Graphics Interchange Format

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a file format for storing digital images, first introduced in 1987 on CompuServe. It supports 256 colors and is widely known for its use in web animation and digital advertisements. Additionally, GIF images support lossless, or non-destructive, compression, whereas other commonly used image formats like JPEG do not.

The GIF format is highly popular for its use on the Internet because it does not require a large amount of memory, yet still manages to store complex images containing many colors. GIF supports both static and animated images, making it ideal for displaying short animations or looped images. It became particularly popular in the 2000s, as web developers started hosting web sites with images and some social networks began to allow users to post short animations as profile pictures.

GIF images are usually saved with the “*.gif” file extension. Since 2017, the format has been widely used in messaging applications such as Telegram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, allowing users to share small GIF animations.

GIF is the only widely used Web image file format to be patented, and the technology was originally developed by the American computing pioneer Steve Wilhite of CompuServe Incorporated in 1987. The patent expired in 2004.