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Image MIME Reference
JPEG-XR

JPEG XR (HD Photo)

image/vnd.ms-photo
VS

Apple PICT Image

image/x-pict
PICT

A complete technical comparison of JPEG XR (HD Photo) and Apple PICT Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature JPEG-XR PICT
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
JPEG XR (HD Photo)
image/vnd.ms-photo
Extension
.jxr.wdp.hdp
Container TIFF-like Image File Directory (IFD)
Compression Lossy (Lapped Bi-orthogonal Transform) / Lossless
Algorithm
Lapped Bi-orthogonal Transform (LBT)
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale, RGB, CMYK), 16-bit, 32-bit Floating Point (HDR)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation (later Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Released 2006
Magic Bytes
49 49 BC 01
Full JPEG-XR reference →
Apple PICT Image
image/x-pict
Extension
.pict.pct.pic
Container QuickDraw Metafile
Compression Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE) / QuickTime Compressors (JPEG, SMC)
Algorithm
Apple PackBits (RLE)QuickTime Image Compression Manager (ICM)
Color Depth 1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit (Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (RGBA)
Developed by Apple Computer, Inc.
Released 1984
Magic Bytes
None (Requires offset parsing, e.g., 00 11 02 FF at byte 522)
Full PICT reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser JPEG-XR PICT
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✓
 ✕
JPEG-XR

JPEG-XR Strengths

  • Excellent support for 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point HDR images without massive file size bloat
  • Native support for alpha transparency, which standard JPEG fundamentally lacks
  • Computational complexity for decoding/encoding is relatively low, making it hardware-friendly
Limitations
  • Suffered a complete failure of adoption in the web browser market outside of Microsoft's ecosystem
  • Fully superseded by modern, open formats like WebP, AVIF, and JPEG XL which offer better compression and universal browser support
  • Multiple file extensions (.wdp, .hdp, .jxr) and MIME types cause confusion and parsing fragmentation
PICT

PICT Strengths

  • Incredibly versatile for its time, allowing a single file to cleanly scale text and vector shapes while simultaneously housing raster photos
  • Served as the flawless universal clipboard format for the classic Mac OS, enabling seamless copy/pasting between wildly different applications
Limitations
  • Deeply tied to Apple's legacy QuickDraw graphics architecture, making it exceptionally difficult to write accurate third-party parsers on modern operating systems
  • Lack of a standard magic header makes file detection unreliable without seeking 522 bytes deep into the file
  • Completely unsupported in modern web environments and discontinued by Apple itself

When to choose which format

JPEG-XR
Use JPEG-XR when…
  • Legacy Windows Desktop Backgrounds
  • XPS (XML Paper Specification) Documents
  • Early High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography
  • DirectX Textures
PICT
Use PICT when…
  • Classic Mac OS Clipboard Data
  • Legacy Macintosh Desktop Publishing (Aldus PageMaker, QuarkXPress)
  • 1980s/1990s Digital Clip Art

More comparisons

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