Why the New QOI Image Format Is Gaining 3K Stars on GitHub

Dom​inic Szablewski introduced a new image file format called the Quite OK Image Format (QOI), which translates to “quite good image format”. He argues that existing formats such as PNG, JPEG, MPEG, MOV and MP4 are overly complex, require large libraries, and are computationally heavy.

Szablewski believes a simpler solution is possible and has released the implementation on GitHub. Although QOI does not compress images as aggressively as optimized PNG encoders, it claims lossless images can be similar in size to PNG while offering 20‑50× faster encoding and 3‑4× faster decoding.

Within a month the project attracted over 500 comments, numerous forks, and rapid adoption. The GitHub repository currently has about 3.1K stars, with a weekly increase of over 2,900 stars.

Performance Comparison

The format’s reference encoder/decoder consists of only 300 lines of C code, and the specification fits on a single page.

Implementations in many languages have already appeared, including Zig, Rust, Go, TypeScript, Haskell, C, Python, C#, Elixir, Swift, Java, Pascal, and more. The SerenityOS Linux distribution also supports QOI.

Desktop applications and plugins for GIMP, Paint.NET, and XnView MP now allow viewing .QOI files, and further software support is expected.