{"id":6374,"date":"2022-03-24T13:53:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2022-03-24T13:53:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T20:53:15","slug":"gif-creator-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=6374","title":{"rendered":"GIF creator has died"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2013, Steven Wilhite told\u00a0The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, \u201cThe Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft \u2018G,\u2019 pronounced \u2018jif.\u2019 End of story.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Steve Wilhite was best known for inventing the GIF file format in 1987 – and he even won a Webby Award. \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredibly enduring piece of technology,\u201d said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards. \u201cEven as bandwidth has expanded it has been very exciting to see how much cultural cachet the format has gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Wilhite, then working at CompuServe (the nation\u2019s first major online service) knew the company wanted to display things like color weather maps. Because he had an interest in compression technologies, Mr. Wilhite thought he could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steve
Steve Wilhite was featured in an October 1987 issue of the CompuServe magazine, “Online Today” for inventing the GIF.Credit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw the format I wanted in my head and then I started programming,\u201d he said in an e-mail. (He primarily uses e-mail to communicate now, after suffering a stroke in 2000.) The first image he created was a picture of an airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prototype took about a month and the format was released in June 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember when other people saw the GIF,\u201d he said. Colleagues abandoned work on other black and white formats, he said, as graphics experts began to spread the GIF online. A triumph of speed and compression, the GIF was able to move as fast as Internet culture itself, and has today become the ultimate meme-maker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2013, Steven Wilhite told\u00a0The New York Times, \u201cThe Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft \u2018G,\u2019 pronounced \u2018jif.\u2019 End of story.\u201d Steve Wilhite was best known for inventing the GIF file format in 1987 – and he even won a Webby Award. \u201cIt\u2019s been an incredibly enduring piece of technology,\u201d said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards. \u201cEven as bandwidth has expanded it has been very exciting to see how…<\/p>\n

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