GIF: What is a GIF? Pronounced Jif

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What is a GIF? Surely you’ve heard the term. You might even recall hearing it years (and years) ago. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and Wikipedia defines it as:

a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability. The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel thus allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors. The colors are chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame.

For our purposes we are talking about an animated GIF. A GIF can also be a static image, though most people are referencing animated GIFs when they simply say “GIF.” For us, boiled down to its simplest form, a GIF is essentially an animated image.

Even though GIFs have been around for 25 years, the file format has seen a recent resurgence in popularity. This may be due to the (relatively) small file size, the rise of an increasingly visual-oriented web, or the files ability to toe the line between image and video. GIFs are generally pop culture related, often focused on humor or attached to memes, and have proven to be huge drivers of web traffic. We’ve also seen the format become integrate in more traditional marketing.