Blog
Long-form notes on JPEG compression, image artifacts, lossy formats, and the aesthetics of degraded images.
What are JPEG artifacts? A visual guide to compression damage
May 24, 2026What JPEG artifacts are, why they happen, and the four types you see in compressed images: blocking, ringing, color smearing, generational loss.
7 min read
JPEG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF: which format should you use?
May 24, 2026A practical comparison of the four image formats that matter in 2026, with concrete file sizes, browser support, and decision rules.
8 min read
The JPEG quality setting, decoded
May 24, 2026What the quality slider in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Save for Web actually does, why the scale is not standardized, and which number to pick for which use case.
7 min read
How JPEG compression actually works, step by step
May 24, 2026A walk through the JPEG encoder: color conversion, chroma subsampling, the discrete cosine transform, quantization, and Huffman coding.
10 min read
How to remove JPEG artifacts from an image
May 24, 2026Practical methods for hiding JPEG compression damage, compared. Photoshop, GIMP, free online tools, and the AI models that actually work.
6 min read
Glitch art: a guide to the five core techniques
May 24, 2026What glitch art actually is, the five techniques every glitch artist uses, the artists who invented the form, and the tools that produce each effect.
7 min read
Generational loss: what happens when you save a JPEG over and over
May 24, 2026Each JPEG re-encode rounds away a little more detail. Here is what gets lost first, where the damage stops, and why the deep-fried meme look exists.
8 min read
Deep-fried memes: a guide to the aesthetic, the history, and how to make one
May 24, 2026Where the deep-fried meme look came from, what makes an image read as deep-fried, and exactly how to produce the effect on your own images.
7 min read