Firefox 158 Adds JPEG XL Support and More Accessible PDFs

Firefox 158, released on October 13, adds support for JPEG XL images and improves the PDFs people create from web pages. Mozilla says saved PDFs are now more accessible, with improvements also applying when printing on Linux and macOS. The release fixes rendering problems including missing mathematical symbols. These are Mozilla’s release notes, rather than results from an independent test.

The everyday value is easy to picture: saving a lesson, technical explanation or other reference page should preserve the information you need to read later. A missing symbol can change the meaning of an equation. The update addresses that kind of problem, although a general improvement does not guarantee that every complicated page will export perfectly. Check an important saved document before sharing it.

JPEG XL addresses a different part of browsing: images. The JPEG committee describes the format as supporting both lossy and lossless coding, including lossless recompression of existing JPEG files. It also supports features such as transparency, high dynamic range and progressive delivery. Firefox’s new support gives websites another format they can serve to this browser; it does not automatically convert the images already stored on your computer.

For readers, the possible benefit is less friction around image delivery. For website owners, a browser supporting a format is one part of the decision: the images still need to be supplied in that format. Compression benefits should therefore be evaluated on the actual files and delivery setup, rather than assumed for every page.

Mozilla’s update guidance says Firefox normally updates automatically and applies updates after a restart. The About Firefox window can check for updates on installations downloaded from Mozilla; Linux distribution packages and Microsoft Store installations use their respective update channels. After updating, try exporting a page you regularly save and inspect the result.

Which web page would you most want to save as a reliable PDF?