Key difference: Both, JPEG and MPEG are two different types of compressing formats. The main difference between the two is that JPEG is mainly used for image compression, while MPEG has various standards for audio and video compression.

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Both JPEG and MPEG are two different types of compressing formats. The main difference between the two is that JPEG is mainly used for image compression, while MPEG has various standards for audio and video compression.

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group. The file name for a JPEG image is .jpg or .jpeg. JPEG is the most commonly used format for photographs. It is specifically good for color photographs or for images with many blends or gradients. However, it is not the best with sharp edges and might lead to a little blurring. This is mainly because JPEG is a method of lossy compression for digital photography.

This means that while saving the image in a JPEG format, there is a slight loss of quality due to compression. Hence, JPEG is not the greatest format in case one needs to keep making numerous edits and re-saves to the image. As with each re-save there a slight loss of quality due to compression. Still, if one only makes a few edits and the image is saved in a high-quality format, the slight loss of quality due to compression is mainly negligible. An advantage to using the JPEG format is that due to compression, a JPEG image will take up a few MB of data.

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Due to the popularity of JPG, it is also accepted in most if not in all programs. It is quite popular for web hosting of images, for amateur and average photographers, digital cameras, etc. This is mainly due to the fact that high-quality images can be saved using less space.

MPEG, on the other hand, stands for the Moving Picture Experts Group. It is a working group of experts that was formed in 1988 by ISO and IEC. It was a joint initiative between Hiroshi Yasuda of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and Leonardo Chiariglione. Chiariglione has served as the group’s Chair since the group’s inception.

The aim of MPEG was to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. By 2005, the group has grown to include approximately 350 members per meeting from various industries, universities, and research institutions.

The standards as set by MPEG consist of different Parts. Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification. MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards:

• MPEG-1 (1993): Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1.5 Mbit/s (ISO/IEC 11172). It includes the popular MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) audio compression format.
• MPEG-2 (1995): Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information (ISO/IEC 13818).
• MPEG-3: MPEG-3 dealt with standardizing scalable and multi-resolution compression and was intended for HDTV compression but was found to be redundant and was merged with MPEG-2.
• MPEG-4 (1998): Coding of audio-visual objects. It includes MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4).

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