Better efficiency in compression
	Possibility of lossless compression
	Decoding with different output resolutions
	A process to calculate the integrated bit rate (possibility of reaching an aimed bit rate)
	Dividing the image into smaller parts to be coded independently from the others
	ROI coding
	Improvement in noise resilience
	Access to the compressed bit rate at any point in order to access the image directly
	Better performances in coding/decoding through many different cycles
	More flexible file format

How is the standard divided?

From a formal point of view, JPEG2000 is divided into 11 different papers, which are called Parts in the standard terminology; six of them were added recently and one has been abandoned.

	Part I: describes the minimum requirements that an encoder should have. Its aim is to create a set of basic options with the highest interoperability among different implementations.
	Part II: contains optional extensions that enable an improvement in performances in several fields of application.
	Part III: concerns with ‘Motion JPEG2000’, a standard for high quality Digital Video.
	Part IV: is a set of validation tests in order to certify the correspondence of coding and decoding equipment to the standard.
	Part V: set of software models that may be used as a reference in designing JPEG2000 products.
	Part VI: its aim is to establish a set of specifications for the use of JPEG2000 in different applications such as fax, electronic publishing and numeric applications.
	Part VII: abandoned.
	Part VIII: JPSEC, it is about security.
	Part IX: JPIP, interactive protocols and API (Application Protocol Interfaces).
	Part X: JP3D volumetric images, it concerns with 3D images representation.
	Part XI: JPWL, wireless applications.

How are JPEG2000 files called?

JPEG2000 files can be identified by the ".JP2" or ".JPX" extensions; the former is the basic version and it has been studied for RGB or grayscale images; the latter has been studied in order to improve the potentiality of the format in case of photographic and non-photographic images and contains some fields that can be used for metadata (for instance when and where a picture was taken). Although the JPX format is used above of all for applications that require better performances, both formats are compatible and a JP2 reader can read a JPX file too. At the moment two other JPEG2000 formats are in development: JPM and Motion JPEG2000. The former can save compound images by using different kinds of compression; with the latter, one can acquire image sequences (for instance coming from video or photo-cameras).