Who started GIF?

Stephen E. Wilhite, the computer programmer best known for inventing the GIF, the looping animation format that became a universal language for conveying humor, sarcasm and angst on social media and in instant messages, died on March 14 in Cincinnati. He was 74.

When was the first GIF invented?

Invented in 1987, GIFs were first used to transfer highly-compressed video files in 256 colour bits per-frame.

Is Steve Wilhite rich?

At the time of his death, CA Knowledge estimates Steve was worth $93 million dollars. Computer engineer Stephen "Steve" Wilhite was an American computer scientist who worked for CompuServe and was widely regarded as the inventor of the GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format.

Why is GIF pronounced JIF?

The creator of the GIF image format, Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, when deciding on the pronunciation, said he deliberately chose to echo the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say “Choosy developers choose GIF(jif)”, playing off of Jif's television commercials.

What does GIF stand for?

GIF, in full graphics interchange format, digital file format devised in 1987 by the Internet service provider CompuServe as a means of reducing the size of images and short animations.

David Karp Presents .GIF Inventor Steve Wilhite with Webby Lifetime Achievement Award

What was the very first GIF?

In 1987, Wilhite figured out how to compress images so they wouldn't lose their sharpness, would load quickly and could appear on any computer -- and the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, was born. The very first GIF was of a clip art airplane soaring through a pixelated sky.

What was the first GIF image?

On June 15, 1987, Trevor and his team, which included inventor Steve Wilhite, released an enhanced version of the GIF called 87a. The new format allowed people to create compressed animations using timed delays. “I think the first GIF was a picture of a plane.

Why is it called a GIF?

There has been some debate surrounding the question of what does GIF stand for, but creator Wilhite confirmed that GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. The name was chosen by Wilhite and his team specifically so they could call it a GIF.

Why is GIF so popular?

Combined with the emotional shorthand and cultural references they carry, GIFs allow users to simultaneously express their mood, sense of humor, and identity in a low-effort way like no other digital medium can. The efficiency of its expressiveness is the ultimate power of GIFs and the key to its enduring popularity.

When did GIF become popular?

Initially, it was used on CompuServe's proprietary dial-up services. By 1995, however, GIF had become the de facto graphical image format standard for the burgeoning World Wide Web. For webmasters in the 1990s, GIFs were as crucial to the site-building process as HTML.

Are GIFs dying?

According to its HTTP Archive, GIFs now comprise 29% of all images on the web's million most popular sites, down from 41% two years ago. At this rate, GIFs could practically disappear from the web by the end of this decade.

What is a GIF vs meme?

The main difference between an animated gif and a meme is that memes tend to be static images that make a topical or pop culture reference and animated gifs are, more simply, moving images.

How is GIF pronounced Old English?

“It's pronounced JIF, not GIF.” Just like the peanut butter. “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” Wilhite told The New York Times. “They are wrong. It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif.

What does PNG stand for?

PNG is short for Portable Network Graphic, a type of raster image file. It's particularly popular file type with web designers because it can handle graphics with transparent or semi-transparent backgrounds.

How is GIF pronounced creator?

It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif. ' End of story.” He reiterated that stance while accepting a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the invention of the GIF later that month, using an animation to give his acceptance speech.

Who invented the Giphy?

Beginnings and early history

Giphy was founded by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke in February 2013.

Does anyone use GIFs anymore?

GIFs might currently be uncool, but that doesn't mean they're unpopular. At the beginning of the pandemic, GIF library GIPHY reported that GIF usage had gone up 33 percent in a single month.

Why is a GIF no longer commonly seen?

A GIF. the GIF was paved into the asphalt of the information superhighway. Two decades later, you rarely see the GIF used for still images, because it's been effectively clobbered out of existence by newer and better JPEGs and PNGs.

Who made PNG?

The Story of PNG actually begins way back in 1977 and 1978 when two Israeli researchers, Jacob Ziv and Abraham Lempel, first published a pair of papers on a new class of lossless data-compression algorithms, now collectively referred to as ``LZ77'' and ``LZ78.

Who invented Shockwave GIF?

Lisa Gelobter is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and technology executive. Gelobter worked on several pioneering internet technologies, and she is credited with developing the animation used to create GIFs.

How old is GIF?

Three decades ago, on June 15, 1987, the most beloved image file extension on the internet was birthed by a team of CompuServe developers seeking a way to compress images with minimal data loss. The solution: the GIF, a simple, flexible file format for lower-resolution pictures.

How many GIFs are used a day?

100 million daily active users now request a GIF from Giphy across one of its mediums each day, the company says, with Giphy serving up more than 1 billion GIFs overall on a daily basis.

How many GIFs are there?

There are more than 500,000 animated GIFs, many of which are so bizarre it's hard to imagine why they were ever created in the first place.