What does the term "gif" stand for?

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

More Info:

an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap image format using a palette of up to 256 distinct colors from the 24-bit RGB color space. The format 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. It also supports animations and even allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame.

A GIF image employs lossless data compression so that the file size of an image may be reduced without degrading the visual quality, provided the image can be rendered with only 256 colours. (However, there is a hack that can overcome this limitation under certain circumstances; see true colour.) This limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for color photographs (which are more commonly seen in the JPEG format) and other images with continuous color, but well-suited for more simple images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color. Monochrome photographs can be represented well by the GIF format but still suffer from filesize bloat due to the inappropriate compression technique.

Many software developers were surprised when it was revealed that the compression algorithm used by the GIF format had been patented by Unisys, and that they would have to pay royalties for writing programs that generated GIF files. The desire for a comparable format with fewer legal restrictions (as well as fewer technical restrictions such as the number of colours) led to the development of the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) standard.

The Software Freedom Law Center had stated that after 1 October 2006, there will be no significant patent claims interfering with employment of the GIF format. [1]

Although the original GIF and related patents have expired, PNG is still touted as a technically superior alternative, and has become the third most common image format on the web.

GIF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) / GIFF (Graphics Interchange File Format) is a 24-bit RGB bitmap image format for images with up to 256 distinct colours. The ...

Quick Links