Windows Media Photo is a new file format for continuous-tone still images that surpasses the limitations of existing image formats. Windows Media Photo supports a wide range of features including:

• Multiple color formats for display or print
• Fixed or floating point high dynamic range image encoding
• Lossless or high quality lossy compression
• Extremely efficient decoding for multiple resolutions and sub-regions
• Minimal overhead for format conversion or transformations during decode

Windows Media Photo delivers a lightweight, high performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding.

This version of the specification is based on the implementation of the Windows Media Photo codec that is currently shipping with Windows Vista Beta 2 and the WinFX Runtime Components Beta 2. Future updates to the specification will be posted here when they become available.

Here are MS's "Objectives for Introducing a New Still Image Format"

• High performance, embedded system friendly compression
• Small memory footprint
• Simple, integer-only operations (no divides)
• Industry-leading compression quality
• Lossless or lossy compression using the same algorithm
• Support a very wide range of pixel formats:
• Monochrome, RGB, CMYK or n-Channel image representation
• 8 or 16-bit unsigned integer
• 16 or 32-bit signed integer
• 16 or 32-bit floating point
• Several packed bit formats
• 1bpc monochrome
• 5 or 10bpc RGB
• RGBE Radiance
• Simple, extensible TIFF-like container structure
• Planar or interleaved alpha channel
• Embedded ICC Profile
• EXIF and XMP metadata

More info http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/wmphoto.mspx

it will never replace jpeg .
msoft is dreaming to conquer the world by introducting this.
and everything shove into vista, i cant wait to see this. vista itself is having alot of shyt going on.


JPEG WILL FOREVER WIN!!!!!!
msoft is trying proof that they are idiots once again

but should this win, it will changes the world, imagine all our daily work includes jpg files for picture

but i wonder how it fares in adobe software, as i am into advertising line, this really makes me nervous and scared

If this WiMP format can do lossless compression at presumably the ratio that JPEG use, then JPEG can definitely be surpassed. I want to see how much savings can be done with lossless compression, and I already think it can beat TIFF and RAW.