Microsoft’s fledgling digital image format, HD Photo, is set to become a new standard file format. The Joint Photographic Expert’s Group (JPEG) announced plans to standardize HD Photo as a new format called JPEG XR (for “extended range”). From Microsoft’s press release:

The ballot deadline for this new project is early October 2007. Finalizing and publishing the completed standard is expected to take up to one year after that. Throughout, Microsoft will be working closely with JPEG to ensure that this new proposed standard serves the needs of the next generation of consumer and professional photographers and delivers the next experience in image display. If approved, Microsoft will offer a royalty-free grant for its patents that are required to implement the standard.

Congratulations to the HD Photo team! Bill Crow explains that his team has been working on HD Photo for a long time:

Our group at Microsoft’s Core Media Processing Team has been working on HD Photo for over five years. The underlying compression technology is based on work from Microsoft Research that goes back even farther than that.

We’re excited to be contributing to the next great standard for digital photography, enabling a whole new level of feature and technology innovation, improving photo quality and creating exciting new applications and services.

Awesome to see things work out so positively. I guess this means we’ll see an explosion of support for HD Photo sooner rather than later!