JasPer

JasPer is a computer software project to create a reference implementation of the codec specified in the JPEG-2000 Part-1 standard (i.e. ISO/IEC 15444-1) - started in 1997 at Image Power Inc. and at the University of British Columbia.^[2] It consists of a C library and some sample applications useful for testing the codec.

JasPer
Original authors	The University of British Columbia, Michael David Adams, Image Power, Inc.
Initial release	1999 (1999)[1]
Stable release	4.2.8  / 5 August 2025; 2 months ago (5 August 2025)
Repository	github.com/mdadams/jasper
Operating system	OSX, Windows, POSIX
Available in	C
Type	graphic software
License	JasPer License Version 2.0
Website	www.ece.uvic.ca/~mdadams/jasper/

The copyright owner began licensing the code to the public under an MIT License-style license in 2004 in response to requests from the open-source community. As of 2011^[update] JasPer operated as a component of many software projects, both free and proprietary, including (but not limited to) netpbm (as of release 10.12), ImageMagick and KDE^[3] (as of version 3.2).^[4][5] As of 22 June  2010^[update] the GEGL graphics library supported JasPer in its latest Git versions.^[6]

In a series of objective JPEG-2000-compression quality tests conducted in 2004, "JasPer was the best codec, closely followed by IrfanView and Kakadu".^[7] However, Jasper remains one of the slowest implementations of the JPEG-2000 codec, as it was designed for reference, not performance.^{[original research?]}

Etymology

The name "JasPer" has simultaneous connotations with Canada's Jasper National Park, with the semi-precious gemstone, jasper, and with "JP" as an abbreviation of the JPEG-2000 standard.^[8]

See also

• OpenJPEG