Firefox 156 Makes JPEG Images Load Faster While Using Less Memory

Firefox 156, which is officially scheduled to roll out today, is bringing a useful performance upgrade for people who browse image-heavy websites. Mozilla has improved how Firefox handles large JPEG images that are displayed in smaller sizes.

Firefox 156 makes large JPEGs less demanding

The improvement targets large JPEG images that are scaled down before appearing on a webpage. Firefox can now use less memory and CPU when handling these images. That could make a difference on websites packed with high-resolution photos. Browsers often need to decode an image before scaling it down for display.

This can become particularly expensive when a webpage contains several large images. Firefox already provides tools for tracking memory and CPU usage through its built-in process manager. Mozilla’s latest change focuses specifically on reducing that overhead during JPEG handling. The company has not published a single percentage improvement for this particular optimization.

Interestingly, JPEG decoding has been an area of performance work for Firefox for years. Mozilla has previously tracked cases where JPEG decoding was substantially slower than standalone optimized decoders.

Another notable improvement in Firefox 156 is related to built-in PDF viewer. Mozilla has said that its built-in PDF viewer now starts up to 45% faster following the update. For everyday users, however, the change related to JPEG is one of the more practical improvements. Large images are everywhere online, and reducing their memory and CPU cost can make browsing feel smoother.

As of now, you can download the Firefox 156 manually from here. Once the update is available, you can open Firefox, click on the menu button, then head to Settings > About Firefox > Firefox Updates.