Image MIME Reference
FLIF
Free Lossless Image Format
image/flif
VS
JPEG Stereo Image
image/x-jps
JPS
A complete technical comparison of Free Lossless Image Format and JPEG Stereo Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
JPS wins on browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | FLIF | JPS |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | ✕ No |
| Animation Support | Yes | ✕ No |
| Progressive Loading | Yes | Yes |
| HDR Support | Yes | ✕ No |
| EXIF Metadata | Yes | Yes |
| ICC Color Profile | Yes | Yes |
Free Lossless Image Format
image/flif
Extension
.flif
Container
FLIF Bitstream
Compression
Lossless (MANIAC Entropy Coding)
Algorithm
MANIAC (Meta-Adaptive Near-zero Integer Arithmetic Coding)
Color Depth
1-bit to 16-bit (Per Channel), Grayscale, RGB, RGBA, CMYK
Developed by
Jon Sneyers and Pieter Wuille (Cloudinary)
Released
2015
Magic Bytes
46 4C 49 46
JPEG Stereo Image
image/x-jps
Extension
.jps
Container
JPEG (JFIF/Exif)
Compression
Lossy (JPEG/DCT)
Algorithm
JPEG (Discrete Cosine Transform)
Color Depth
8-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by
Stereoscopic Community (Unofficial Standard)
Released
1990
Magic Bytes
FF D8 FF
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | FLIF | JPS |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✕ |
✓ 1
|
Firefox
|
✕ |
✓ 1
|
Safari
|
✕ |
✓ 1
|
Edge
|
✕ |
✓ 12
|
IE (Legacy)
|
✕ |
✓
|
FLIF
FLIF Strengths
- Achieves some of the highest lossless compression ratios ever developed for raster images
- Incredible progressive decoding allows an image to be highly recognizable even after only 5% of the file has been downloaded
- Supports animations and complex alpha channels losslessly
Limitations
- Officially abandoned in favor of JPEG XL
- Zero native support in web browsers or standard operating system previewers
- Encoding speed can be significantly slower than standard PNG or WebP compression
JPS
JPS Strengths
- 100% backward compatible with every standard 2D image viewer and web browser (which simply display the two halves side-by-side)
- Inherits JPEG's excellent lossy compression, resulting in small file sizes ideal for web transmission
- Extremely easy to generate programmatically by simply stitching two JPEG images side-by-side onto a wider canvas
Limitations
- Lack of a dedicated metadata standard means viewing software has to guess whether the layout is 'cross-eyed' (right eye left, left eye right) or 'parallel' (left eye left, right eye right), occasionally causing inverted depth
- Suffers from JPEG compression artifacts, which can break the stereoscopic illusion if compression noise differs between the left and right eyes
- Superseded in consumer electronics by the MPO (Multi-Picture Object) format, which stacks separate full-resolution JPEGs rather than squishing them side-by-side
When to choose which format
FLIF
Use FLIF when…
- Archival of Uncompressed Image Assets
- Bandwidth-Constrained Progressive Image Loading (Historical)
- Medical and Scientific Imaging Storage
JPS
Use JPS when…
- Stereoscopic 3D Photography
- Virtual Reality (VR) Image Galleries
- Cross-eye / Parallel Stereograms