JPEG-2000

JPEG 2000 Core Image File

image/jp2 Released 2000 · by Joint Photographic Experts Group

JPEG 2000 is a highly scalable image compression standard and coding system based on wavelet technology. It offers both lossless and lossy compression, delivering superior quality at lower bitrates compared to standard JPEG, and is heavily utilized in digital cinema, medical imaging, and archival preservation.

Professional & Archival Transparency Progressive ✦ HDR Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type

image/jp2

Extensions

.jp2.j2k.jpf.jpx.jpm

Container

JP2 (ISO/IEC 15444-1)

Compression

Lossy & Lossless

Algorithms

Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)

Color Depth

8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 38-bit

Metadata

EXIF XMP ICC

Capabilities

Transparency

Animation

Progressive Loading

Alpha Channel

HDR Support

Official Specification

Aliases: image/jpeg2000image/jpeg2000-imageimage/x-jp2-codestream

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)

00 00 00 0C 6A 50 20 20 0D 0A 87 0A

ASCII: ....jP ....

HTTP Headers

Content-Type: image/jp2

HTML Accept Attribute

accept="image/jp2, .jp2"

Browser Support Matrix

Browser	Status	Min Version
Chrome	Not Supported	—
Firefox	Not Supported	—
Safari	Supported	5+
Edge	Not Supported	—
Internet Explorer	Not Supported	Legacy

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages

Superior compression efficiency over baseline JPEG without introducing blocking artifacts
True mathematically lossless compression available in the same format
Extremely scalable: a single file can be decoded at various resolutions (thumbnails to full size) without loading the entire file

Limitations

Very poor native web browser support prevents it from being a web standard
High computational complexity makes encoding and decoding significantly slower than JPEG
Early patent concerns and complex licensing hindered its initial adoption rate

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
print(magic.from_file('image.jp2', mime=True)) # Outputs 'image/jp2'

const FileType = require('file-type');
const type = await FileType.fromFile('image.jp2');
console.log(type.mime); // image/jp2

import "net/http"
// Standard HTTP detection may miss JP2; fallback to custom byte slice matching for the 12-byte signature box.

$mime = mime_content_type('image.jp2');
echo $mime; // image/jp2

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/jp2 file by reading its raw bytes:

1 Check the first 12 bytes for the JP2 signature box (00 00 00 0C 6A 50 20 20 0D 0A 87 0A)

Software Support

A

Adobe Photoshop

ImageMagick

GIMP

O

OpenJPEG

K

Kakadu Software

Conversion Tools

Share & Embed

Markdown Badge

[![JPEG-2000 Format](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/jpeg-2000/badge.svg)](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/jpeg-2000)

Interactive iframe Widget

<iframe src="https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/jpeg-2000/embed" width="100%" height="280" style="border:1px solid #cbd5e1;border-radius:8px;" title="JPEG-2000 Specs"></iframe>

JSON API

All data on this page is available as a free, open JSON API. Use it in your project, documentation, or tooling.

GET https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/jpeg-2000.json Open JSON

Free to use

No auth required

CORS enabled

Use from any domain

Cached 24h

Cache-Control headers set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the magic byte for JP2?

JP2 files start with a specific 12-byte signature box. In hex, this sequence is 00 00 00 0C 6A 50 20 20 0D 0A 87 0A, which translates to a box size of 12 followed by the 'jP ' string and a carriage return/line feed sequence.

Why use JPEG 2000 instead of standard JPEG?

JPEG 2000 uses a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) instead of the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) used by standard JPEG. This prevents blocky artifacts at high compression ratios, supports mathematically perfect lossless compression, and allows for progressive decoding by resolution or quality.

Is JPEG 2000 supported in web browsers?

Support is very poor. Historically, only Apple's Safari supported JPEG 2000 natively. Modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Edge do not support it, meaning web developers must use fallbacks like WebP, AVIF, or standard JPEG.