J40: Independent, self-contained JPEG XL decoder

J40 (Jay-forty) is a decoder for ISO/IEC 18181 JPEG XL image format. It intends to be a fully compatible reimplementation to the reference implementation, libjxl, and also serves as a verification that the specification allows for an independent implementation besides from libjxl.

J40 is a single-file C99 library with zero dependencies, making it trivial to insert to your project and dependencies. It is also a public domain software and can be used for absolutely every purpose.

As of version 2270 (2022-09), J40 is a highly experimental software. Expect breakage, bug and incomplete format support. In order to discourage accidental uses, you need to define an additional macro for now.

Quick Start

The following is a simple but complete converter from JPEG XL to Portable Arbitrary Map format, and covers all the currently available API functions.

#define J40_IMPLEMENTATION // only a SINGLE file should have this
#include "j40.h" // you also need to define a macro for experimental versions; follow the error.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h> // for va_*

static int oops(const char *fmt, ...) {
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, fmt);
    vfprintf(stderr, fmt, args);
    va_end(args);
    return 1;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    if (argc < 3) return oops("Usage: %s input.jxl output.pam\n", argv[0]);

    FILE *out = fopen(argv[2], "wb");
    if (!out) return oops("Error: Cannot open an output file.\n");

    j40_image image;
    j40_from_file(&image, argv[1]); // or: j40_from_memory(&image, buf, bufsize, freefunc);
    j40_output_format(&image, J40_RGBA, J40_U8X4);

    // JPEG XL supports animation, so `j40_next_frame` calls can be called multiple times
    if (j40_next_frame(&image)) {
        j40_frame frame = j40_current_frame(&image);
        j40_pixels_u8x4 pixels = j40_frame_pixels_u8x4(&frame, J40_RGBA);
        fprintf(out,
            "P7\n"
            "WIDTH %d\n"
            "HEIGHT %d\n"
            "DEPTH 4\n"
            "MAXVAL 255\n"
            "TUPLTYPE RGB_ALPHA\n"
            "ENDHDR\n",
            pixels.width, pixels.height);
        for (int y = 0; y < height; ++y) {
            fwrite(j40_row_u8x4(pixels, y), 4, pixels.width, out);
        }
    }

    // J40 stops once the first error is encountered; its error can be checked at the very end
    if (j40_error(&image)) return oops("Error: %s\n", j40_error_string(&image));
    if (ferror(out)) return oops("Error: Cannot fully write to the output file.\n");

    j40_free(&image); // also frees all memory associated to j40_frame etc.
    fclose(out);
    return 0;
}

Alternatively, you can use a dj40 executable to convert a JPEG XL file into a PNG file, which can be built as follows:

# if your system has make:
$ make

# otherwise, do the equivalent of:
$ cc -O3 dj40.c -o dj40

Format Support

As of version 2270, J40 can decode:

• Any image encoded with fjxl, or
• Most images encoded with cjxl containing...
  • No animations or previews
  • No image features (--dots and --patches), which implies:
    • Efforts (-e) up to 6
    • For lossy compression, target distance (-d) less than 3.0
  • No progressive encoding (-p)
  • No lossless JPEG transcoding in use (can be disabled with -j)
  • No floating point samples

There are some known cases where J40 and libjxl can significantly diverge:

• Restoration filters (--epf, --gaborish) are currently ignored.
• Crop retangles are currently ignored and can reveal a frame larger than the actual image.
• ICC profiles are only decoded to the point that the actual image can be decoded.