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

F.T. Island 에프티 아일랜드
F.T. Island performing during their Stand Up concert at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, March 9, 2012
Background information
Also known as	Five Treasure Island
Origin	South Korea
Genres	Rock, Rock Ballad, K-rock, J-pop, J-rock
Years active	2007–present
Labels	FNC Music, Mnet Media (Korea)[1] AI Entertainment, Warner Music Group (Japan)
Associated acts	F.T. Triple
Website	ftisland.com
Members
Choi Jong Hun Lee Hongki Lee Jae Jin Choi Min Hwan Song Seung Hyun
Past members
Oh Won Bin

This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or Hanja.

F.T. Island (Korean: 에프티 아일랜드 Japanese: エフティー・アイランド; stylized as FTISLAND), short for Five Treasure Island, is a five-member South Korean pop/rock band. The members are Choi Jong Hun (guitar and keyboard), Lee Hongki (lead vocals) Lee Jae Jin (bass and vocals), Song Seung Hyun (guitar and vocals), and Choi Min Hwan (drums). Their debut album, titled "Cheerful Sensibility", was the sixth best-selling album in 2007. Their debut song "Lovesick" topped the K-Pop charts for eight consecutive weeks.^[2] Oh Won Bin was a member of the band until the beginning of 2009.

Career[link]

[edit] 2007: Debut and Cheerful Sensibility

Although F.T. Island's first album, Cheerful Sensibility, was scheduled to be released commercially in May 2007, the members appeared on the show "Wanna be my girlfriend?" (Korean: 두근두근 여친만들기) on the Korean television channel MNet. The band also performed on stage live at Rolling Hall and held their first official showcase at Live House Melon-AX, Gwangjang-dong in Seoul on May 27, 2007.^[3]

On June 7, 2007 the group performed their debut song Love Sick on the music television program M!Countdown; their debut album, Cheerful Sensibility, was released on the same day.

Cheerful Sensibility combined 13 songs that were loosely divided into two parts, “Emotional Chapter” and “F.T. Island Chapter”, according to the genre of the songs.^[4] The “Emotional Chapter” consists of rock ballads. The "F.T. Island Chapter" was produced by the Japanese composers who worked with the Japanese band, SMAP and is composed of a variety of pop rock songs.^[5]

Selling over 79,000 copies in 2007, it was the sixth best-selling album of the year.^[6] The album was re-released on December 3, 2007, titled The Refreshment, with three extra songs, a photobook, a stack of photocards, and a mixing program called Music 2.0 which allows one to adjust the levels of the instruments and vocals. This edition sold 25,724 copies in December 2007.^[6]

[edit] 2008: Japanese Debut, Colorful Sensibility, and other activities

After debuting in Korea, FNC Music moved F.T. Island's activities overseas. On March 31, 2008, an autograph session in Malaysia at the Damansara Cineleisure was held, which was to be follow the next day by the group's first concert at the Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater.^[7] The performance was cancelled, and their first concert was held in Thailand instead, at the Royal Paragon Hall on April 12, 2008. The band performed songs from their album and showcased their individual talents in their solo performances.^[8]

F.T. Island's Japanese debut album, entitled Prologue of F.T. Island, was released on June 7, 2008, with the first single released being Soyogi . The album consists of 8 songs, 2 of which are newer versions of the original songs F.T. Island and Primadonna. The last track, Always Be Mine, is an English version of First Kiss from their debut album (though the lyrics are original). Music videos were also released for Soyogi and Friendship, displaying the band's professional and youthful sides, respectively.

After their promotional activities in Japan ended, the band returned to Korea to release their second Korean album Colorful Sensibility on August 27, 2008. A follow-up EP, Colorful Sensibility Part 2, was released on October 17, 2008.

Later that year, F.T. Island released The One, their first Japanese commercial single, under an indie label AI Entertainment. The single hit #9 on the Oricon daily charts.^[9] F&C Music stated that although other Korean bands utilized the assistance of large Japanese record labels to gain popularity, F.T. Island was able to make it onto the charts without any true marketing efforts.^[10] The single also was the last official release with member Oh Won Bin before his departure.^[11]

[edit] 2009: New lineup, Jump Up, Cross & Change, and Japanese singles

On January 28, 2009, it was announced that Oh Won Bin would indeed be leaving the group,^[12] with FNC trainee Song Seung Hyun joining as a guitarist and backup vocalist.^[13] With the new lineup change, F.T. Island released the music video for their mini-album title song "Bad Woman." They also promoted it on SBS Inkigayo, and two days later, released the band's first Korean mini-album Jump Up.

On April 22, F.T. Island released their second Japanese single, I believe Myself. For the first time, members participated with lyrics and composition. For the song Moonlight Angel, member Lee Jae Jin co-wrote it and leader Choi Jong Hoon co-composed the song. I Believe Myself is the first Japanese single with member Song Seung Hyun. They held their 2009 F.T. Island Tour-I Believe Myself in cities all over Japan during the summer of 2009.^[14]

F.T. Island toured parts of Asia which include Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, etc. to promote themselves in the summer of 2009. The showcases kicked off in Singapore during June 25 to 27.^[15]

While preparing for overseas promotions, the members were in the midst of recording their third album. On July 9, FNC Music released a jacket photo for the upcoming third album called Cross & Change. On the following day, a musc video teaser was released online, featuring kids watching their idols (played by the members themselves) on TV. The title song, called “I Hope/Barae”, was released on July 16.^[16] F.T. Island tried out a variety of music styles for Cross & Change; it includes a total of 12 songs, ranging from moving ballads to addictive songs with a bright melody. F.T. Island adopted a new fashion style and concept for the album, using a "retro" and the so-called “Bokgo” approach, which was inspired during the “jeans jeans look” from the 80s in Korea.^[17]

F.T. Island released their 3rd Japanese single, Raining, on October 21, 2009. A music video of the single's title track was released. Leader Choi Jong Hoon played the piano for the title song instead of the guitar.^[18]

F.T. Island's sub-group: F.T. Triple

The three members Choi Jong Hun, Choi Min Hwan, and Lee Jae Jin formed a sub-group called F.T. Triple. Some of the reasons behind this move were to showcase more of the members' skills and to prevent lead singer, Lee Hongki, from overstraining his voice again (refer to Gayo Daejun Incident under 'Headlines' below). Another reason was to continue promoting F.T. Island while Lee Hongki was busy filming the South Korean drama "You're Beautiful" and while Song Seunghyun was busy with variety shows. At first, this trio was unofficially announced at the Dream Concert in Japan as "A3". They almost named themselves A3 because they all are blood A type. They wanted to keep the F.T. name so they added Triple at the end of it to represent that it is a trio. In F.T. triple, Lee Jaejin, originally in charge of bass for F.T. Island, becomes a guitarist and the lead vocalist; leader Choi Jonghun plays the piano and Choi Min Hwan continues to play the drums. Their first single was titled "Love Letter" and was released with F.T. Island's 2CD Repackaged Album Double Date as a second CD named Two Date that features all F.T. Triple songs.^[19]

On November 14 2009, F.T. Island embarked on a national tour entitled, "Men's Stories" which began in Seoul, South Korea. Their hit single from the album, I Hope, was very well received by their fans and the five members planned on showing their life behind the stage along with strong visuals and sounds on a more personal level for the fans. For their concert, F.T. Island emphasized their growth as a band as they begin to shed their boyish charms for a more mature and masculine appeal.^[20]

[edit] 2010: Major Debut in Japan, Beautiful Journey, and Success in Taiwan

In the months January and February, the boys started touring in Asia. The tour visited Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Singapore. Tickets were sold out quickly; representatives of the band believe it was due to the popularity of Lee Hong Ki starring in the drama, "You're Beautiful".

After celebrating their 1000th day in the music industry, they travelled to Japan where they stayed until the end of August to preapre for their major debut in Japan under their new major Japanese label, Warner Music Japan. They also began a new Japanese show which began airing starting 7 April 2010.^[21] On May 19, 2010, F.T. Island released their new single "Flower Rock" under Warner Music.^[22] "Flower Rock" entered the Oricon daily charts at 3rd position on May 19, 2010, the day of its release, and held the fourth position of that week.^[23] On July 14, 2010, F.T. Island released another single named "Brand-new days," which included songs written and composed by the F.T. Island members Song Seung Hyun and Choi Jong Hun. F.T. Island performed a five-city concert tour in Japan after releasing both singles.^[24][25] They also performed at the international rock festival "Summer Sonic 2010" in Maishima Arena, Osaka, Japan.^[26]

After promotions in Japan, F.T. Island focused on their comeback in Korea in mid-August 2010.^[27] Their new mini album "Beautiful Journey" and the music video for their main title song "Love Love Love" were released on August 25, 2010. F.T. Island held their comeback performance in Korean on August 27, 2010. The title song topped many popular music charts in South Korea and also gained international notice, especially in Taiwan.^[28] Choi Jong Hoon co-wrote and co-composed one of the songs, titled Don Quixote's Song, making it the first Korean song that includes the composition from F.T. Island itself. During November and December, F.T. Island balanced two separate concerts, the Beautiful Journey Concert and So Today... Concert, in both Korea and Japan.

Whilst promoting their second Korean mini-album, F.T. Island recorded another Japanese single titled So today... to be released in November. All three songs were co-written by Lee Jae Jin; the song, Boom Boom Boom, was composed by Choi Jong Hoon.^[29] The single ranked 6th on the Oricon Daily Chart. With F.T. Island’s 3rd single taking the 6th position, they now have a record of all their singles ranking top 10 in the Oricon charts.^[30] About 10,000 fans turned up at their promotional events in Osaka and Tokyo on 20 and 21 November.^[31]

Due to their immense popularity in Taiwan, F.T. Island held a concert on December 25, celebrating Christmas together with 9000 fans. F.T. Island is Korea’s first rock band to hold a big scale concert in Taiwan and they had no other special request besides asking for the best sound systems and hardware. Former vocalist and guitarist, honoured guest Oh Wonbin, performed his first single as a solo artist and a brand new song, which has yet not been released, at the concert. F.T. Island performed songs in three languages, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.^[32] Though they have only entered the Taiwan music industry for a short period of 10 months, with an album sales record over 100,000, FT Island won favorable comments in the Chinese media.^[33] Just for the concert tickets and merchandises alone, the revenue for FTIsland’s [Beautiful Journey] concert have exceeded a total of NT$20Million. They have been named the Korean artistes who earned the most money for the end of 2010 and FTIsland also wished to visit Taiwan again soon.^[34] Four main news agencies namely, China Times, Yonhap News, Apple Daily and Liberty Times, covered news on the concert, showing the band’s high popularity. FT Island also broke several records in Taiwan with 500,000 hits on mobile downloads and 10,000,000 hits on music downloads.^[35]

[edit] 2011: Japanese Breakthrough and Return to Korea

On April 20, FTIsland released their 4th major Japanese single Satisfaction with accompanying tracks, I want and Friends, in which Choi Jonghun participated in the composition of both songs. The single reached 2nd place on the Oricon Weekly Charts. They were positioned right after Johnny’s Kanjani8. Their title song “Satisfaction” was also selected to be the ending theme song of the anime “Toriko”, generating high expectation from the public.^[36]

On May 18, FTIsland released their first major debut album in Japan, entitled Five Treasure Island. The album features songs from singles, Flower Rock, Brand New Days, So Today..., and Satisfaction; it also contains several new tracks, including the OSTs for Japanese drama, "Muscle Girl", in which member Lee Hongki played the lead male role. FTIsland set a record by being the first Korean band to top the Oricon album daily chart at 1st position. Their first Japanese regular album sold 20,410 copies on the first day, attaining the 1st position on the Oricon album daily chart. FTIsland held an album release commemorative event yesterday at Yomiuri Land and shared the joy of their result together with some 5,000 fans. FTIsland started their performance with songs from their past singles and also new album songs like “mirai”, “yume”, “Rock’n'roll”, as well as theme songs “itsuka” and “haruka” from Lee Hongki’s drama, TBS “Muscle Girl”. FTIsland expressed their happiness of attaining the 1st position on the Oricon chart, “It’s unbelievable that we’ve got the 1st position. We will work harder in future to bring even better music. Please give us lots of love and support.”^[37]

In late May, FTIsland returned to the South Korean music scene after almost an entire year away, with a mini-album aptly titled Return. The album was released on May 24. Title track Hello Hello, a fast paced rock track which records at an impressive 200 BPM, was received well by fans. The album featured five songs in total. I Confess, which leader Choi Jonghun said he wrote with their fans in mind, became their first popularised Korean release to feature all five members' vocals.

2012: Mini album 'Grown Up' and Overseas Activities[link]

F.T. Island with CN Blue during their Stand Up concert at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, March 9, 2012

After releasing a tragic music video for their title track “Severely”, F.T. Island released their fourth mini-album, entitled ‘Grown-Up‘. Featuring five songs, ‘Grown-Up’ is composed of slow-tempo rock ballads, and, as the album title suggests, displays the group's maturation since their last release.

The album was released on January 31 and had much success. 'Grown Up' secured the #1 position on the Hanteo album chart for total album sales on both the daily and weekly charts as well as title track 'Severely' achieving an 'all-kill' on various online music charts. As soon as it was made available to the public, the album sold like hot cakes. The album was completely sold out only ten days after its release, recording some 50,000 sales. In response their agency, FNC Entertainment, had this to say, “We filled the album with ballad songs to show a change in musical style, and the response is even better than we expected." their agency stated, "The supply in the retail stores which were ordered before the release have mostly sold out, and we are currently working on additional production to meet the demand.”^[38]

On March 9, F.T. Island and fellow label-mates CNBlue performed in America for the first time at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater. ^[39]

In April, F.T. Island returned to Japan to promote their 7th Japanese single "Neverland", which was released on the 18th. “Neverland,” a fast tempo rock song, was decided to be the opening theme song of the animation Ozuma, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Japanese broadcasting system WOWOW. Ozuma broadcasted its first episode on March 16, and is written by famous cartoonist, Matsumoto Reiji.^[40]

F.T. Island's 2nd major Japanese Album, 20[Twenty], is set to be released on May 16th.

Incidents[link]

This section contains close paraphrasing of one or more non-free copyrighted sources. Ideas in this article should be expressed in an original manner. More details may be available on the talk page. (August 2011)

F.T. Island stranded in Cebu[link]

On September 25, 2009, F.T. Island was in Cebu in the Philippines to film the music video for their Japanese single, "Raining". Due to a sudden typhoon (Typhoon Ketsana), the members were left stranded in the province. Their record company, FNC Music, attempted to communicate with the members, but were unable to reach the band. The typhoon knocked out radio contact and cut off any connection with the crew. The record company was eventually able contact with the crew later in the afternoon and confirmed that F.T. Island was safe. The filming was shortened by a few days and the band flew back to Korea two days later.^[41]

Oh Won Bin's project with Lee Hongki[link]

Former member Oh Won Bin took part in the soundtrack of drama You're Beautiful (Hangul: 미남이시네요), in which Lee Hongki costarred in.^[42] Along with Miss $, Oh Won Bin sung the cheerful second track titled "하늘에서 내려와 (Coming Down from the Sky)". Even before the album was released, this particular song has received lots of attention. Won Bin's participation created many speculations among netizens: he might return to the band, he has projects together with F.T. Island members, a new start of his solo career, or he just wants to support his old band mate. No official comment has been made yet, but Wonbin has been referenced to in FTI's members' tweets and photos.^[42]

Dorm fire[link]

On the May 3, 2011, a fire broke out at F.T. Island's dorm near Munrae-dong, Youngdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The members evacuated immediately and no one was injured. The members had finished their new album recording works and returned home to take a rest when the fire broke out. Representatives of their agency explained, "The members were able to escape to a safe location and call for help. It was not anything major or severe. Rest assured, the members are not injured and do not require a visit to the hospital." Despite it being a scary situation, the agency thought positively of the fire by calling it a sign of good luck. "The members were up late preparing for their new mini-album's music video and album jacket photoshoot before returning to their dorms to sleep. As they’ve just released their new album, Satisfaction, we consider this 'fire' a sign of good luck."^[43][44]

Members[link]

Current

• Choi Jong Hun (최종훈), born (1990-03-07) March 7, 1990 (age 22), is the leader, as well as the lead guitarist, keyboard and vocalist of the band.^[45]
• Lee Hongki (이홍기), born (1990-03-02) March 2, 1990 (age 22), is the main vocalist and visual of the band.^[46]
• Lee Jae Jin (이재진), born (1991-12-17) December 17, 1991 (age 20), is the bassist rapper and vocalist of the band.^[47]
• Song Seung Hyun (송승현), born (1992-08-21) August 21, 1992 (age 19), is the rhythm guitarist and rapper of the band.^[48]
• Choi Min Hwan (최민환), born (1992-11-11) November 11, 1992 (age 19), is the drummer, and vocalist of the band.^[49]

Former members

• Oh Won Bin (오원빈), born (1990-03-26) March 26, 1990 (age 22), was the rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the band.^[50]

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

Music Programs[link]

These are collection of FT Island wins on Korea's televised music shows. Inkigayo is aired on SBS, M! Countdown on Korea cable channel M.net, Music Bank on KBS, Music On Top on Korea cable channel jTBC and MBC Music Show Champion.

[edit] Music Bank

[edit] Inkigayo

[edit] M! Countdown

[edit] Music On Top

[edit] Show Champion

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• FTisland's weibo