.GIF

SVG is a 2D raster image format developed by CompuServe Inc. It supports multi-frame animations and has widespread compatibility.

What is GIF?

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format. It is a 2D raster image format created by CompuServe Inc. on 15^th June, 1987. The format allows bitmaps with upto 8 bits per pixel and also supports animations. It uses the 24 bit RGB color space and thus supports only 256 colors. Due to this color limitation it is mostly used for graphics and logos instead of photographs. It is in wide use especially on the web due to it's portability widespread compatibility.

Animated GIF

GIFs are compressed using the LZW(After Lempel–Ziv–Welch, surnames of it's creators) lossless compression technique. Though, due to the color limitations, images might appear grainy. This technique of compression without loss of visual quality was patented by CompuServe in 1985 but due to a licensing controversy with Unisys Corp. which had copyrights over the compression format. The long controversy led to the development of the PNG format to replace GIFs. But by 2004 all of the patents over LZW had expired and GIF finally became an open standard.

The image format has two versions, the original one(1987) called 87a and an upgraded version(1989) called 89a. GIF29a added support for animation delays, transparency, more metadata and text.

How to open a GIF file?

Mostly due to their popularity, GIFs can be viewed easily using most web browsers. Most device's image galleries can also view GIFs. Static GIFs can be made using most image editors including Paint. Software like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP can create animated(multiframe) GIFs.

Why did GIFs become popular

GIFs have become extremely popular in social media

Between 1987 and 1994 GIFs had become the most popular image format due to plenty of support by CompuServe and it's portability.

But, by the end of December 1994, CompuServe and Unisys announced that developers would have to pay a license fee in order to continue to use technology patented by Unisys in compression software supporting the GIF format. This caused widespread confusion and led to the development and popularity of other formats like PNG.

By 2004 as all the relevant patents had expired, thus in upcoming years GIFs regained popularity and support. They became popular as animated GIFs were like a mix of static images and videos. They were smaller on size than videos and thus attracted a lot of attention. GIFs brought short animations to social media and their popularity continues to grow as they are now considered a class apart from static images. Thus, GIFs are here to stay!