I read an interesting technical artice today about the develpment of JPEGmini alogrithm, that supposdely will provide lossless compression, and can be read by any current software that reads a jpeg file. THe article is rather technical, but that is good, as it sounds like a real deal rather than a magic concept. Give it a read and post your comments on JPEGmini. http://www.megapixel.co.il/english/archive/21907
Here is a couple of excerpts:
Q: How does the JPEGmini algorithm work?
A: The algorithms we have developed, on which we have filed 14 patent applications, simulate the human visual system. Our technology analyzes each specific photo, and determines the maximum amount of compression that can be applied to the photo without creating any visual artifacts. In this way, the system compresses each photo to the maximum extent possible without hurting the perceived quality of the photo.
Q: How much compression does JPEGmini enable?
A: Our technology can reduce the file size of photos by a factor of up to 5x without hurting their quality. The amount of compression that our algorithms apply varies from photo to photo as mentioned above, buy you can estimate the average amount of compression according to the photo resolution, as described in the following table:
| Photo Resolution | Average File Size Reduction Using JPEGmini |
| 8MP and more | 70 – 80% |
| 5-7MP | 60 – 75% |
| 3 MP | 50 – 60% |
| 2 MP | 30-50% |
| 1024×768 | 25 – 35% |
| 800×600 | 20 – 25% |
| 640×480 or less | 10 – 20% |
