JPG and JPEG: Is there a difference? We clarify

JPG is perhaps the best-known image format in the world - or is it more correctly called JPEG? Our guide explains what both abbreviations mean and whether or not they stand for exactly the same thing.

Compliant with file extensions: JPG is simply the abbreviated version of JPEG.

In image editing, there is rarely a way around JPG. The connection with JPEG therefore often imposes itself.

What is the difference between JPG and JPEG?

The answer to this depends on the detail:

• If it is a matter of the pure file extensions, i.e. .jpg and .jpeg, they are actually the same thing.
• The format was defined as a standard in 1992 by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, whose abbreviation is JPEG. This also gives the name of the format.
• However, three-letter abbreviations are common for file formats. The result is JPG or .jpg as file extension.

So in practice it does not matter whether you read JPG or JPEG - it always means the same thing, namely the image format that has existed for almost 30 years.