Image format
The JPEG 2000 format
JPEG 2000 is a wavelet-based image format used by cinema, medicine and archives. JPEG 2000 was standardised in 2000 as a successor to JPEG; it never caught on for photos but runs digital cinema, medical imaging and archives.
When to use JPEG 2000
You meet JPEG 2000 in scanned archives, PDFs, medical images and cinema files; convert it to share or edit.
It is best for digital cinema packages, medical scans and library archives, and it opens on macOS Preview, pro editors and archive viewers — not Chrome, Firefox or upload forms.
How to open it: macOS Preview, Photoshop, GIMP and IrfanView open JPEG 2000 files.
| Full name | JPEG 2000 |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .jp2, .j2k, .jpf, .jpx, .j2c |
| MIME type | image/jp2 |
| Introduced | 2000 |
| Compression | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes |
| Animation | No |
| Support | Specialist format |
| Typical size | Similar to JPG when lossy, around half of PNG when lossless |
Good at
- Lossless and lossy modes in one format
- Degrades gracefully instead of breaking into blocks
- High bit depths
Not so good at
- Slow to decode
- Very little everyday software supports it
The common mistake
Files with the .jp2 extension and raw .j2k codestreams are packaged differently, and some software only reads one of them.
Questions
What is a JPEG 2000 file?
JPEG 2000 (JPEG 2000) is a wavelet-based image format used by cinema, medicine and archives. JPEG 2000 was standardised in 2000 as a successor to JPEG; it never caught on for photos but runs digital cinema, medical imaging and archives.
How do I open a JPEG 2000 file?
macOS Preview, Photoshop, GIMP and IrfanView open JPEG 2000 files.