All about JXR files

JXR stands for JPEG XR (JPEG eXtended Range) and is an image format developed by Microsoft under the name Windows Media Photo. It was unveiled at the WinHEC conference in May 2006, renamed HD Photo in November 2006, and finally adopted as an international standard (ISO/IEC 29199-2 and ITU-T T.832) under the name JPEG XR in 2009.

Its roots actually date back to 1999: Microsoft Research developed the Progressive Transform Codec (PTC) as an alternative to JPEG 2000. The compression performance was similar, but the computational effort was significantly lower. JPEG XR was ultimately developed on this basis.

Technical features of JPEG XR

JPEG XR supports both lossless and lossy compression, achieving roughly double the efficiency of classic JPEG. JXR also supports HDR images, alpha channels (for transparency), various colour spaces (RGB, CMYK, greyscale) and embedded metadata. The data is stored in a TIFF-like container.

Where do JXR files come from today?

Although JPEG XR failed as a general-purpose image format, it has survived in one area: HDR screenshots on Windows. Anyone playing on an HDR monitor and taking a screenshot via the Xbox Game Bar (Win + G) automatically receives a .jxr file alongside a .PNG copy. The NVIDIA app (formerly GeForce Experience) also saves HDR screenshots in JXR format when HDR is enabled in Windows. This is particularly common with graphics-intensive titles such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, where many users want to share their screenshots.

The problem: The JXR file contains HDR brightness data with a dynamic range that far exceeds what standard screens can display. If you convert the file to a common format such as JPG or PNG, you lose this brightness information, and without the appropriate correction, the result appears far too dark or lacks contrast. To produce a usable image, conversion with colour and brightness correction is necessary, which is applied automatically at File-Converter-Online.com. This ensures that the converted files ultimately look perfectly normal on any hardware.

Typical file extensions are .jxr, .hdp and .WDP. Windows has supported the format since Vista.

Despite its technical advantages, JPEG XR never really caught on. Support was lacking outside of Windows. Later, WEBP (introduced by Google in 2010) and AVIF virtually completely replaced the format. For maximum compatibility, conversion to JPEG or PNG is recommended.

Last updated on April 26, 2026 by Sören Ramspeck with the experience of more than 128,596,032 converted files since 2013.