Steve Wilhite, creator of the GIF image format, died at the age of 74 from complications linked to the covid-19 virus, which he contracted on March 1, announced his wife Kathaleen.
Wilhite launched in June 1987, with his colleagues at Compuserve, the “Graphics Interchange Format” known as GIF. It is a format of animated images that can be used to illustrate content on the Web. He also served as Chief Architect at AOL and was honored with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
Today, the use of GIFs is widespread on the internet and social media. Giphy, the world’s leading GIF platform, is thus integrated into the options offered by the social network Twitter, or even with Line, one of the flagship messaging applications on the Asian market. Better, it is now possible to create a video in GIF format directly with Twitter.
And here’s how to properly pronounce GIF
Although the pronunciation of the word GIF has often been debated, its inventor provided a definitive answer to The New York Times in 2013. Claiming, “it’s a soft ‘G’, pronounced ‘jif.’
According to his wife, “he imagined everything in his head, then began to program it on the computer”.