GIF
Revision as of 12:21, 23 June 2014 by Michael Murtaugh (talk | contribs)
The GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, has been around since the late 1980s, when it was created for use in early (pre-web) net platforms like Compuserve. The format gained increased importance with the emergence of the Web, and the ensuing patent controversy, led to the development of the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format as a free software alternative. 20 years after its birth, the format has returned as a cultural artifact, and a popular means of posting short looping animations online, and can be linked to new online image practices like the cinemagraph.