How to Read JPEG 2000 in Java (Tutorial)

Why do JPEG 2000 Images cause issues for Java Developers?

The Default Java ImageIO library does support JPEG 2000 but it is frankly not very good. It uses JJ2000 (originally written around 2000 with patch after patch applied). It produces poor results with a lot of our sample images (black spots on white images) and is not complete. It only supports the jpx subtype. Note JPEG 2000 is not the same as JPEG.

In this post, I will cover how to upgrade ImageIO to use our JPEG 2000 Reader so existing Java Applications which use ImageIO will work much better (often without having to make any code changes) and how to read JPEG 2000 files in JDeli directly.

What options are there for reading JPEG 2000 files in Java?

Java does offer some support for some JPEG 2000 images by default. If you want full compatibility, commercial solutions like JDeli offer pure Java support with the option to add as an ImageIO plugin.

If you are looking for a free solution, there is a JPEG 2000 library on GitHub which also uses JJ2000 to offer better support. In this article we will be using our JDeli pure Java library to read JPEG 2000 files.

How to upgrade ImageIO to read JPEG 2000 files

It’s actually very simple and can be done without rewriting your existing code!

For example, the code below does not work with ImageIO for JPEG 2000 images

// Read JPEG 2000 image into Java with ImageIO

BufferedImage bufferedImage = ImageIO.read(new File("ImageFile.jpx"));

• Download the JDeli trial jar with our ImageIO plugin
• Follow the support documentation to install

How to read a JPEG 2000 image in Java directly with JDeli

1. Add JDeli to your class or module path. (download the trial jar).
2. Create a File, InputStream pointing to the raw JPEG 2000 image. You can also use a byte[] containing the image data.
3. Read the JPEG 2000 image into a BufferedImage

and the Java code to read JPEG 2000 with JDeli…

File file = new File("/path/to/image.jpx");

BufferedImage image = JDeli.read(file);

Other useful JPEG 2000 links

• Related articles on our support site.
• How to write JPEG 2000 files in Java
• What is JPEG 2000

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(avifImageFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(dicomImageFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(heicImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "heic", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpegImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpeg", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpeg2000ImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpx", outputStreamOrFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "pdf", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(pngImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "png", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(tiffImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "tiff", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(webpImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "webp", outputStreamOrFile);