About the Gif file format
- Name
- Graphical Interchange Format File
- Extension
- .gif
- Format
- Binary
- Category
- Raster Image
- Developer
- CompuServe
- Description
- A GIF file is an image file often used for web graphics. It may contain up to 256 indexed colors with a color palette that may be a predefined set of colors or may be adapted to the colors in the image. GIF files are saved in a lossless format, meaning the clarity of the image is not compromised with GIF compression.
- MIME Type
- image/gif
- Sample
- sample.gif
- Wikipedia
- .gif on Wikipedia
Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a bitmap image format developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe on June 15, 1987. This format supports up to 8 bit per pixel for each image, therefore, allowing a single image to reference its palette of up to 256 different colors from the 24-bit RGB color space.
It has been widely used on the World Wide Web since its development due to its support and portability between applications and operating systems. GIF images are compressed by the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique, which reduces the file size without degrading the visual quality.
However, its palette limitations have made GIFs less suitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with color gradients. But it is well suited for more straightforward images with sharp-edged line art, such as logos, with a limited number of colors. This is because it capitalizes on the format’s lossless compression that favors flat areas of uniform color with well-defined edges. They may be used to store low-color sprite data for games as well as for small animations and low-resolution video clips, although the GIF file format does not support audio.
Controversies over the licensing agreement between the software patent holder, Unisys, and CompuServe propelled the development of the PNG in 1994. By 2004, all relevant patents had expired; therefore, while Unisys has further patents and patent applications relating to improvements to the LZW technique, GIF can now be used freely.
