All switch names may be abbreviated; for example, -grayscale may be written -gray or -gr. Most of the
"basic" switches can be abbreviated to as little as one letter. Upper and lower case are equivalent
(thus -BMP is the same as -bmp). British spellings are also accepted (e.g., -greyscale), though for
brevity these are not mentioned below.
The basic switches are:
-colorsN
Reduce image to at most N colors. This reduces the number of colors used in the output image, so
that it can be displayed on a colormapped display or stored in a colormapped file format. For
example, if you have an 8-bit display, you'd need to reduce to 256 or fewer colors.
-quantizeN
Same as -colors. -colors is the recommended name, -quantize is provided only for backwards
compatibility.
-fast Select recommended processing options for fast, low quality output. (The default options are
chosen for highest quality output.) Currently, this is equivalent to -dctfast-nosmooth-onepass-ditherordered.
-grayscale
Force grayscale output even if JPEG file is color. Useful for viewing on monochrome displays;
also, djpeg runs noticeably faster in this mode.
-rgb Force RGB output even if JPEG file is grayscale.
-scaleM/N
Scale the output image by a factor M/N. Currently the scale factor must be M/8, where M is an
integer between 1 and 16 inclusive, or any reduced fraction thereof (such as 1/2, 3/4, etc.)
Scaling is handy if the image is larger than your screen; also, djpeg runs much faster when
scaling down the output.
-bmp Select BMP output format (Windows flavor). 8-bit colormapped format is emitted if -colors or
-grayscale is specified, or if the JPEG file is grayscale; otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is
emitted.
-gif Select GIF output format (LZW-compressed). Since GIF does not support more than 256 colors,
-colors256 is assumed (unless you specify a smaller number of colors). If you specify -fast, the
default number of colors is 216.
-gif0 Select GIF output format (uncompressed). Since GIF does not support more than 256 colors, -colors256 is assumed (unless you specify a smaller number of colors). If you specify -fast, the default
number of colors is 216.
-os2 Select BMP output format (OS/2 1.x flavor). 8-bit colormapped format is emitted if -colors or
-grayscale is specified, or if the JPEG file is grayscale; otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is
emitted.
-pnm Select PBMPLUS (PPM/PGM) output format (this is the default format). PGM is emitted if the JPEG
file is grayscale or if -grayscale is specified; otherwise PPM is emitted.
-targa Select Targa output format. Grayscale format is emitted if the JPEG file is grayscale or if
-grayscale is specified; otherwise, colormapped format is emitted if -colors is specified;
otherwise, 24-bit full-color format is emitted.
Switches for advanced users:
-dctint
Use accurate integer DCT method (default).
-dctfast
Use less accurate integer DCT method [legacy feature]. When the Independent JPEG Group's software
was first released in 1991, the decompression time for a 1-megapixel JPEG image on a mainstream PC
was measured in minutes. Thus, the fast integer DCT algorithm provided noticeable performance
benefits. On modern CPUs running libjpeg-turbo, however, the decompression time for a 1-megapixel
JPEG image is measured in milliseconds, and thus the performance benefits of the fast algorithm
are much less noticeable. On modern x86/x86-64 CPUs that support AVX2 instructions, the fast and
int methods have similar performance. On other types of CPUs, the fast method is generally about
5-15% faster than the int method.
If the JPEG image was compressed using a quality level of 85 or below, then there should be little
or no perceptible quality difference between the two algorithms. When decompressing images that
were compressed using quality levels above 85, however, the difference between the fast and int
methods becomes more pronounced. With images compressed using quality=97, for instance, the fast
method incurs generally about a 4-6 dB loss in PSNR relative to the int method, but this can be
larger for some images. If you can avoid it, do not use the fast method when decompressing images
that were compressed using quality levels above 97. The algorithm often degenerates for such
images and can actually produce a more lossy output image than if the JPEG image had been
compressed using lower quality levels.
-dctfloat
Use floating-point DCT method [legacy feature]. The float method does not produce significantly
more accurate results than the int method, and it is much slower. The float method may also give
different results on different machines due to varying roundoff behavior, whereas the integer
methods should give the same results on all machines.
-ditherfs
Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering in color quantization.
-ditherordered
Use ordered dithering in color quantization.
-dithernone
Do not use dithering in color quantization. By default, Floyd-Steinberg dithering is applied when
quantizing colors; this is slow but usually produces the best results. Ordered dither is a
compromise between speed and quality; no dithering is fast but usually looks awful. Note that
these switches have no effect unless color quantization is being done. Ordered dither is only
available in -onepass mode.
-iccfile
Extract ICC color management profile to the specified file.
-mapfile
Quantize to the colors used in the specified image file. This is useful for producing multiple
files with identical color maps, or for forcing a predefined set of colors to be used. The file
must be a GIF or PPM file. This option overrides -colors and -onepass.
-nosmooth
Use a faster, lower-quality upsampling routine.
-onepass
Use one-pass instead of two-pass color quantization. The one-pass method is faster and needs less
memory, but it produces a lower-quality image. -onepass is ignored unless you also say -colorsN.
Also, the one-pass method is always used for grayscale output (the two-pass method is no
improvement then).
-maxmemoryN
Set limit for amount of memory to use in processing large images. Value is in thousands of bytes,
or millions of bytes if "M" is attached to the number. For example, -max4m selects 4000000
bytes. If more space is needed, an error will occur.
-maxscansN
Abort if the JPEG image contains more than N scans. This feature demonstrates a method by which
applications can guard against denial-of-service attacks instigated by specially-crafted malformed
JPEG images containing numerous scans with missing image data or image data consisting only of
"EOB runs" (a feature of progressive JPEG images that allows potentially hundreds of thousands of
adjoining zero-value pixels to be represented using only a few bytes.) Attempting to decompress
such malformed JPEG images can cause excessive CPU activity, since the decompressor must fully
process each scan (even if the scan is corrupt) before it can proceed to the next scan.
-outfilename
Send output image to the named file, not to standard output.
-memsrc
Load input file into memory before decompressing. This feature was implemented mainly as a way of
testing the in-memory source manager (jpeg_mem_src().)
-report
Report decompression progress.
-skipY0,Y1
Decompress all rows of the JPEG image except those between Y0 and Y1 (inclusive.) Note that if
decompression scaling is being used, then Y0 and Y1 are relative to the scaled image dimensions.
-cropWxH+X+Y
Decompress only a rectangular subregion of the image, starting at point X,Y with width W and
height H. If necessary, X will be shifted left to the nearest iMCU boundary, and the width will
be increased accordingly. Note that if decompression scaling is being used, then X, Y, W, and H
are relative to the scaled image dimensions. Currently this option only works with the PBMPLUS
(PPM/PGM), GIF, and Targa output formats.
-strict
Treat all warnings as fatal. This feature also demonstrates a method by which applications can
guard against attacks instigated by specially-crafted malformed JPEG images. Enabling this option
will cause the decompressor to abort if the JPEG image contains incomplete or corrupt image data.
-verbose
Enable debug printout. More -v's give more output. Also, version information is printed at
startup.
-debug Same as -verbose.
-version
Print version information and exit.
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