Starting with Chrome 155, the browser now includes decoding support for the JPEG XL (.jxl) image format. According to the Chrome Developers blog, JPEG XL provides 30‑50% better compression than JPEG, offers lossless compression, built‑in HDR support, and lossless JPEG transcoding. The format is noted as particularly useful for high‑fidelity or lossless compression of photographic images and cases where fine‑grained progressive decoding is preferred.
To address the security risks inherent in image decoders, Chrome’s JPEG XL decoder is based on jxl‑rs, a pure Rust implementation. The blog explains that image decoders are critical attack surfaces and that memory‑unsafe languages like C++ have historically led to vulnerabilities such as out‑of‑bounds reads and heap overflows. By using Rust, the team aimed to eliminate these risks at the source. For performance, the decoder leverages SIMD instructions via the stabilized Rust target_feature_11 feature and a SIMD abstraction layer (jxl_simd) inspired by the Highway library, allowing multi‑platform SIMD optimizations without unsafe code while building on the performance work from the C++ reference implementation (libjxl).
The decision to ship JPEG XL was guided by developer feedback, especially through the Interop Project where the format had been a popular proposal for several years, including in 2026. Chrome also participated in the Interop 2026 JPEG XL Investigation to verify test coverage and ensure the feature passes in Chrome, contributing to cross‑browser interoperability. The jxl‑rs implementation was validated with fuzzing and AI‑assisted code review, and the blog reports that no memory safety bugs have been found throughout its history.