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Image MIME Reference
JPEG-XR-Sequence

JPEG XR Image Sequence (HEIF Container)

image/jxrs
VS

Radiance HDR

image/vnd.radiance
Radiance

A complete technical comparison of JPEG XR Image Sequence (HEIF Container) and Radiance HDR — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature JPEG-XR-Sequence Radiance
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
JPEG XR Image Sequence (HEIF Container)
image/jxrs
Extension
.jxrs
Container HEIF / ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 23008-12 / Annex F of ITU-T T.832)
Compression Lossy / Lossless
Algorithm
JPEG XR (Lapped Biorthogonal Transform)
Color Depth 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (Float)
Developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1 / ITU-T
Released 2019
Magic Bytes
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 6A 78 72 53
Full JPEG-XR-Sequence reference →
Radiance HDR
image/vnd.radiance
Extension
.hdr.pic.rgbe.xyze
Container Radiance Information Header
Compression Run-Length Encoding (RLE) / Uncompressed
Algorithm
Adaptive Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Color Depth 32-bit (8-bit per channel RGB + 8-bit shared Exponent)
Developed by Greg Ward (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Released 1989
Magic Bytes
23 3F 52 41 44 49 41 4E 43 45
Full Radiance reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser JPEG-XR-Sequence Radiance
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
JPEG-XR-Sequence

JPEG-XR-Sequence Strengths

  • Supports 32-bit floating point HDR color depths natively across an entire animation sequence
  • Combines the advanced coding efficiencies of JPEG XR with the sequence timing and metadata framework of HEIF
  • Shares frame data structures allowing for optimized storage of burst photography
Limitations
  • Extremely rare format with essentially no mainstream software adoption
  • Zero web browser support
  • Overshadowed heavily by HEVC (HEIC sequences) and AV1 (AVIF sequences) which offer superior compression and broader hardware decoding support
Radiance

Radiance Strengths

  • Universally supported by almost every 3D modeling software, renderer, and game engine in existence
  • RGBE encoding offers a brilliant balance between High Dynamic Range capability and small file size (compared to 32-bit float OpenEXR)
  • Simple, easy-to-parse ASCII header followed by straightforward RLE binary data
Limitations
  • Does not support alpha transparency (no way to store an isolated light source with a transparent background)
  • The shared exponent architecture can occasionally introduce banding or color artifacts in extreme edge cases compared to true 16-bit/32-bit floating-point formats like OpenEXR
  • Zero native browser support for 2D viewing

When to choose which format

JPEG-XR-Sequence
Use JPEG-XR-Sequence when…
  • Experimental Animation Workflows
  • HDR Burst Photography Archiving
  • Specialized Medical & Scientific Imaging
Radiance
Use Radiance when…
  • Image-Based Lighting (IBL)
  • 3D Environment Maps (HDRI Skydomes)
  • Lighting Simulation
  • VFX and CGI Rendering

More comparisons

JPEG-XR-Sequence vs ACES → Radiance vs ACES → JPEG-XR-Sequence vs APNG → Radiance vs APNG → JPEG-XR-Sequence vs AVCI → Radiance vs AVCI → JPEG-XR-Sequence vs AVCS → Radiance vs AVCS → JPEG-XR-Sequence vs AVIF → Radiance vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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