1Background 2========== 3 4libjpeg-turbo is a JPEG image codec that uses SIMD instructions to accelerate 5baseline JPEG compression and decompression on x86, x86-64, Arm, PowerPC, and 6MIPS systems, as well as progressive JPEG compression on x86, x86-64, and Arm 7systems. On such systems, libjpeg-turbo is generally 2-6x as fast as libjpeg, 8all else being equal. On other types of systems, libjpeg-turbo can still 9outperform libjpeg by a significant amount, by virtue of its highly-optimized 10Huffman coding routines. In many cases, the performance of libjpeg-turbo 11rivals that of proprietary high-speed JPEG codecs. 12 13libjpeg-turbo implements both the traditional libjpeg API as well as the less 14powerful but more straightforward TurboJPEG API. libjpeg-turbo also features 15colorspace extensions that allow it to compress from/decompress to 32-bit and 16big-endian pixel buffers (RGBX, XBGR, etc.), as well as a full-featured Java 17interface. 18 19libjpeg-turbo was originally based on libjpeg/SIMD, an MMX-accelerated 20derivative of libjpeg v6b developed by Miyasaka Masaru. The TigerVNC and 21VirtualGL projects made numerous enhancements to the codec in 2009, and in 22early 2010, libjpeg-turbo spun off into an independent project, with the goal 23of making high-speed JPEG compression/decompression technology available to a 24broader range of users and developers. 25 26 27License 28======= 29 30libjpeg-turbo is covered by three compatible BSD-style open source licenses. 31Refer to [LICENSE.md](LICENSE.md) for a roll-up of license terms. 32 33 34Building libjpeg-turbo 35====================== 36 37Refer to [BUILDING.md](BUILDING.md) for complete instructions. 38 39 40Using libjpeg-turbo 41=================== 42 43libjpeg-turbo includes two APIs that can be used to compress and decompress 44JPEG images: 45 46- **TurboJPEG API**<br> 47 This API provides an easy-to-use interface for compressing and decompressing 48 JPEG images in memory. It also provides some functionality that would not be 49 straightforward to achieve using the underlying libjpeg API, such as 50 generating planar YUV images and performing multiple simultaneous lossless 51 transforms on an image. The Java interface for libjpeg-turbo is written on 52 top of the TurboJPEG API. The TurboJPEG API is recommended for first-time 53 users of libjpeg-turbo. Refer to [tjexample.c](tjexample.c) and 54 [TJExample.java](java/TJExample.java) for examples of its usage and to 55 <http://libjpeg-turbo.org/Documentation/Documentation> for API documentation. 56 57- **libjpeg API**<br> 58 This is the de facto industry-standard API for compressing and decompressing 59 JPEG images. It is more difficult to use than the TurboJPEG API but also 60 more powerful. The libjpeg API implementation in libjpeg-turbo is both 61 API/ABI-compatible and mathematically compatible with libjpeg v6b. It can 62 also optionally be configured to be API/ABI-compatible with libjpeg v7 and v8 63 (see below.) Refer to [cjpeg.c](cjpeg.c) and [djpeg.c](djpeg.c) for examples 64 of its usage and to [libjpeg.txt](libjpeg.txt) for API documentation. 65 66There is no significant performance advantage to either API when both are used 67to perform similar operations. 68 69Colorspace Extensions 70--------------------- 71 72libjpeg-turbo includes extensions that allow JPEG images to be compressed 73directly from (and decompressed directly to) buffers that use BGR, BGRX, 74RGBX, XBGR, and XRGB pixel ordering. This is implemented with ten new 75colorspace constants: 76 77 JCS_EXT_RGB /* red/green/blue */ 78 JCS_EXT_RGBX /* red/green/blue/x */ 79 JCS_EXT_BGR /* blue/green/red */ 80 JCS_EXT_BGRX /* blue/green/red/x */ 81 JCS_EXT_XBGR /* x/blue/green/red */ 82 JCS_EXT_XRGB /* x/red/green/blue */ 83 JCS_EXT_RGBA /* red/green/blue/alpha */ 84 JCS_EXT_BGRA /* blue/green/red/alpha */ 85 JCS_EXT_ABGR /* alpha/blue/green/red */ 86 JCS_EXT_ARGB /* alpha/red/green/blue */ 87 88Setting `cinfo.in_color_space` (compression) or `cinfo.out_color_space` 89(decompression) to one of these values will cause libjpeg-turbo to read the 90red, green, and blue values from (or write them to) the appropriate position in 91the pixel when compressing from/decompressing to an RGB buffer. 92 93Your application can check for the existence of these extensions at compile 94time with: 95 96 #ifdef JCS_EXTENSIONS 97 98At run time, attempting to use these extensions with a libjpeg implementation 99that does not support them will result in a "Bogus input colorspace" error. 100Applications can trap this error in order to test whether run-time support is 101available for the colorspace extensions. 102 103When using the RGBX, BGRX, XBGR, and XRGB colorspaces during decompression, the 104X byte is undefined, and in order to ensure the best performance, libjpeg-turbo 105can set that byte to whatever value it wishes. If an application expects the X 106byte to be used as an alpha channel, then it should specify `JCS_EXT_RGBA`, 107`JCS_EXT_BGRA`, `JCS_EXT_ABGR`, or `JCS_EXT_ARGB`. When these colorspace 108constants are used, the X byte is guaranteed to be 0xFF, which is interpreted 109as opaque. 110 111Your application can check for the existence of the alpha channel colorspace 112extensions at compile time with: 113 114 #ifdef JCS_ALPHA_EXTENSIONS 115 116[jcstest.c](jcstest.c), located in the libjpeg-turbo source tree, demonstrates 117how to check for the existence of the colorspace extensions at compile time and 118run time. 119 120libjpeg v7 and v8 API/ABI Emulation 121----------------------------------- 122 123With libjpeg v7 and v8, new features were added that necessitated extending the 124compression and decompression structures. Unfortunately, due to the exposed 125nature of those structures, extending them also necessitated breaking backward 126ABI compatibility with previous libjpeg releases. Thus, programs that were 127built to use libjpeg v7 or v8 did not work with libjpeg-turbo, since it is 128based on the libjpeg v6b code base. Although libjpeg v7 and v8 are not 129as widely used as v6b, enough programs (including a few Linux distros) made 130the switch that there was a demand to emulate the libjpeg v7 and v8 ABIs 131in libjpeg-turbo. It should be noted, however, that this feature was added 132primarily so that applications that had already been compiled to use libjpeg 133v7+ could take advantage of accelerated baseline JPEG encoding/decoding 134without recompiling. libjpeg-turbo does not claim to support all of the 135libjpeg v7+ features, nor to produce identical output to libjpeg v7+ in all 136cases (see below.) 137 138By passing an argument of `-DWITH_JPEG7=1` or `-DWITH_JPEG8=1` to `cmake`, you 139can build a version of libjpeg-turbo that emulates the libjpeg v7 or v8 ABI, so 140that programs that are built against libjpeg v7 or v8 can be run with 141libjpeg-turbo. The following section describes which libjpeg v7+ features are 142supported and which aren't. 143 144### Support for libjpeg v7 and v8 Features 145 146#### Fully supported 147 148- **libjpeg API: IDCT scaling extensions in decompressor**<br> 149 libjpeg-turbo supports IDCT scaling with scaling factors of 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 150 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 7/8, 9/8, 5/4, 11/8, 3/2, 13/8, 7/4, 15/8, and 2/1 (only 1/4 151 and 1/2 are SIMD-accelerated.) 152 153- **libjpeg API: Arithmetic coding** 154 155- **libjpeg API: In-memory source and destination managers**<br> 156 See notes below. 157 158- **cjpeg: Separate quality settings for luminance and chrominance**<br> 159 Note that the libpjeg v7+ API was extended to accommodate this feature only 160 for convenience purposes. It has always been possible to implement this 161 feature with libjpeg v6b (see rdswitch.c for an example.) 162 163- **cjpeg: 32-bit BMP support** 164 165- **cjpeg: `-rgb` option** 166 167- **jpegtran: Lossless cropping** 168 169- **jpegtran: `-perfect` option** 170 171- **jpegtran: Forcing width/height when performing lossless crop** 172 173- **rdjpgcom: `-raw` option** 174 175- **rdjpgcom: Locale awareness** 176 177 178#### Not supported 179 180NOTE: As of this writing, extensive research has been conducted into the 181usefulness of DCT scaling as a means of data reduction and SmartScale as a 182means of quality improvement. Readers are invited to peruse the research at 183<http://www.libjpeg-turbo.org/About/SmartScale> and draw their own conclusions, 184but it is the general belief of our project that these features have not 185demonstrated sufficient usefulness to justify inclusion in libjpeg-turbo. 186 187- **libjpeg API: DCT scaling in compressor**<br> 188 `cinfo.scale_num` and `cinfo.scale_denom` are silently ignored. 189 There is no technical reason why DCT scaling could not be supported when 190 emulating the libjpeg v7+ API/ABI, but without the SmartScale extension (see 191 below), only scaling factors of 1/2, 8/15, 4/7, 8/13, 2/3, 8/11, 4/5, and 192 8/9 would be available, which is of limited usefulness. 193 194- **libjpeg API: SmartScale**<br> 195 `cinfo.block_size` is silently ignored. 196 SmartScale is an extension to the JPEG format that allows for DCT block 197 sizes other than 8x8. Providing support for this new format would be 198 feasible (particularly without full acceleration.) However, until/unless 199 the format becomes either an official industry standard or, at minimum, an 200 accepted solution in the community, we are hesitant to implement it, as 201 there is no sense of whether or how it might change in the future. It is 202 our belief that SmartScale has not demonstrated sufficient usefulness as a 203 lossless format nor as a means of quality enhancement, and thus our primary 204 interest in providing this feature would be as a means of supporting 205 additional DCT scaling factors. 206 207- **libjpeg API: Fancy downsampling in compressor**<br> 208 `cinfo.do_fancy_downsampling` is silently ignored. 209 This requires the DCT scaling feature, which is not supported. 210 211- **jpegtran: Scaling**<br> 212 This requires both the DCT scaling and SmartScale features, which are not 213 supported. 214 215- **Lossless RGB JPEG files**<br> 216 This requires the SmartScale feature, which is not supported. 217 218### What About libjpeg v9? 219 220libjpeg v9 introduced yet another field to the JPEG compression structure 221(`color_transform`), thus making the ABI backward incompatible with that of 222libjpeg v8. This new field was introduced solely for the purpose of supporting 223lossless SmartScale encoding. Furthermore, there was actually no reason to 224extend the API in this manner, as the color transform could have just as easily 225been activated by way of a new JPEG colorspace constant, thus preserving 226backward ABI compatibility. 227 228Our research (see link above) has shown that lossless SmartScale does not 229generally accomplish anything that can't already be accomplished better with 230existing, standard lossless formats. Therefore, at this time it is our belief 231that there is not sufficient technical justification for software projects to 232upgrade from libjpeg v8 to libjpeg v9, and thus there is not sufficient 233technical justification for us to emulate the libjpeg v9 ABI. 234 235In-Memory Source/Destination Managers 236------------------------------------- 237 238By default, libjpeg-turbo 1.3 and later includes the `jpeg_mem_src()` and 239`jpeg_mem_dest()` functions, even when not emulating the libjpeg v8 API/ABI. 240Previously, it was necessary to build libjpeg-turbo from source with libjpeg v8 241API/ABI emulation in order to use the in-memory source/destination managers, 242but several projects requested that those functions be included when emulating 243the libjpeg v6b API/ABI as well. This allows the use of those functions by 244programs that need them, without breaking ABI compatibility for programs that 245don't, and it allows those functions to be provided in the "official" 246libjpeg-turbo binaries. 247 248Those who are concerned about maintaining strict conformance with the libjpeg 249v6b or v7 API can pass an argument of `-DWITH_MEM_SRCDST=0` to `cmake` prior to 250building libjpeg-turbo. This will restore the pre-1.3 behavior, in which 251`jpeg_mem_src()` and `jpeg_mem_dest()` are only included when emulating the 252libjpeg v8 API/ABI. 253 254On Un*x systems, including the in-memory source/destination managers changes 255the dynamic library version from 62.2.0 to 62.3.0 if using libjpeg v6b API/ABI 256emulation and from 7.2.0 to 7.3.0 if using libjpeg v7 API/ABI emulation. 257 258Note that, on most Un*x systems, the dynamic linker will not look for a 259function in a library until that function is actually used. Thus, if a program 260is built against libjpeg-turbo 1.3+ and uses `jpeg_mem_src()` or 261`jpeg_mem_dest()`, that program will not fail if run against an older version 262of libjpeg-turbo or against libjpeg v7- until the program actually tries to 263call `jpeg_mem_src()` or `jpeg_mem_dest()`. Such is not the case on Windows. 264If a program is built against the libjpeg-turbo 1.3+ DLL and uses 265`jpeg_mem_src()` or `jpeg_mem_dest()`, then it must use the libjpeg-turbo 1.3+ 266DLL at run time. 267 268Both cjpeg and djpeg have been extended to allow testing the in-memory 269source/destination manager functions. See their respective man pages for more 270details. 271 272 273Mathematical Compatibility 274========================== 275 276For the most part, libjpeg-turbo should produce identical output to libjpeg 277v6b. The one exception to this is when using the floating point DCT/IDCT, in 278which case the outputs of libjpeg v6b and libjpeg-turbo can differ for the 279following reasons: 280 281- The SSE/SSE2 floating point DCT implementation in libjpeg-turbo is ever so 282 slightly more accurate than the implementation in libjpeg v6b, but not by 283 any amount perceptible to human vision (generally in the range of 0.01 to 284 0.08 dB gain in PNSR.) 285 286- When not using the SIMD extensions, libjpeg-turbo uses the more accurate 287 (and slightly faster) floating point IDCT algorithm introduced in libjpeg 288 v8a as opposed to the algorithm used in libjpeg v6b. It should be noted, 289 however, that this algorithm basically brings the accuracy of the floating 290 point IDCT in line with the accuracy of the accurate integer IDCT. The 291 floating point DCT/IDCT algorithms are mainly a legacy feature, and they do 292 not produce significantly more accuracy than the accurate integer algorithms 293 (to put numbers on this, the typical difference in PNSR between the two 294 algorithms is less than 0.10 dB, whereas changing the quality level by 1 in 295 the upper range of the quality scale is typically more like a 1.0 dB 296 difference.) 297 298- If the floating point algorithms in libjpeg-turbo are not implemented using 299 SIMD instructions on a particular platform, then the accuracy of the 300 floating point DCT/IDCT can depend on the compiler settings. 301 302While libjpeg-turbo does emulate the libjpeg v8 API/ABI, under the hood it is 303still using the same algorithms as libjpeg v6b, so there are several specific 304cases in which libjpeg-turbo cannot be expected to produce the same output as 305libjpeg v8: 306 307- When decompressing using scaling factors of 1/2 and 1/4, because libjpeg v8 308 implements those scaling algorithms differently than libjpeg v6b does, and 309 libjpeg-turbo's SIMD extensions are based on the libjpeg v6b behavior. 310 311- When using chrominance subsampling, because libjpeg v8 implements this 312 with its DCT/IDCT scaling algorithms rather than with a separate 313 downsampling/upsampling algorithm. In our testing, the subsampled/upsampled 314 output of libjpeg v8 is less accurate than that of libjpeg v6b for this 315 reason. 316 317- When decompressing using a scaling factor > 1 and merged (AKA "non-fancy" or 318 "non-smooth") chrominance upsampling, because libjpeg v8 does not support 319 merged upsampling with scaling factors > 1. 320 321 322Performance Pitfalls 323==================== 324 325Restart Markers 326--------------- 327 328The optimized Huffman decoder in libjpeg-turbo does not handle restart markers 329in a way that makes the rest of the libjpeg infrastructure happy, so it is 330necessary to use the slow Huffman decoder when decompressing a JPEG image that 331has restart markers. This can cause the decompression performance to drop by 332as much as 20%, but the performance will still be much greater than that of 333libjpeg. Many consumer packages, such as Photoshop, use restart markers when 334generating JPEG images, so images generated by those programs will experience 335this issue. 336 337Fast Integer Forward DCT at High Quality Levels 338----------------------------------------------- 339 340The algorithm used by the SIMD-accelerated quantization function cannot produce 341correct results whenever the fast integer forward DCT is used along with a JPEG 342quality of 98-100. Thus, libjpeg-turbo must use the non-SIMD quantization 343function in those cases. This causes performance to drop by as much as 40%. 344It is therefore strongly advised that you use the accurate integer forward DCT 345whenever encoding images with a JPEG quality of 98 or higher. 346 347 348Memory Debugger Pitfalls 349======================== 350 351Valgrind and Memory Sanitizer (MSan) can generate false positives 352(specifically, incorrect reports of uninitialized memory accesses) when used 353with libjpeg-turbo's SIMD extensions. It is generally recommended that the 354SIMD extensions be disabled, either by passing an argument of `-DWITH_SIMD=0` 355to `cmake` when configuring the build or by setting the environment variable 356`JSIMD_FORCENONE` to `1` at run time, when testing libjpeg-turbo with Valgrind, 357MSan, or other memory debuggers. 358