来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2021年7月10日
本文适合英语二考生
Improvements to the ubiquitous JPEG image format used across the internet will bring global bandwidth savings of 30 per cent, say the creators of the new technology, who have given it away for others to use royalty free.
JPEG新版本的创造者表示，对互联网上普遍使用的JPEG图像格式的改进将为全球带来30%的带宽节约。他们将新JPEG标准免版税提供给其他人使用。
JPEG is a method to compress digital photographs so that they can be stored using less data. Its arrival in the 1990s kick-started the surge of images across the internet. The updated version called JPEG XL reduces file sizes from the current format by 50 per cent and improves image quality.
JPEG是一种压缩数码照片的方法，这样图片可以用更少的数据存储。20世纪90年代，它的出现引发了互联网上图片的激增。JPEG新版XL将文件大小从目前的格式减少了50%，并提高了图像质量。
António Pinheiro, who works on the Joint Photographic Experts Group that manages the JPEG standards, says the original file type is ageing technology and that the new standard represents the state of the art in data compression.
安东尼奥·皮涅罗是负责管理JPEG标准的联合摄影专家组的成员，他说原始JPEG类型是过时的技术，新标准代表了数据压缩的最新水平。
With JPEG XL you will be able to convert old JPEGs without losing any quality, but reduce the file size by at least 15 per cent, while photos taken in the new format will need less than half the current data in some cases.
使用XL格式，你可以在不损失任何质量的情况下转换旧的JPEG文件，但文件大小至少减少15%，而在某些情况下，用新格式拍摄的照片所需的数据不到当前数据的一半。
Although hard disc capacity, memory chips and internet speeds have all improved dramatically since the introduction of the original JPEG standard, compression is still required or the time needed to transfer images online quickly increases to an unusable extent, says Pinheiro.
Pinheiro说，虽然自最初的JPEG标准引入以来，硬盘容量、内存芯片和网速都有了显著的提高，但仍然需要压缩，否则在线传输图像所需的时间会迅速增加到无法使用的程度。
JPEG XL will support new features to future-proof it for decades, such as allowing images of more than a billion pixels, animation and encoding that doesn’t require specialised hardware. The team behind the standard hopes that it will replace JPEG, PNG and GIF to become a universal image format for the web.
XL将支持未来几十年会应用的新功能，比如允许超过10亿像素的图像，动画和不需要专门硬件的编码。该标准背后的团队希望它能取代JPEG、PNG和GIF成为一种通用的网络图像格式。
In the case of JPEG XL, much of the technology can be traced back to work by US firms Google and Cloudinary, and they have given away the rights to it so that it can be used for free.
就XL而言，许多技术可以追溯到美国公司谷歌和Cloudinary的工作，它们已经失去了该技术的所有权，因此可以免费使用。
Jon Sneyers at Cloudinary says that a 50 per cent reduction in file size from current JPEG standards is possible and that current web pages devote up to 60 per cent of data to images, meaning that up to 25 to 30 per cent of the world’s bandwidth requirements could be cut.
Cloudinary的乔恩·斯奈尔斯表示，可以将当前JPEG标准的文件大小减少50%，并且当前的网页中高达60%的数据是图像，这意味着可以减少世界上25%至30%的带宽需求。
“For something like Facebook or Google Photos, which basically archives everybody’s photos, it’s a huge deal,” he says. “There’s trillions of images and photos getting created every year now.”
他说：“对于像Facebook或谷歌Photos这样基本上存档所有人照片的公司来说，能节省的数据量是巨大的，现在每年都有数万亿的图像和照片被创造出来。”
Sneyers says that adoption is almost a political issue, as some companies may have their own file formats, which are subject to royalties, that they would like to see adopted as standards, and that very few software packages currently support the use of JPEG XL.
Sneyers说，采用XL几乎是一个政治问题，因为一些公司可能有他们自己的文件格式，需要支付版税，他们希望自己的文件格式被采用为标准，而且目前很少有软件包支持XL的使用。