14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe does not consider that its own Digital Negative (DNG) and Microsoft's JPEG XR (Extended Range) are in the same race together. Both DNG and JPEG XR are digital image formats in the course of becoming internationally standardized. However, DNG and JPEG XR are more complementary, and a scenario involving direct competition is quite a stretch. This is because of the nature of the two formats and the completely different issues each addresses. And the fact of the matter is that DNG and JPEG XR focus on completely different aspects of the digital imagery universe.
JPEG XR is the result of the HD Photo project developed by Microsoft Research. At the end of July, the Redmond company handed HD Photo to the Joint Photographic Expert's Group (JPEG) for international standardization. HD Photo has been in development for no less than five years, and has at its foundation comprehension technology built by Microsoft Research put together even before 2002. HD Photo was initially introduced as Windows Media Photo and is supported by default by Microsoft's latest operating system Windows Vista.
"Our goal has been to develop the ultimate successor to JPEG as the format of choice for all digital photography. We also announced earlier this year that we were committed to standardizing HD Photo as an open format", commented Bill Crow, HD Photo Program Manager. Essentially JPEG XR is designed as a high-end alternative to the existing JPEG, delivering higher quality and compression.
Microsoft now looks forward to a time when HD Photo will become JPEG XR, "an open standard under the complete control of the JPEG Committee, with royalty-free rights to all required patents granted by Microsoft. We're excited to be contributing to the next great standard for digital photography, enabling a whole new level of feature and technology innovation, improving photo quality and creating exciting new applications and services. It's our sincere hope that that today's announcement will help accelerate the process of making HD Photo (JPEG XR) as ubiquitous as JPEG is today", Crow added.
In contrast, Adobe System's DNG is centered on a less popular area associated with digital images, the raw format. Adobe works to standardize a single raw format, and to bring some coherence to the current cocktail of proprietary raw ecosystem. DNG is focused on delivering all control related to the edit process of digital images in the hands of the photographers.