J2K Converter

Taking a lot of pictures with your camera at a sophisticated resolution can gobble up a lot of disk space. Since space was a concern around a decade ago, better methods for storing image data were developed, and so JP2 (JPEG 2000) came to life. In case you happen to have some JP2 files on your computer, then J2K Converter can easily be used to change them to a more compatible format.

The application doesn’t have any other system requirements except for a Windows operating system. However, it stopped receiving updates a long time ago, and there’s a high chance you need to run it with compatibility settings on newer Windows OS releases.

In terms of visuals, everything you get to work with is bundled up inside a compact main window that doesn’t have any shiny elements or anything to make it stand out from the crowd. A small center area is reserved to provide a preview of selected images. A side panel shows a tree list of all folders on your computer, while the other is used as a selection list.

You need to know exactly where target files are located, because you’re stuck with the built-in tree navigation method, with no other option to load files, not even the possibility to drag them over the main window. Once a folder containing JP2 files is selected, buttons to add files becomes available.

In case you can’t really understand a thing from the small preview space, the application lets you have them opened in your default viewing program with a single mouse click. Pressing convert initiates the process, but not before you’re asked to provide a destination folder on your computer. There aren’t any options in terms of output format, with the only one being BMP.

All things considered, we come to the conclusion that J2K Converter comes with good intentions, but is a little rough around the edges overall. File support is incredibly poor for a converter, while the selection and processing of files can leave you scratching your head at first, and can prove to be frustrating most of the times.