I believe ImageMagick uses JasPer to read and write JPEG2000 images. A study this summer by the open source JasPer community found that by modifying just one of JasPer's programs, JasPer's performance could be very significantly increased. The updated JasPer code is included in GeoJasPer version 1.2.8, 2005-10-12-128, which is available as source code and binary executables from http://homepage.mac.com/gregcoats/jp2.html The files created by GeoJasPer version 1.2.8, 2005-10-12-128 are bit for bit identical to files created by the previous version of JasPer and GeoJasPer. For me, writing JPEG2000 files is 10.7 times faster, and reading JPEG200 files is 15.5 times faster. The code has been tested by many people, over 4 months, on thousands of JPEG2000 images, without any problems, and with everyone reporting significant speed ups. If you have not already done so, I suggest you incorporate this faster version into a future release of ImageMagick.
Greg
