The JPEG committee has as one of its explicit goals that their standards (in particular their baseline methods) be implementable without payment of license fees, and they have secured appropriate license rights for their upcoming JPEG 2000 standard from over 20 large organizations.

Beginning in August 2007, another company, Global Patent Holdings, LLC claimed that its patent (U.S. Patent 5,253,341) issued in 1993, is infringed by the downloading of JPEG images on either a website or through e-mail. If not invalidated, this patent could apply to any website that displays JPEG images. The patent emerged^{[clarification needed]} in July 2007 following a seven-year reexamination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in which all of the original claims of the patent were revoked, but an additional claim (claim 17) was confirmed.^[41]

In its first two lawsuits following the reexamination, both filed in Chicago, Illinois, Global Patent Holdings sued the Green Bay Packers, CDW, Motorola, Apple, Orbitz, Officemax, Caterpillar, Kraft and Peapod as defendants. A third lawsuit was filed on December 5, 2007 in South Florida against ADT Security Services, AutoNation, Florida Crystals Corp., HearUSA, MovieTickets.com, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Tire Kingdom, and a fourth lawsuit on January 8, 2008 in South Florida against the Boca Raton Resort & Club. A fifth lawsuit was filed against Global Patent Holdings in Nevada. That lawsuit was filed by Zappos.com, Inc., which was allegedly threatened by Global Patent Holdings, and seeks a judicial declaration that the '341 patent is invalid and not infringed.

Global Patent Holdings had also used the '341 patent to sue or threaten outspoken critics of broad software patents, including Gregory Aharonian^[42] and the anonymous operator of a website blog known as the "Patent Troll Tracker."^[43] On December 21, 2007, patent lawyer Vernon Francissen of Chicago asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine the sole remaining claim of the '341 patent on the basis of new prior art.^[44]

On March 5, 2008, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed to reexamine the '341 patent, finding that the new prior art raised substantial new questions regarding the patent's validity.^[45] In light of the reexamination, the accused infringers in four of the five pending lawsuits have filed motions to suspend (stay) their cases until completion of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's review of the '341 patent. On April 23, 2008, a judge presiding over the two lawsuits in Chicago, Illinois granted the motions in those cases.^[46] On July 22, 2008, the Patent Office issued the first "Office Action" of the second reexamination, finding the claim invalid based on nineteen separate grounds.^[47] On Nov. 24, 2009, a Reexamination Certificate was issued cancelling all claims.

Standards[link]

Here are some examples of standards created by ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29 Working Group 1 (WG 1), which includes the Joint Photographic Experts Group and Joint Bi-level Image experts Group:

• JPEG (lossy and lossless): ITU-T T.81, ISO/IEC 10918-1
• JPEG extensions: ITU-T T.84
• JPEG-LS (lossless, improved): ITU-T T.87, ISO/IEC 14495-1
• JBIG (lossless, bi-level pictures, fax): ITU-T T.82, ISO/IEC 11544
• JBIG2 (bi-level pictures): ITU-T T.88, ISO/IEC 14492
• JPEG 2000: ITU-T T.800, ISO/IEC 15444-1
• JPEG 2000 extensions: ITU-T T.801
• JPEG XR (formerly called HD Photo prior to standardization) : ITU-T T.832, ISO/IEC 29199-2

See also[link]

• C-Cube an early implementer of JPEG in chip form
• Comparison of graphics file formats
• Comparison of layout engines (graphics)
• Deblocking filter (video), the similar deblocking methods could be applied to JPEG
• Design rule for Camera File system (DCF)
• Exchangeable image file format (Exif)
• File extensions
• Generation loss
• Graphics editing program
• Image compression
• Image file formats
• JPEG 2000
• JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF)
• JPEG XR
• Lenna, the traditional standard image used to test image processing algorithms
• Libjpeg of Independent JPEG Group
• Lossless Image Codec FELICS
• Motion JPEG
• PGF
• PNG

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: JPEG

• JPEG Standard (JPEG ISO/IEC 10918-1 ITU-T Recommendation T.81) at W3.org
• Official Joint Photographic Experts Group site
• JFIF File Format at W3.org
• JPEG File Size Calculator
• JPEG viewer in 250 lines of easy to understand python code
• Wotsit.org's entry on the JPEG format
• Example images over the full range of quantization levels from 1 to 100 at visengi.com
• Public domain JPEG compressor in a single C++ source file, along with a matching decompressor at code.google.com
• Example of .JPG file decoding
• Jpeg Decoder Open Source Code , Copyright (C) 1995–1997, Thomas G. Lane.
• Fast JPEG codec on the GPU

Ryan Tedder
Tedder in Austria, 2010
Background information
Birth name	Ryan Benjamin Tedder
Also known as	Alias Ryan "Alias" Tedder
Born	(1979-06-26) June 26, 1979 (age 33) Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Genres	Pop rock, R&B, alternative rock, teen pop, cello rock
Occupations	Singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, organ, bass, drums, synthesizers, clarinet, glockenspiel, vibraphone
Years active	1999 – present
Labels	Columbia Records Interscope Records (2007–present)
Associated acts	OneRepublic, Far East Movement, Adele, Gym Class Heroes
Website	myspace.com/aliastheproducer

Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is a Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter and record producer.^[1][2] He is best known as the frontman of the pop rock band, OneRepublic, though he has an independent career as songwriter and producer for various artists such as Adele, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, B.o.B., Kelly Clarkson, Far East Movement, Adam Lambert, Jordin Sparks, Leona Lewis, Gavin DeGraw, Demi Lovato, Sebastian Ingrosso, Maroon 5, and Paul Oakenfold.^[3]

Early life and education[link]

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tedder was raised by an extended family of missionaries and pastors and grew up in the church.^[4][5] He began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the Suzuki method.^[4] His early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn.^[4] Tedder started singing at the age of seven.^[2] A self-taught vocalist, Tedder began honing this skill at the age of twelve by imitating his favorite artists, who ranged from The Beatles to acts as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Sting. He has commented, "I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was eighteen."^[4] He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, and personally formed groups.^[2]

In his senior year, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado.^[6] There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic band-mate Zach Filkins on their soccer team at the Colorado Springs Christian School. He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma and began to showcase his own material there. Tedder completed his college education and graduated from ORU in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations and Advertising.^[7]

Career[link]

Early musical career[link]

For years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also as a shop assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, singing on demos to break into the music scene. He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track.^[4] Tedder claims that DreamWorks offered him his first publishing deal shortly after his arrival; however, he was intent on pursuing a career as an artist and his first venture in that arena came via a different route all together.

At the age of twenty-one, Tedder competed in a singer-songwriter competition and was selected by 'N Sync singer Lance Bass as one of five finalists to perform on a one-hour special on MTV, performing original material in front of millions of viewers.^[8] The prize for the winner was a music contract with Bass's now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment.^[8] The contestants performed live and were then rated by judges and the audience; the highest scoring artist winning the contract. Tedder's performance of one of his songs, "The Look", received the most votes from the judges and fans, and he won the competition; however, a contract with a recording label was not finalized and no album was released.^[8] Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered "wasn't real. It was just a bunch of hype that didn't turn into anything."^[9]

Producing and writing[link]

One year after winning the MTV competition, Tedder caught the attention of the hip hop producer Timbaland.^[10] Tedder commented that he was with Timbaland from 2002-2004 to develop as an artist while producing for other artists at the time.^[9] Tedder's work crossed many musical genres (ranging from hip hop, R&B, rock, pop to dance/techno) and he has had many chart successes both in America and the United Kingdom with a number of artists. In June 2007, Tedder signed a worldwide publishing administration deal with Kobalt Music Publishing. The deal included Tedder's new works and all songs not performed by OneRepublic.

Tedder performing on stage, 2009

Tedder is the writer of the worldwide smash hit, "Apologize", performed by his band OneRepublic, which as of 2008 is the best-selling and charting single of the decade.^[11] The song broke the US Top 40 Radio Airplay Record with 10,331 spins in one week. It was the number-one most played song for five months until May 7, 2008 when Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" (a song that Tedder co-wrote and produced), broke the record previously set by "Apologize", with 10,665 spins in one week.^[12] "Bleeding Love" was the best-selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom, topping the UK charts for seven weeks and was the fastest selling CD of 2007 receiving the most radio airplay worldwide prior to its US debut. The song also earned a Best British Single award nomination at the Brit Awards in February 2008 and reached number one in over 35 countries. Tedder and co-writer Jesse McCartney received an ASCAP award for writing the song. Tedder is also credited for writing the treatment for the second music video that was filmed for the US release of "Bleeding Love". It also earned a Record Of The Year nomination at the February 2009 Grammy awards.^[13]

Tedder has written and produced singles with artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Adele, Carrie Underwood, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Alexandra Burke, Backstreet Boys, Beyoncé, Monrose, David Cook, Jordin Sparks, AJ McLean, Chris Cornell, Ashley Tisdale, Ludacris, Gavin Degraw, James Blunt, James Morrison, Paula DeAnda, Hilary Duff, Timbaland, Bubba Sparxxx, Dima Bilan, Shayne Ward, Lemar, Esmee Denters, Clay Aiken, t.A.T.u., Menudo, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Whitney Houston, Westlife, Charice, Varsity Fanclub, Sugababes, Daughtry, Mario, DJ Tiesto and a number of songs with various rock acts in the US and abroad.^[14] He worked with Jennifer Lopez on her 2007 single Do It Well from her album Brave, then worked with Kelly Clarkson on her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted, penning the songs "If I Can't Have You", "Impossible", "Save You", "Tip Of My Tongue" and "Already Gone", which features vocals from Ryan. He also worked with Beyoncé on her album I Am… Sasha Fierce, penning the song "Halo." The similarity between the songs "Already Gone" and "Halo" prompted Clarkson to publicly state that she did not know about "Halo" and that both songs were co-written by Tedder.^[15] Tedder's work with Beyoncé also earned him two Grammy nominations with Record Of The Year for "Halo" and Album Of The Year for I Am...Sasha Fierce at the January 2010 Grammy Awards. Tedder worked extensively on Leona Lewis's second album Echo, writing and producing many songs with her, three of which have made the album, including the first single "Happy", "You Don't Care" which features vocals from Ryan and "Lost Then Found", which features OneRepublic. Tedder co-wrote and produced Jordin Sparks' lead single "Battlefield" from her second album of the same name. Tedder worked on American Idol Season 8 runner up, Adam Lambert's debut album For Your Entertainment.

In late 2009, Tedder launched his own record company, Patriot Records. Recently signed buzz artist My Name Is Kay, will release her debut EP through Interscope in 2012. Nikki Flores' single "City Lights" was released in the fall of 2010 on Universal/Republic Records. Tedder also formed his own publishing company, Patriot Games Publishing, in 2009 in alliance with Kobalt Music Publishing Worldwide. To date he has a stable of top notch writers and producers such as Inflo, cellist/bassist Noel Zancanella, and Brent Kutzle of OneRepublic). The Patriot team of writers and producers with Tedder are credited with "I Was Here" by Beyoncé, "Good Life" by OneRepublic, "I Just Had Sex" by The Lonely Island featuring Akon, "Lost Then Found" by Leona Lewis and OneRepublic, "Just a Guy" by BC Jean, "Count on You" by Big Time Rush featuring Jordin Sparks, and "And Then We Dance," the #1 hit single from Australia's Got Talent winners Justice Crew.

More recently, Ryan is credited with writing and producing hits from some of 2011's most anticipated albums, including Adele's "21," Beyoncé's "4," Colbie Caillat's "All Of You," Gavin Degraw's "Sweeter," among others.

Tedder worked on Demi Lovato's third album Unbroken, released on September 20, 2011. About working with her, Tedder commented, "Demi blew me out of the water vocally! I had no idea how good her voice is. She's one of the best singers I've ever worked with. Literally, that good... I mean, she's a Kelly Clarkson-level vocalist. And Kelly has a set of pipes". In 2011, he composed a new song for Vanness Wu, "Is this All" in Taiwan. He co-wrote David Cook's "The Last Goodbye" from his second album.^[16] He produced a song for K'naan titled "Better".^[17] He co-wrote "Good in Goodbye" for Carrie Underwood's third album Blown Away, released on May 1, 2012. He produced tracks for Maroon 5's new album Overexposed, set to release in June 2012 and has also been working on tracks for Jennifer Lopez's new untitled 2012 album, one of the songs being "Clothes Off".^[18] Tedder co-wrote and co-produced the song "Sattelite" for British band The Wanted which appears on their US album released on April 24, 2012.^[19] He also worked on B.o.B's Strange Clouds, released in May 2012; he produced and co-wrote single "So Good" and is featured on "Never Let You Go".

Tedder was featured in Far East Movement's 2010 hit single "Rocketeer," as well as the current Gym Class Heroes single,"The Fighter". He has also recorded vocal tracks for Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso's dance music track he also co-wrote, titled "Calling."^[20]

Tedder is currently working with Ellie Goulding, Trey Songz, Jason Derulo, Cody Simpson, Lady Antebellum, Marina and the Diamonds, Dan Black, and Lights on their forthcoming studio albums.^{[citation needed]}

Tedder was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.^[21]

OneRepublic[link]

As well as producing, Tedder also sings lead vocals and plays guitar and piano for the band, OneRepublic. The five member band consisting of Tedder, Filkins, Eddie Fisher, Drew Brown, and Brent Kutzle was formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002 by Tedder and his high school classmate Zach Filkins.^[22] Tedder has since revealed that the band was formed at a "crossroads" in his life: "I was offered two publishing deals within two months of being in Nashville…I could have just written songs and lived a carefree life, but I knew that I had to be an artist. I wanted to form a rock band and create my own sound."^[4] Based in Los Angeles, OneRepublic started out as an unsigned act on the social networking website, MySpace. Since June 2004, they have accumulated over fifty million plays for their music on the site. As of 2009, they are the number-one band on MySpace and have been in the MySpace Music's Top Artists since the summer of 2006.^[23]

The band gained further exposure when their 2007 single, "Apologize", was re-mixed and re-released on Timbaland's compilation album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The remix became an international chart hit in the fall of 2007. The song broke records after gaining 10,331 spins in one week. According to SoundScan, "Apologize" is the most legally downloaded song in US digital history with sales of over 4.3 million digital downloads in the US alone.^[24] It is also the second best-selling song of the decade.^[25] OneRepublic's debut album, Dreaming Out Loud, includes both the song's original version and version with Timbaland, and was released on November 20, 2007 on Timbaland's Mosley Music Group imprint via Interscope Records.^[26] The band had previously been signed to Columbia Records, and their album was due to be released in 2006, but this did not occur. Tedder explained, "Crap happened. People got fired. Labels merged and politics abounded".^[27] Subsequently, the band was released from their deal with Columbia, and they were signed by Timbaland in the summer of 2006 becoming the first rock band to be signed to Mosley Music Group.^[27] Tedder has commented on the success of his band's hit single, "Apologize": "The toughest thing to do is write a hit song, but we had a hit song before we had an album… What has happened has been really strange and really great."^[26]

Tedder is a multi-instrumentalist. During OneRepublic's performances, he often switches from singing lead vocals to playing guitar, bass guitar, glockenspiel, tambourine or piano. On rare occasions, he plays drums alongside the band's main percussionist, Eddie Fisher.

The band finished recording their second album, titled "Waking Up" on August 25, 2009, and released their lead single, "All the Right Moves" to radio and iTunes everywhere except Germany and Austria, where "Secrets" was released instead. The album was released on November 17, 2009 in the United States. To date, the second US single, "Secrets" has reached over 2M digital downloads, and third single "Good Life" continues to climb the charts, breaking into the Top 10 on iTunes and radio everywhere.

In January 2012, the band was working on their upcoming album.^[28] Upon an interview from the 2012 Grammys, Ryan announced that they were half way through working on it.

Personal life[link]

Ryan Tedder is married. He openly acknowledged and thanked his wife, Genevieve, in the liner notes of OneRepublic's debut album Dreaming Out Loud. Ryan and Genevieve have a son, Copeland Cruz Tedder, born on August 2, 2010 in Denver, Colorado.^[29] Tedder's cousins, Adam, Ashley and Austin Clark comprise the band Sons of Sylvia and were formerly in The Clark Family Experience. He co-wrote their song "Love Left to Lose".^[30] Despite being a Christian, he does not want to be labeled as a "Christian artist".^[5] He has on one arm a tattoo written in old Japanese which he got while he was in Osaka, meaning "God's will" and literally means "God gives and God takes".^[31][32]

Tedder became involved with Southern Hospitality, a restaurant co-created in 2007 by Justin Timberlake at Second Avenue in Manhattan,^[33] when it opened a second location in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.^[34] On August 22, 2011, it was announced that Tedder had become the first franchisee of the Southern Hospitality BBQ brand and that there were plans to bring the concept in ten cities across the United States including Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Phoenix, Palo Alto and Washington, D.C..^[35] They will open a restaurant in the St. Elmo Hotel in October 2012.^[33]

Writing and production credits[link]

References[link]