JPEG File Interchange Format is a compression standard used in JPEG pictures. Though it was not in the TIFF Standard, Microsoft choose to make JFIF compression default for its Microsoft Fax (released with Windows 95). Microsoft also chose to include Wang Image Viewer to view those images.

Time passed. Wang closed its doors and Kodak acquired Image Viewer. Also, people began developing for this non-standard compression format that Microsoft was propagating. As images became more and more available on the Internet, viewers for non-Microsoft Operation Systems began popping up. Since Microsoft came with a viewer, none were developed for Windows.

This is where we need to mention IBM. IBM is always looking for ways to push DB2, and this time it was DB2's ability to handle BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). They found a company with a decent Image Capture System and incorporated their product into a DB2 product offering called Content Manager. This company's name is Kofax and their product (Ascent Capture) is a child of the Windows 95 JFIF compressed TIFF era.