The History of the GIF
By: Ben Gottschalk on April 25, 2022
What is a GIF?
Even if you don't know what a "GIF" is, you've probably seen one. They were important in shaping the early internet, and they're today more popular than ever. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, and a GIF is simply an image file in its most basic form. The GIF format, like the JPEG and PNG file formats, can be used to create still images. The GIF format, on the other hand, offers a unique feature: it can be used to produce animated graphics.
GIFs aren't truly videos, so they're called "animated images." They're more like flipbooks than anything else. They don't have sound, for starters, also, the GIF format wasn't intended for animations; it just happened that way. GIF files may carry numerous images at once, and it was discovered that if they were decoded in a certain way, these images might load sequentially (again, like a flipbook).
The Beginning of the GIF
On June 15, 1987, a group of CompuServe developers created the most popular image file extension on the internet in search of a solution to compress photos with minimal data loss. The answer is the GIF, a simple and adaptable file format for low-resolution images.
On the surface, it may appear remarkable that a file format that has remained virtually constant since the 1990s has outlasted so many different types of higher-level internet technology. However, as the blog Enthusiasms points out, “the story of how the GIF evolved is really the story of the internet growing up.” It's both a story about how the internet's design evolution influenced the GIF and a story about how the GIF influenced the internet's design evolution.
The GIF was already beginning to transcend back in the 1990s. The Dancing Baby and other early popular photographs established the framework for the later GIF-splosion. In fact, despite the fact that the "Baby Cha-Cha" was first uploaded as a video in 1996, it wasn't until developer John Woodell posted it as a GIF later that year that it gained widespread fame.
Early GIFs demonstrated two important aspects of the format: It was simple to pass around, and no matter how many frames the GIF contained, it could be replayed indefinitely for an endless source of pleasure.
GIFs Becoming More Mainstream
Due to the widespread perception that GIFs were ugly and flamboyant, the GIF went out of popularity as online design improved in the early 2000s, with the exception of meme lovers. The GIF's use was outstripped by the advent of Flash animation, JavaScript, and other more advanced tools for transferring video and images over the internet. Despite this, the GIF remained a helpful tool for spreading early memes and replicating Flash-based animation, such as the Dancing Banana from the renowned Flash animation Peanut Butter Jelly Time, which was released in 2001.
By 2004, all of the GIF's existing patents had expired, and the format had effectively entered the public domain. The GIF was brought back in a big way by a combination of fewer legal constraints on it and a broader, smartphone-fueled need for a simple, quick, and lighter alternative to Flash animation. Due to the increasing accessibility of editing software such as Photoshop, GIF editing was getting more proficient, and individuals began to convert video into GIF formats in order to swiftly exhibit video images.
Modern GIFs
Then came social media, and suddenly, GIFs were everywhere. Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr all began in 2005, 2006, and 2007, respectively, and each played a key role in moving social media culture toward the use of GIFs, particularly the image-friendly Tumblr, where GIFs could be uploaded in groups of up to ten images at once. GIF sets were common on Tumblr, and individuals used them to tell stories or summarize and distribute current events.
Traditionally, an animated GIF was a static image or collection of static images repeated continuously, once, or as many or as few times as the user desired. While it has always been true that GIFs can be looped indefinitely or not at all, the current GIF is looped indefinitely by default. The infinite loop has become an important aspect of the GIF's social function, allowing viral videos to spread more quickly throughout the internet as memes.
Today, capturing video or still photos as GIFS and converting, editing, and adding text and additional imagery to them is relatively simple for the typical internet user. There are also businesses that automate the process, making GIFs more portable and adaptable as they cross the internet.