JPEG

J oint P hotographic E xpert G roup standards for image compression that is an increasingly popular compressed graphics image file, the extension for which is usually jpg . Because large and high resolution graphics images with considerable color depth require massive amounts of storage (e.g., over 30 Mb) for each image, compression routines that create images almost as good with substantially fewer storage requirements are highly desirable. Doyle (1994b) calls several options "awesome," including the $940 Fast Electronic's Movie Machine Pro (415-802-0772) with M-JPEG and Avi file capturing options. Similarly, he calls the $570 Intel Smart Video Recorder (800-538-3373) and the $890 Micro Computer microVIDEO DC1 tv (800-249-6476) awesome. JPEG images are generally of sufficient quality that it is not necessary to utilize more storage space for uncompressed files. JPEG compression of graphics images requires no special playback boards. When using any compression utility such as JPEG, it pays to study the limitations. For example, JPEG compression does not work especially well with hard edges and lines in graphics images. Black and white images should never be compressed into JPEG images. Also conversions from GIF to JPEG may be disappointing since GIF images are usually color reduced before becoming GIF images. Also math coprocessors will not speed up JPEG graphics since JPEG algorithms use only integer arithmetic. JPEG can be used with motion video cards such as the RasterOps MoviePak2 video compression daughter card for Mac computers. (See also Video board , Compression , GIF , and MPEG )