Microsoft doesn't support preview thumbnails in Windows Explorer

[Uneternalism]

I appreciate the change to Jpeg XL and the amounts of space photographers can save with it.
However one thing that bugs me is that preview thumbnails don't display anymore in Windows, which is annoying. Now we have to use Adobe Bridge again to see previews.
Please fix or release a codec.

It would also be great, if the user could at least select between lossy and lossless Jpeg XL compression. I think even a lossless Jpeg XL would save quite some space compared to a normal DNG. 

[Lumigraphics]

I believe that DNG does use lossless JXL encoding. This has been discussed in other threads. As for Windows support, that's on Microsoft. JPEG XL is supported on the Mac just fine, with Finder previews and thumbs in the Finder.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @Uneternalism. Welcome to the Camera Raw Community.

Big +1 to what @Lumigraphics said. Microsoft can provide support for JXL thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer.

Here is a conversation about this in Windows Community: https://adobe.ly/3N7ef3T

There are 3rd party solutions & plugins that other users share. I can't endorse or verify their function; try them at your own risk & prior assessment.

Thanks!
Sameer K

[Carlos_Oliveras]

Hi Sameer. As far as I know, the link you provided is about jxl support, not about lossy dng with embedded jxl preview support. I understand they are related, but they're not the same thing. There are jxl viewers for Windows, but last time I researched (I talked to several imageviewer developers, imageglass being one of them), there was none that supported this new format (a jxl-compressed DNG with jxl-encoded preview). I can display a jxl file with some image viewers (or register a .dll in Windows), but not the jxl preview in newer lossy dngs. At a certain point, I stopped asking around, so I truly wish something has changed since then.

Please tell me there is some alternative (yes, I know - even if you can't endorse it, etc.). I won't go into details right now, but this decision has had a very negative impact in my work (because there was no warning about it, when LrC started compressing with this new specification, and too late I realized what was happening).