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In one reported 1600×900 canvas-export test, Firefox produced a JPEG that was 56% larger than Chromium’s at requested quality 0.9—and preserved red lettering more cleanly. The reported cause was different color sampling: Firefox used 4:4:4, while Chromium used 4:2:0. Those results describe one set of open-source browser builds and one poster, not every Firefox or Chromium export.
What the reported test found
DEV Community author yue xing drew a 1600×900 sale poster with Python, then exported it through canvas.toBlob(..., 'image/jpeg', 0.9). The source PNG was reported as 123 KB. On an Apple M4 with 16 GB of RAM, using open-source builds identified as Chromium 149, Firefox 151, and WebKit 26.5, the reported JPEG sizes were:
| Browser build | JPEG size at requested quality 0.9 | Reported chroma sampling | Red-text edge ΔE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chromium 149 | 157,626 bytes | 4:2:0 | 7.11 |
| WebKit 26.5 | 226,166 bytes | 4:2:0 | 6.64 |
| Firefox 151 | 246,096 bytes | 4:4:4 | 2.31 |
In that comparison, Firefox’s file was about 56% larger than Chromium’s: 88,470 bytes more. The author measured color difference using CIE76 ΔE in a 2-pixel band around glyph edges; lower values were described as cleaner. These are the author’s results and measurement method, not an independently reproduced benchmark, and they do not predict how other artwork will look.
Read the reported experiment by yue xing on DEV Community.
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Why chroma sampling affects red lettering
JPEG represents image information in luminance (brightness) and chroma (color). With 4:2:0 sampling, each chroma channel is sampled at half the width and half the height, leaving one quarter as many chroma samples; an encoder reconstructs color between those samples. With 4:4:4, chroma is not subsampled. Less color detail can blur or bleed across a sharp boundary between strongly contrasting colors, even if the brightness edge remains recognizable.
That trade-off matters for saturated red text on a contrasting background: the letter shape may still be visible, but its color boundary can look less crisp. MDN’s explanation of chroma subsampling describes the reduced color data in 4:2:0 compared with full 4:4:4 sampling.
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In the poster test, the author inspected JPEG frame headers and reported 4:2:0 for Chromium and WebKit, and 4:4:4 for Firefox at quality 0.9. That is the author’s measured explanation for the cleaner red edges and larger Firefox file in this case. It should not be generalized into a rule that Firefox always uses 4:4:4 or produces larger files.
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What quality 0.9 means—and what it does not
The quality argument to HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob() is a requested value from 0 to 1 for lossy formats such as JPEG. MDN defines it as a number indicating the image quality to use for formats that support lossy compression. It is an encoder input, not a promise that different browsers will produce the same file size, visual result, or JPEG sampling scheme.
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MDN’s toBlob() documentation describes the parameter but does not guarantee identical output between user agents. Each browser’s encoder choices can affect the trade-off between file size and retained detail.
How broadly do the reported results apply?
The author also reported that, in those open-source builds, Firefox switched to 4:4:4 at quality 0.895, while Chromium and WebKit switched at 0.995. The author said the tests used open-source builds, not release Chrome or Safari, and did not inspect engine source code to explain those thresholds. Treat the thresholds as observations from that experiment, not as independently verified specifications or dependable settings for other browser versions.
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The comparison does not establish what happens across all release channels, operating systems, images, or photographs. A flat poster with small red lettering stresses chroma detail differently from a photograph, so the file-size and appearance results may change with the image.
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What to use for graphics with colored edges
Choose based on the image, not a shared quality number
For lettering, charts, diagrams, and other flat-color graphics, export the candidate formats and inspect them at the size where they will actually be viewed. PNG is worth trying when crisp edges matter; the author reported it worked well for the flat poster, and MDN notes that JPEG’s lossy compression can be unsatisfactory for sharp content such as diagrams and charts. PNG is not guaranteed to be smaller or better for every image.
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JPEG is often useful for photographs, where its lossy compression may be an acceptable size-versus-artifact trade-off. The appropriate format depends on the source image and how much visible degradation is acceptable. See MDN’s overview of image file types.
Make browser comparisons reproducible
If you are comparing exports, record the details that can change the result:
- Browser name, version, and whether it is a release or an open-source build.
- Operating system, image dimensions, and the exact source image.
- Requested format and quality value, along with the resulting file size.
- JPEG chroma sampling factors, if you inspect the exported file’s header.
Then compare the actual files against the source at their intended display size, especially around colored text and other hard edges. A single numeric quality setting cannot substitute for checking the output.
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