Image MIME Reference
DjVu
DjVu Document
image/vnd.djvu
VS
Digital Picture Exchange
image/dpx
DPX
A complete technical comparison of DjVu Document and Digital Picture Exchange — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Equal browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | DjVu | DPX |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | Yes |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Progressive Loading | Yes | ✕ No |
| HDR Support | ✕ No | Yes |
| EXIF Metadata | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| ICC Color Profile | ✕ No | ✕ No |
DjVu Document
image/vnd.djvu
Extension
.djvu.djv
Container
Interchange File Format (IFF)
Compression
JB2 (Bi-tonal Text) / IW44 (Wavelet Background) / BZZ (General Data/Text)
Algorithm
JB2IW44BZZ
Color Depth
1-bit (Foreground Text), 24-bit (Background)
Developed by
AT&T Labs (Yann LeCun, Léon Bottou, Patrick Haffner, Paul G. Howard)
Released
1996
Magic Bytes
41 54 26 54 46 4F 52 4D
Digital Picture Exchange
image/dpx
Extension
.dpx
Container
DPX (SMPTE ST 268)
Compression
Uncompressed / RLE (Rarely used)
Algorithm
Uncompressed
Color Depth
8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (Float)
Developed by
SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
Released
1994
Magic Bytes
53 44 50 58 (Big-endian) / 58 50 44 53 (Little-endian)
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | DjVu | DPX |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✕ | ✕ |
Firefox
|
✕ | ✕ |
Safari
|
✕ | ✕ |
Edge
|
✕ | ✕ |
IE (Legacy)
|
✕ | ✕ |
DjVu
DjVu Strengths
- Unmatched compression ratios for high-resolution scanned documents (often 5 to 10 times smaller than equivalent JPEG/TIFF-based PDFs)
- Separates text layers cleanly from backgrounds, allowing for highly legible text even at low file sizes
- Embedded OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text layers allow for fast searching
Limitations
- Lacks native support in modern operating systems and web browsers, requiring third-party software
- Largely superseded by PDF/A and modern PDF compression standards in standard corporate workflows
- Not suitable for vector graphics or born-digital documents (like Word exports), where standard PDF is far superior
DPX
DPX Strengths
- Industry standard for transferring uncompressed, high-fidelity film and VFX data
- Rich industry-specific metadata including timecode, keykode, and film stock information
- Supports logarithmic color spaces (LogC, Cineon) to preserve the massive dynamic range of film negatives
Limitations
- Massive file sizes (e.g., a single 4K 10-bit frame is ~50MB, resulting in ~1.2GB per second at 24fps)
- Zero native support in web browsers or consumer OS image viewers
- Requires heavy-duty, fast storage infrastructure (RAID/NVMe) to playback in real-time
When to choose which format
DjVu
Use DjVu when…
- Scanned Books and Manuals
- Digital Libraries (e.g., Internet Archive)
- Historical Document Archiving
DPX
Use DPX when…
- Film Scanning
- Visual Effects (VFX)
- Digital Intermediate (DI)
- Color Grading
- Archival