The Independent JPEG Group (IJG) is responsible for the reference implementation of the original JPEG standard. The reference software from the Independent JPEG Group was a key to the success of the original JPEG standard and has found widespread adoption in applications of image coding. Particularly, all contemporary digital photo cameras support the capture of images in JPEG format as the common medium for image interchange, and all image viewers, image editors, and Web browsers can display JPEG images as common standard.

The IJG implementation was first publicly released in October 1991 and has been considerably developed since that time.

In June 2009, Independent JPEG Group published a new major release (version 7) of the software package to enable a new set of features for image coding application and therewith to continue the success story of JPEG.

In January 2010, Independent JPEG Group introduced a new release (version 8) with extensions providing the fundament for the next generation image coding standard.

In January 2013, Independent JPEG Group released version 9 with improvements for the new introduced lossless coding mode.

Version 9c was released in January 2018 and is the only true source reference JPEG codec.